Australia's politicians are on a break; a break we need more than they

Whew! Australia’s federal politicians are on a break; a break the public probably needs more than they.

Winston Churchill.

The modern 24-hour news cycle might pile hitherto unseen pressures upon our Canberra conquistadors, but those demands pale compared to the confusion their verbal cut and thrust brings to the body politic.

Watching, and listening, is tougher than being actually in the game, particularly when the discussion and decisions are impacting on you, your life and that of your family, community and nation, and, in a practical sense about which you can do nought, you are forced to sit impotently by and simply wonder.

Looking on from any vantage point beyond the immediacy of Canberra’s Parliament House there is some doubt as to whether or not our elected federal representatives are conscious of how Australia, and the world, is evolving or they are they simply responding to populist ideologues and the values they tenaciously cling to?

Whatever, the image portrayed through our media is less than encouraging and leads inevitably to thoughts of “Nero fiddling while Rome burns”, but any view about that is suggestive and reflective of personal wants and needs.

Some would argue that Rome is not burning and so the behaviour seen in Canberra is as it should be, for they profit as our legislators “fiddle”.

Many others, seeing it through a different prism,  are simply distressed with those reputedly administering our country seemingly obsessed with finding a weakness in their political opponent’s veneer and appearing do little actual “governing”.

Our politicians appear to be sadly distracted by what is colloquially known as “muck-racking”, most of which is absolutely unrelated to national concerns.

Much to the delight, and profit, of a few, democracy in Australia is wobbling toward a distinct difficultly – the façade appears wonderful, but behind this comforting façade is a moneyed clique edging us toward inverted totalitarianism.

Writing in “Democracy Incorporated”, Sheldon S. Wolin explains how sweeping corporate power masquerading as democracy has convinced us that contentment is to be found in consumerism and entertainment and together they see many of us bow willingly before values that are alien to the democratic intent. Democracy is presently being sold to the highest bidder.

Democracy is noisy, meant to allow room for the contrarian thinker, those who challenge the status quo and those who want to disagree, but it is not about the pointless squabbles that until now have preoccupied our nation’s best.

“Democracy” according to the former British PM, the late Winston Churchill, “is the worst of all forms of government, except for all the others that have been tried”; an idea that Australia’s politicians appear intent on testing, until now at least, as they, and we, have a break.

Our narrative around which Australia has been built is lost, or distorted

Those who gather in Canberra to govern our country have lost, or grossly distorted, the narrative around which modern Australia is built

Canberra's Parliament 
House seems to be built
 on pointless rhetoric that
appears to have little
to do with the effective
 management of the
Australia.

Pointless rhetoric of our federal politicians is rarely about the effective management of the country rather, it is more about discrediting those who have a different political view.

The 24-hour news cycle has its upside, but the reverse of that is the seemingly silly almost minute-by-minute examination of the lives of politicians, celebrities and their ilk.

Living under the heat of such a fierce spotlight and trapped by public expectations of a faultless performance, our politicians are left without time to reflect, consider and dare not demonstrate any apparent weakness by admitting that they are unsure or simply do not know the answer.

We, the polity, are to blame for that.

Australia, as does the rest of the world, faces pressing problems with the most serious, and the most unyielding, being human induced climate change that will bring unstoppable transformations to our lives demanding that any worthwhile response be bi-partisan.

Rather than simply point-score at the expense of counterparts, our politicians need to work together to prepare Australia to deal with a threat that if left unattended, has the potential to not just seriously disrupt life as we know it, but actually decimate the community.

In recent times the country has almost ground to a halt as we argue endlessly about some insignificant triviality, suggesting we choke on a mosquito, while we swallow, with ease, a camel; the camel being the threat of climate change.

Climate change is just the first order of threats as hard on its heels and invariably implicated in a multitude of ways, is resource depletion, species extinction and an imploding world economy.

You would imagine that with a trio of threats, of which anyone alone has the potential to cause relentless difficulties, those Canberra cronies would put aside their pointless child-like bickering to prepare the country the most all-encompassing challenge it has every experienced, vastly bigger and more consuming than either of the World Wars of the 20^th century.

Courage, commitment and conviction has lifted humanity to where it is at now and should we successfully take the human project any further, those same traits are urgently important and the first to demonstrate that bravery, allegiance and passion must be those who gather in Canberra.

The challenge of steering Australia through the ideological changes of coming decades is so massive that only the most courageous need apply; only those who are genuinely committed to our country’s long term welfare and care little about personal gain, or party leadership; and only those prepared to compromise and so make decisions that will steer us away from present consumptive life styles.