We’ve just had a national election here in Australia and during the time
of the campaign something occurred to me:
“They’re at war, our two main political parties, and war has never gone
well, or ended well“.
There are many limitations to our political system: Like the fact that
we only have a 3-year term; what can you really achieve in 3 years? Probably
not many hard decisions and actions because you’re already planning for the
next election.
How much taxpayer money is wasted because one government (party) rolls
out one bright idea or reform or legislative action only for it to be abandoned
by the next?
I’ve been to ‘Question Time’ at our national parliament and have to say
that it was all I could do to stop myself from standing up and yelling down to
the floor “Grow up you idiots, don’t you realise we’re watching and that you’re
supposed to be running the country. Don’t you realise we pay you for this. If
this was a business you all would have been sacked a long time ago!” Well,
perhaps not all. It’s not fair to sweepingly generalise there but you get my
point. Not only do we pay them to be there and govern and oppose but we also
pay for their election. We pay financially and our environment: How many trees
go down for all those letters and pamphlets?
As a dear friend of mine said recently “where’s the sense of grace and
appreciation? When was the last time you heard a politician say: ‘We think
they’ve had a good idea there and we think we can help it materialise with
suggestions on structure…?’
Do any of them realise they’re meant to be on the same team serving the
best interests of the Nation?
They are at war. We know the destruction and devastation war brings.
Warring parties exist in a paradigm of separation when what we want is a
paradigm of unity. They’re meant to be working together aren’t they really for
us, the people and our nation? But in reality, they’ve got one eye on us and
one eye on their own self-serving agendas.
I propose we scrap two party politics. Big call I know. Will it ever
happen? Maybe not. Will anything really change until we do? Maybe not.
What if we had a government comprised of independents voted by the
people, in electorates as they are now? There was still a figurehead, but who
wielded no real power? There was still a cabinet, so that there was a
specialist in the various areas of government – someone still heading the
environment portfolio, someone else the treasury and so on? The cabinet could
be elected by all of the members of parliament.
All of the various areas requiring governing, like Health, Education,
Finance, Environment, Foreign Affairs, etc, would still be lobbying government
for what they feel they need or want, and decisions still have to be made on how
much money comes in (tax) and where the money goes. The government still has to
work out what the priorities are.
There’s always going to be disagreement about what’s more important so
how do you sort that out? Some people want to spend lots on defence, some want
to spend lots on the environment. Plus, there’s legislative conflict too. One
piece of legislation to save the environment might mean the cutting of lots of
forestry jobs.
The beauty with this new form of government is that there are no party
lines to tow so all members can “cross the floor” and vote on legislation that
they feel serves the best interests of the nation.
There would still need to be accountability and so a senate could still
exist, a council of sorts. Members of this senate would serve only one term and
so there would be no danger of decision making to serve re-election. Election
to the senate would be through a process of application, where each seat would
be designated to a specialist in a particular area. For selection each member
would have to fit certain IQ and EQ requirements, pass psych tests to
illustrate their capacity and would have to fit the criteria for that seat. For
example, the member of the senate council responsible for health would have
been educated in a health profession and have accrued a wealth of experience
working in the field of health.
With this proposal you get rid of party agendas, self-serving agendas
and back room lobbying based on selfish interests.
Such a change might be a long way off, either way, at the end of the day
it’s got to start with us. We have to be changing our own internal perspectives
on separateness, on opposition, on conflict and war. We need to both realise
and voice that we’re all connected, all in this together regardless of
background, culture, colour, age, or gender.
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