Quit moaning - we get the politicians we vote for
Via:http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/quit-moaning-we-get-the-politicians-we-vote-for/
At the very core of Australia’s democratic system is the principle that we, the people, decide who will form our government. It is a system that eschews powerful technocrats and (apart from our outmoded ties to the British monarchy) rejects the concept of political representatives gaining office through breeding and patronage.
It has worked for us for more than a century and serves us well today.
We get the politicians we voted for by way of a system that legally requires all eligible adult citizens to participate in the electoral process. No one can claim they do not have a voice.
As such, the level of public angst over the make-up of our current Parliament is somewhat hard to stomach.
Granted, for the first time in some 70 years (since Robert Menzies formed government with the support of two Independents in 1940), neither side of politics holds an outright majority on the floor of the House of Representatives. But the world has not stopped spinning on its axis, and the country is not in ruins.
In many respects, it could be argued the Parliament today is more representative and “democratic’” than ever, with all but the most routine legislation usually requiring a considerable degree of negotiating finesse and compromise.
In a global sense this is often more the norm than the exception in Westminster-style democracies, Britain being a case in point today.
Yet here there are strident voices trying to claim that the current Parliament is in some way a travesty of democracy ‑ that the Prime Minister is merely a puppet of the Greens (who themselves are directly descended from an unholy union between Lenin and the Antichrist himself).
Look, as regular readers of my column at the Courier Mail would know, I am no card-carrying tree-hugger. As a strong supporter of our resources industry (my wife works in the energy sector) and an unreconstructed “petrol head”, the Greens ‑ beyond much of their social justice platform ‑ are not a natural ideological fit for me.
That said, about one in 10 Australians decided at the last poll that the Greens would best represent their interests, so today they hold the balance of power in the Senate and have one – that’s one ‑ Lower House MP, Adam Bandt.
That is the way democracy works and for those of you unhappy with the outcome, it is about time you realised that we do not keep holding elections until you get the result you want.
We have had Convoys of No Confidence, hateful demonstrations outside Parliament and a plethora of web-based campaigns such as Election Now (which seems to me little more than a front for climate-change extremists), and various Facebook groups clamouring for fresh elections on the grounds the current Parliament is not representative of the people’s will.
One of the latest of these to pop up is Facebook group “I Bet We Can Get 10,000 People who think the Greens are W—kers”. Yes, sadly, that appears to be the depth to which political discourse in this country has descended.
So far just less than 4000 people have said they agree, which is about 0.25 per cent of the 1.6 million Australians who voted for the Greens in the Senate at the last election. So much for representative.
But then once you start reading what these mobs stand for and who follows them, it makes their claims of “Green extremism” look hypocritical.
Take the 10,000 W—kers site for example (and yes, I did mean to phrase it like that). When it was recently pimped by the Convoy people, the first posted response was from Matty Hayes, who wrote that: “We just need a nice grassy knoll out the front of Parliament House Canberra and we could achieve so many of those dreams!”.
Good one, Matty. Strike a blow for democracy, reasoned debate and the rule of law, mate.
Reading further you see all the usual lies and half-truths about everything from asylum seekers to the “myths” of global warming.
There’s even a helpful link directly to the web page of “Lord” Christopher Monckton ‑ the self-appointed English aristocrat and climate-change denier who makes a living peddling pseudo-science and conspiracy theories.
Above all, though, the common thread running through all the various discussions on these increasingly numerous sites is one of vitriol focused on the claim that our Government is somehow illegitimate because it relies on minority support.
Many of the claims made and charges levelled are deeply personal and derogatory ‑ and in some cases defamatory or even unashamedly threatening.
Would the same carping nastiness exist if it were Tony Abbott in The Lodge relying on the support of Independents to hold power? I think not because, unlike so many on the Far Right of politics, those of us whose beliefs are painted in a lighter hue retain due respect for and understanding of the pillars and processes of a modern democracy.
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