The call for a Republic sounds again
Posted on: 16 June 2013
- In: ACT OPINIONS | elections | Politics | Republic
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The call for a Republic sounds again
The idea of Australia becoming a Republic is like an active volcano which from time to time erupts and spews out lava like streams of hot words that say goodbye forever to the Queen. The stream of words then dries up until a politician in need of a distraction from his/her problem creates a new republic eruption clothed as patriotism.
The usual form of this eruption is that the world sees Australia as a colonial outpost with Australians as serfs of the British monarchical system which, according to Republican Movement has already reached its use by date.
Of course, as usual there are views to the contrary expressed by Australians who can’t see any benefit in the change. Surprisingly, these Australians are not only confined to one section of the community but across the full range of the political spectrum.
(A brief digression: I would be in favour of Australia becoming a Republic if, in doing so, the change would help create a million new jobs or the money saved by the change was invested in something with a practical application. At the same time I would want the Republican movement to give support to Scotland becoming Independent.)
Cynicism aside, the recent eruption of the republican volcano has been caused by Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan, in what seems the forlorn hope that media reporting of it will make voters sympathetic to him and his Government and so avoid both of them being ditched by voters at the election in September.
On the basis of news reports it seems doubtful that more than media reporting will help either his or the Government’s re- election. If anything, I think both Mr Swan’s performance as Treasurer plus the Government’s will re-inforce voters views that if there is to be a Republic, the President should be elected by popular choice, which in turn, raised the question: how would the public make its choice? Well I’ve got an idea about how the public could make its choice.
Save the odd madman/woman among them, I doubt Academics would consider nominating, while Captains of Industry and Union Bosses too, would surely rule themselves out, in the latter’s case because they already wield more power than a President and would be loath to give it up just to preside over afternoon tea parties.
So who does that leave? The only people left are me and you – the common herd – ex-politicians and myriad ex others. I could be wrong but I think the common herd has too much sense to want the job. On the other hand many ex – politicians so love the limelight they would probably queue up to get on the ballot paper. On the other hand it could turn out to be the longest queue in history and good for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. If that happened, the queue would be reduced in the following way.
First: This could be done by forming a panel of 14 voters, two from each state and one from each territory, all drawn at random from the electoral roll. Second: The panel would set an examination paper with questions that asked candidates why they wanted to be President. The six top scoring entrants would then become Presidential candidates.
This election would be first past the post and to ensure each candidate had the same chance they would then be given equal time on radio and television and equal space in newspapers, to present to the nation in what I will call their Eureka Address as to why they should be elected President. I would suggest, also, that the Eureka Address be not any longer than the 272 words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
A voting slip and pre-paid envelope would be given to every voter before the candidates addressed the electorate. After the address the voting slip indicating the voters’ choice would have to reach the Electoral Commission within seven days.
However, just in case I’m wrong and some of you fancy being president why not put your reasons in no lmore than 272 words in the comment section at the end of the blog.
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- In: ACT OPINIONS | elections | Government | Politics
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Canberra: a school for wannabe political rulers
It’s clear from some e-mails I receive that Canberra has many people who think free speech is a privilege available only to a few members of society and that they are one of the chosen few.. Perhaps this occurs because politics is Canberra’s raison d’être and permanent or temporary home to many suffering from the delusion they are born to rule.
Canberra of course, is known as the Bush Capital a definition that when examined makes the claim questionable. The claim is questionable because architecturally, nothing about it suggests any bush connection. Apart from the National Parliament House and an ex Parliament House plus a few other buildings housing national institutions its building infrastructure is nothing to shout about. Subconsciously this does not fit with the ambitions of those who wish to rule because they no wish to rule a Bush Capital because it suggests a capital of lesser quality than say London, Washington or Paris.
That apart, Canberra will have but few residents who remember it as a bush town where residents, male and female, wore clothes suited to the bush unlike the business suits of today’s bureaucrats. But credit where it’s due: when the wind blows down its windy and broad streets bare of people, straying dogs or children playing football, Canberra does resemble some bush towns.
But let me return to politics and Canberra’s raison d’être. Apart from the same mix of political parties that one would expect to find in city where life revolves around politics, it also has individuals who view political parties everywhere – I shall be polite because some of their views might not be printable- as the biggest collections of confidence tricksters in the world.
And here is the list of Parties that stood candidates for the Assembly at the last ACT election.
- Australian Labor Party (ACT Branch)
- Australian Motorist Party
- Bullet Train for Canberra
- Liberal Democratic Party
- Marion Lê Social Justice Party
- Liberal Party of Australia (A.C.T. Division) (Canberra Liberals)
- Pangallo Independents Party
- The ACT Greens
- The Community Alliance Party (ACT)
Three further organisations—Pirate Party Australia, Australian Democrats and No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics stated they intended to nominate candidates to be listed on ballot papers as Independents
With regard to political parties, many voters think most Labor Party MLAs have never Labored in their lives while they wouldn’t leave most business/manager oriented Liberal Party MLAs in charge of a business they owned. And not to forget the Greens, the Party of principles which seems devoted to returning the environment to the state into which it evolved post the Big Bang.
As it turned out the election provided no ruling party with both Labor and Liberal each picking up eight seats Unfortunately the Greens lost two seats and, according to people who trusted them with their vote, when its sole representative decided to throw his lot in with Labor in return for a strings attached ministry so that it could take Government, it also managed to lose its principles.
It is thought that over the centuries politics had changed for the better. However, on the basis of how political life works today it has to be said that, in practice, nothing much has changed. Politicians have only replaced the mediaeval power brokers and still act as rulers who want to govern the big kingdoms; the bigger the better.
And if only to prove that nothing much has changed politicians still make a lot of big promises which are exceeded only by their big mistakes.
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Does “Flirting’ have a use by date
Posted on: 14 June 2013
- In: ACT OPINIONS | History | Humour
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Does ‘Flirting’ have a use by date?
Since reading a column about ‘flirting’ in the London Times many years ago, I have flirted with the idea of writing this column. That it has taken so long might indicate my real flirting days are over which is what I say Boadicea, light of my life and direct in line descendant of the warrior queen, who has held me in thrall for fifty four years, when she catches me looking at particularly attractive young females.
For whatever reason, the article treated ‘Flirting’ with frivolity perhaps because the lady who wrote it, sadly I cannot remember her name, was young and unaware of its seriousness.
In truth I was surprised to find this article in ‘The Times,’ long having laboured under the impression that as a newspaper it was as stuffy as the Conservative establishment it allegedly represented. Indeed, I had heard it referred to as a staid and stuffy.But was it staid and stuffy or was this just a rumour put about by its enemies?
Maybe it had been staid and stuffy and was the ‘Flirting’ article a sign of the times and a way of making the point that conservative British society was now in free-fall. On the other hand, was it something I could sympathise or was it that a staid and stuffy old lady old was hitching up her skirts and kicking up her heels in a final fling to prove she still had it?
Better late than never I must make clear that ‘Flirting’ is not a matter of frivolity but an art and a serious subject. It is not simply the preliminary eyeball jousting males and females engage in before moving to the more serious battles when the latter valiantly engage in protecting virgin territory.
As an art however, ‘Flirting’ not only seems endangered but so endangered that I’m thinking of asking the Government to fund a program for its protection. That it is an important art is clear also because so many people consider it a necessary pre-requisite to marriage. And though it might not be well known, ‘Flirting’ is also important in historical economic terms. For example how many young people today know that, ‘Flirting’ played a major role in the economic recovery of Britain, Europe and the United States post World War II? I suspect it might have played a similar role in Australia and New Zealand.
You might think that last statement fanciful and flirting with the truth but it’s true because, as I read the article, my mind raced back to a time when ‘Flirting’ was one of my life’s major activities. In fact had I spent as much time on schoolwork as I did Flirting, perhaps I could have grown up and been appointed ‘Flirting’ Correspondent of ’ The Times.’ .
As to my ‘flirting.’ Most of it was done between ages 12 to 17 as I travelled to and from high school on the No 55 bus. And to show my ‘flirting’ was serious let me tell you my preparation started hours before I caught the bus. Not that I was the only one who did such preparation, millions of schoolboys and schoolgirls across Britain did the same.
I cannot speak for the girls of course, or even for most boys, but as I think back my preparation for ‘Flirting’ was a ritual of planning that the Generals in World War II would have been proud of.
Part I of the ritual was me making sure I smelled as fresh as I could, consistent with a boy’s natural inclination to avoid too much water knowing it was bad for the skin. Part twol was an application to the teeth of Gibbs dentifrice known for its capacity to make teeth bright enough to dazzle the eyes of flirtees. Part three was the removal of blackheads and squeezing of pimples after which cream would be applied to cover the bruises caused by their removal. Part four was to shine my shoes with Cherry Blossom boot polish while the final part of the ritual was to groom my hair in the style of swashbuckling International English footballer and Test cricketer Dennis Compton – flat and parted in the centre, an effect that in my case could only be achieved by applying generous dollops of Brylcreem. As for the flirtees, their hair- styles followed that of the day’s most popular female movie stars.
Once on the bus my ‘Flirting’ campaign would get under way. To give me an advantage over competitors, I would try and sit as close as possible to my flirting target because without such a seat even my careful preparation could have been in vain with the result that I would be cast into a pit of despair so deep as to make life seem not worth living – at least not until my next attempt the following morning. After all, faint heart never won fair lady.
However, more important than personal feelings, although I didn’t know it at the time, ‘Flirting’ made the economy boom because, week after week, in an effort to keep ahead of their competitors, millions of young male ‘flirters’ bought every jar of Brylcreem, pimple cream and tin of Cherry Blossom shoe polish to keep up with demand. Unfortunately even though these flirting aids made the economy successful they could not guarantee personal success as I can confirm personally.
However, I wouldn’t like to give people the impression that only boys contributed to the economy, so too did the girls as they snapped up the jars of pimple cream the boys didn’t buy and forced manufacturers to invest in new plant and equipment to meet their demand for hair ribbon, cosmetics, shampoos and conditioners.
Sadly however, Brylcreem, pimple cream, Cherry Blossom, hair ribbon and the simple pleasure of eyeball jousting, now seem to have given way to mobile phones, credit cards and cars. Or does that indicate my use by date for flirting is now past?
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I hope truth is on today’s political menu
Theoretically, Australia’s political menu for the nest three months should be the policy dishes the major parties contesting the election, Saturday 14th September, think so good that the electorate will reward them with the gold medal of Government. Whatever else can be said about the policy dishes each party is optimistic that their policy dishes are more likely to favour them than their opponents.
It being said the proof of the pudding is in the eating and because there’s no try before buy in the electoral system, come Election Day, voters have to take these policies on trust and that’s a very big ask of many politicians.
Nonetheless for a while it looked as if voters would get a chance to get their teeth into the main policy dishes of both parties, they found out that often these policy dishes had replaced with minor dishes by people with big egos. And worse still these dishes were getting more publicity than the main dishes.
In fact rumour now seems to be playing a bigger role in Government, than policy. Day after day the media is wash with rumours about the peccadilloes of various MPs. That it is changed days is clear because gossip is now categorised as news. Making it worse, is that no one seems to check whether or not the gossip is accurate.
The result is that a piece of political mendacity can grow and grow and seen as true is posted to that ‘paragon ‘of accuracy Facebook. In part this is what happened yesterday when a so called piece of political ‘news’ was being reported as if it had happened twenty four hours earlier and referred to a three months old piece of gossip.
And what was this great piece of ‘news’? The news was that three months ago an imbecilic cartoon menu of PM Gillard that should never have seen the light of day had been used at a Liberal Party fundraiser in Brisbane for a candidate standing at the next election. When questioned, the candidate said he had no knowledge of the men and condemned it out of hand as did Tony Abbott, the Liberal Leader.
Sadly and unfortunately as it turned out, the PM’s staff failed to check to check the story properly with result that she launched a vitriolic attack on Abbott, the Liberal Party and the candidate. Unfortunately the PM’s information was wrong as the real culprit owned up and said the menu had not been used at the fundraiser.
During today’s breakfast show on my local ABC radio, during an interview the presenter sad to an interviewee, as if to prevent bias being inferred, that he had not heard of anyone at the function denying the story. Apparently around 200 people attended the function which made me wonder had he heard of anyone at the function confirming the story.
There are many such examples in the media of lies being accepted as truth and stories being edited so as to present somebody in a more positive light which has given rise to the saying: never let the facts get in the way of a good story; but are such stories good stories?
Sad as it is and in contrast to much political rhetoric about democracy it seems to me that in the past although democracy has often been subverted, the subversion of democracy today is at an unheard of level. This does not bode well for the attempts of people genuinely interested in democracy for what it can do for society, rather than for transient fame and status.
In ending let me say, truth is a value whose worth is immeasurable. At one time or another most of us having strayed from the truth will now know the damage this can so let me abjure people to speak it more often.
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- In: ACT OPINIONS | Government | Politics
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Who’s your choice as Australia’s next Prime Minister?
To be or not to be, who, not that, is the question. On the basis of today’s political climate it seems as if the Australian Party can’t make up its mind. In turn this makes the electorate worried about the quality of the people Labor is talking about as prospective Leaders. That, of course, is premised on Julia Gillard standing down voluntarily as PM -an unlikely event - that if most Labor MPs ones currently serving in her Government were re-elected, she’d be better off out of it.
There are wannnabe leaders starting with previous Leader Kevin Rudd, who clearly has recovered physically from the wound in his back that caused his removal as Prime Minister on 24 June, 2010. However, while he seems to have recovered physically from the wound clearly he has not expunged the memory of it from his mind.
Indeed, at times, unless one knew better, it would be easy to think as he flits around Australia from electorate to electorate delivering his ambiguous prolix messages about his political ambitions, that he was still Prime Minister. Nevertheless, even if pre-election, he beat JulIa Gillard in a popularity vote, I am not sure that come the election, voters would hand the helm of government back to him.
The reason for that, in his time as PM, although seemingly a man of politeness and intellect, he was exposed by his personal staff and senior bureaucrats as a man of crude verbal violence. But more than that, he was given to displaying an authoritarianism and arrogance more associated with dictators than democrats.
It would be easy to harp on about Rudd’s faults but to do so would be to accord him publicity he doesn’t deserve. What I find surprising is that a party which boasts of its belief in egalitarianism didn’t know of Rudd’s faults. I suspect it did but chose to cover them up to avoid being labelled as being the same as the Opposition.
To some degree it could be said also that cover up has replaced transparency in politics. That said, let me add that politicians would be wise to remember the words of Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Next in the queue of wannabe PMs is Bill Shorten. Said to be a smart cookie, one would have to say his political vision was somewhat impaired else he wouldn’t have initiated Rudd’s deposition as PM so that Gillard could take his place. Once installed as PM Gillard clearly hoped for electoral success and more than one term as PM.
And if Shorten hoped his time as a Union official would be to his benefit in his drive to become Leader and PM, adds to the idea that he has impaired vision. With union membership in decline, such an outcome was unlikely. (Think Lincoln)
As to the election Labor seems to expect that Tony Abbott’s perceived anti women reputation and previous comments of many years ago in relation industrial relations will be deciding factors at the election. I think Labor is badly mistaken.
However, it must be said that some Shadow Minister and Current Government Ministers, some Coalition MPs some wannabes, some Labor MPS and some wannabes have something in common. They have to habit of putting feet in mouth because they have not learned the value of silence.
With the election three months away election watch could prove interesting. Three months has given front – runners enough time to demonstrate their ability and foot in mouth people time to demonstrate their skill.
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- In: ACT OPINIONS | Community | Disability | Education | elections | Government
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Paranoia is directing the course of the Federal election
From the behaviour of a good many of its Federal MPs clearly the Australian Labor Party now leads in the paranoia stakes because every day a new reason for getting rid of PM Julia Gillard breaks out in party ranks. In fact the only person on the surface, who seems unaffected by paranoia, is Julia Gillard herself.
Indeed suggestion after suggestion has been floated about how to cure the ills dogging Labor that even if Gillard was removed who would take her place? Bill Shorten? Not that he will admit it, but Shorten has actively stoked the fires of paranoia with his statement that if Labor doesn’t change leaders it could experience a landslide at the next election.
Much as he is promoted in the media as a straight shooter, this statement is a piece of political ambiguity which shows Shorten is still a political assassin prepared to do to Julia Gillard, whom he professes to support, what he and his cohort of assassins did to Kevin Rudd. However, to try and keep his image squeaky clean, he has, as yet, not said it would be in the interests of the Party to remove the PM. However, if her removal ever came to pass, I doubt he would choke over the words.
Another aspect the forced removal of a second PM in a very short period of time does not seem to have been considered in an allegedly stable Democracy like Australia. Could it affect the view of leaders in other Democracies? Some of these leaders might view Australia as being less stable than it seems and the words of its political leaders not to be trusted.
In any case, regardless of Shorten being an ALP Powerbroker, what seems to me is that with the exception of a few, most politicians seem more concerned with their own welfare than that of the people who elected them. And with reference to the current brou ha ha about Labor’s leadership, how many of those seeking election as Labor MPs ever mention in their campaigning who they think should be Leader? If the party observed true democratic principles this would make electing a leader a more open process.
Of course the same could be said about the Opposition except for the fact that Tony Abbot won in democratically controlled ballot, albeit by one vote. On reflection however, and considering the negativity expressed towards him by Government Members and at times members of his own team perhaps he regrets winning.
However, it must be said in his favour that like Julia Gillard he, too, has steadfastly stared his enemies in the face while his own facial expression says do your worst but I’m staying where I am. Indeed, outrageous as the suggestion might be, perhaps Julia Gillard has copied him.
The truth of the matter is that both sets of MPs are paranoid, Labor MPs at the prospect of them being washed out in the forecast landslide and Coalition MPs at the thought that with the holy grail of Government within their grasp, Mr Abbott’s unpopularity might save the Government and the PM.
There’s no use asking MPs to cease their conspiracies. By this time voters know that most of them don’t give a tinker’s cuss about what people think. Being of ‘superior’ mind they expect voters to take their word that will face a bleak future if their party doesn’t get elected.
Voters of course will have their own views on the matter. Will they think the Gonski education plan makes education better; will the NBN make their experience of computers better; and will Disability Care, a subject of great personal interest to me, make people with a disability jump for joy? As yet there no clear answers.
And so the questions remain. Do voters think that Labor has handled these policies so badly that, regardless of what might be seen as possible benefits, they will become financial nightmares that will haunt the community for many years to come.
On the other hand the Coalition must be able to persuade them that they have the answer and that a vote for the Coalition will prevent financial nightmares.
As time goes by we’ll see which of the two possibilities gain favour with the voters. I can’t wait to see the result.
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