Allan Takes Aim Blog

Published The Chronicle, Canberra. Tuesday 17 April.

Major problems some new politicians face following their election is trying to remain the kind of person they were before being elected and keeping their promise of continuing to pursue the policies on which they were elected. Unfortunately, some don’t succeed, particularly if they model themselves on politicians who have had a long (too long) parliamentary career. Sad as it seems many of these models have not only forgotten why they were elected but have allowed personal interests to take priority over that of their constituents.

But worse, many newly elected politicians also undergo another change. As time goes by, they begin to think that a seat in parliament has imbued them with a wisdom not given to those who elected them. Unfortunately, this leads to them believing they are special people and part of an elite deserving of special treatment. In some cases this seems to lead them to regarding those who elected them more as inconveniences than as constituents.

Such behaviour is not the preserve of politicians who embrace a particular political theology. I use theology rather that ideology because political parties boast of themselves as broad churches accommodating a wide range of views something you might not accept after a conversation with some church members.

As occurs in various religious sects, members of the different factions in the political churches preach different brands of theology. And in common with the members of religious sects the factional political leaders preach that if everyone accepted their political theology they would be on the path to living in an earthly heaven.

If only to emphasise how political parties are like church sects they have head offices where the hierarchy congregate and develop laws that every member is expected to accept, believe and obey without question. Failure to do so is to risk excommunication. And just as religious denominations have saints political parties have their political saints, devoted followers who worship in their suburban churches –they call branches.

In common with religious denominations and much as they say otherwise new ideas unless previously endorsed by the party hierarchy which is sure that their ideas are the only ones that will save a state, nation and in some cases, the world.. Not that party hierarchies do not put forth new ideas but often the ideas belong to someone else. Often and unknown to their creator these ideas have been passed on by sycophants in an effort to satisfy their own ambitions. Unfortunately, Australian political parties have many members in this category.

However, to continue with the thesis that political parties are like churches, broad or not, if members express views contrary to those laid down by the hierarchy they are viewed as heretics, a fate that has caused many a politician to be expelled from the party they had served faithfully for many years, because they had spoken out.

Let me make the point that while politicians of every persuasion talk of free speech, some politicians who have lost faith in the philosophy of the party of which they are members will never say so publicly. Not only do these politicians lack courage, they are venal because they fear loss of access to the earthly delights their position brings, something that seems implicit in former Health Services Union now Labor MP Craig Thomson’s statements of innocence.

Clearly their behaviour not only conflicts with but also mocks the philosophy of free speech they say they are sworn to defend. Politicians will not agree with that statement. If anything, most would disagree with it ‘til the cows come home.

However, apart from lacking courage and loss of access to earthly delights what these venal people fear most is being labelled pejoratively as scab, a title they might find hard to rebut. It is a good thing they are not living in the middle ages as they would be shunned, spat upon in the street and in some cases tarred and feathered. They should thank their lucky stars if they have any
.
If ACT voters want to avoid electing an Assembly with venal members it behoves them to closely examine potential MLAs and satisfy themselves as to their credibility before voting.
dca@netspeed.com.au. Chronicle online edition published every Wednesday at:www.chronicleonline.com.au

Published The Chronicle, Tuesday 10 April, 2012. Also in: http://www.chronicleonline.com.au Wednesday, 11 April

When I started write this column on Saturday 24 March, voters in Queensland were wending their way to polling booths across the state hoping that after the votes are counted the result they get is the result they want. Not only will they know the result by early evening but they will know also if the opinion polls were right that only a few Labor candidates will survive. If it turns out that the polls are right the message for Labor is that it will need to make substantial changes to its political diet to survive as a party.

I am not a political oracle but in a column published shortly before the NSW State election last year I suggested that Australia was suffering political anthropogenic climate change due to the volume of hot air being expressed by Labor, Liberal and National Party parliamentarians plus Green parliamentarians whose per capita expression of hot air was even greater. To add to that volume I should include the Independents who, after the Federal election showed they were not lacking in capacity either.

My reason for saying Western style politics are doomed is because countries that practise them seem not to have gone even part of the way to creating the kind of political system that will accommodate the cultures of the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Indian sub-continent and the many other strong cultures in the world. If anything they seem intent on forcing these countries to adopt a Western system similar to theirs even though, after more than two thousand years, no two Western style democracies seem to practise the same system. I venture to suggest also, that were it possible to ask two thousand people in these countries from the highest to the lowest in all walks of life the simple question, what kind of political system do you want? would elicit two thousand different answers.

It is now the morning of Sunday 25th March, though I suspect for many members of the Queensland Labor Party it will be remembered as either Mourning Sunday or Black Sunday. For some it will be a day of despair while for others it will be the beginning of a slow march to extinction.

That slow road to extinction will be the road followed by sensible people who will see the Queensland result as not just affecting Labor but also the Liberal Party, the Greens and all other parties because, in our increasingly geopolitical world they do not think Labor, Liberal, Green, Labour, Democrat and Republican et al, describes the kind of parties they will want in the future or even will they want parties.

What they might be thinking is that In the not too distant future we will be living in a world driven even more by technology than it is today and unlike today, every country will have this technology. Life will be programmed. Computers yet to be created will do many of the jobs that people in and out of politics do today. For example, I think it more than likely that economists will no longer be needed. Self-developing and self-programming computers will undertake the modelling needed by a world government to make decisions.

Economists aside, the world will have many more scientists who will continue to develop even more sophisticated technology that people will come to rely on to produce their food, t housing needs, medical needs, clothing needs because all those needs are likely to be different. They will develop interplanetary travel and later still, interstellar travel systems.. And that is but a brief look at what I think the future might hold.

Of course in Canberra, with an election in October, our future is nearer. Soon we will see Independent and party candidates the hustings making their promises. Voters will need to listen to them then start making their mind up about which of them has the vision of the future that you like best. Voters might also decide that, like Queensland NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, they need to make a change. If they do however, they should make sure the candidates they support are visionaries not candidates programmed to respond like robots.
dca@netspeed.com.au
The Chronicle for Canberra’s best community news. Get it online