BLAMMM!!! and the starting gun goes off. Finally! The race we have all been waiting for over the past three years is now on.
The Federal election has been called, writs will now issue, Parliament will be officially prorogued. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Election 2022 is going to be the biggest competitive event since the Olympics. All morning (10 April 2022) coverage has not faltered from following Morrison out of Kirrabilli House, to Sydney airport, to Canberra airport, to Yarralumla, to Parliament House where we heard to now inane, repetitive, inaccurate and to my view, irrelevant rhetoric about how well the current government has functioned. Those of us who are engaged in the political process know full well that this government is moribund, incompetent and overtly corrupt.
Run an internet search on ‘Morrison Government Failures’ and you will get a litany of results, admittedly from left-leaning media outlets, damning this government and the man who leads it, up hill and down dale. To identify this government with corrupt practices is a gross understatement of it’s three year conduct. It’s ineptitude and that of it’s leadership is legion. The incompetence of it’s Ministry goes far beyond that of any previous Government.
Now, at last, it is the people’s turn to have a say. Whilst, to my mind, Australia does not have a functional democracy, as Winston Churchill stated in November of 1947:
‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
The preferential voting system has long ago been showed as a plaything of those who understand how to game it. The majority of the Australian voting public are NOT engaged in the process, do not understand it and will simply roll up on Saturday 21 May 2022 for a sausage in bread, cross off a few squares next to names they have no knowledge of, and go home again. Most will not watch the election night broadcasts, or take any interest in the outcomes outside of stumbling across online news items the following Sunday, or opening the cling-wrapped rolled Nine Entertainment or Murdoch rag that appears on their front lawn.
I despair for this nation, but also fervently hope for change. I seriously doubt that a Labor Government will be much better in a broad sense, but surely it couldn’t possibly be any worse. I’m sanguine about a Labor-Greens coalition but optimistic for a government that has no clear majority and must engage with a collective of independent elected members, as occurred in 2010. That Government, led by a woman, Julia Gillard, has been historically recorded as the most productive Government in this nations history, operating from a minority position. I say, let’s see a government of a socially democratic nature, similar to that led by the 27th Prime Minister. A productive Government, one that addresses the failures of the current Government, one that instigates a genuine Federal anti-corruption body that has teeth. A Government that makes the appropriate changes to how we care for our disabled and aged population. A Government that brings equality in the education of our young people, not just those who can afford to pay. A Government that acts diplomatically, doesn’t deliberately incite angst with our major trading partners, that ensures our national security in a timely, cost effective and humane manner. Will these things cost money? Certainly! We, those who fund such largesse, are already in the can for one trillion dollars with bugger all to show for it. At the risk of appearing cavalier, what’s a billion or so more?? As long as we address the issues that severely required addressing, for the betterment of our nation as a whole.