I must apologies for this rant in advance. It is about politics and as such if you are not interested (which is perfectly fine. I don't blame you, if I could skip it I would too) you can ignore this post. Trust me, this is just me letting off some steam and it may offend some people. That's what politics is sadly.
So we just had council elections with the added bonus of a state referendum and the results are this.....people are stupid. Having spent a number of years trying to understand the political system in this country (Australia for those who are new), I have learn much and that much is what is constantly being covered up. Sadly, people are still under the impression that when you vote for your representative in your electorate, that person will represent your electorate. The thing is, they don't.
Now I hate talking about politics cause it just pisses me off now (the side effect of trying to get to the heart of it sadly), but it seems I just need to keep repeating myself. When a candidate is part of the party, you are not voting for a representative, you are voting for a party. The same goes with voting for a Premiere or Prime Minister, it isn't the person your voting for, it's the party. Or perhaps I'm wrong and people are voting for the party cause they keep believing the shit that keeps getting spun. I mean hell, we spent three years under that moron Campbell Newman (I still don't know how he became Premiere, since he was one of Brisbane's worst Mayors and yet people still voted him in) and now people voted for a Four year term while telling me that if they can't govern then we can just have another election. Umm...no, it doesn't work like that. That would only apply to a minority Government and only if they went to the Governor-General to ask for one and only if the Governor-General approves it. In other words, unless your willing to force it through mass protests to the Governor-General (and lets face it, no one protests that good in this country these days), the people really don't have much power to make that happen. That and people somehow think a change in leader means a change in policy.
What do I mean? Well, Australia has coped a bit of flack for it's continuous jumping of Prime Ministers, which is fair. I believe that if you are chosen to lead then you must lead or throw another election. Recently we changed from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull and everyone was somehow thinking that this would fix things. Thing is, the parties stance and policies didn't change. The party had a new face, but it was still the same Government. They used media spin to make people believed that they were are fresh new Government, but the didn't fix their broken election promises nor did they change stances on important issues of the people. You can paint shit gold, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still shit.
We still have a great many problems that are not being addressed or are being shoved off in the 'We'll get to it if we win the next election' basket. I'm sick of being told about how they plan to fix things next time, but then when they get voted back in by those dumb enough to believe that, they still don't fix it and say they do it next time. How many times can people sit there and listen to the same crap over and over and tell me that they believe it. I may sound bitter, as if my political party didn't win, but the truth is that as the years have gone on I've noticed a shift away from Democracy and more towards Dictatorship when it comes to things like policies. Hell, the law is if you don't vote you can go to jail and that is your democratic right.
They say your opinion matters, but if that's so then why has the last few federal budgets attacked low and middle income families, the elderly and disabled. Why doesn't the Government do more to fix the taxation system, the legal system and domestic violence. Why has it been that only ones to benefit are the extremely rich and powerful, while those that are below the poverty line who ask for help are treated so badly. The ironic part about the Brisbane election was that on a number of corners were people asking you to vote for their parties, while on the other corners were the homeless and poor begging for a few bucks and yet the homeless issue was never addressed. One could say it was out of councils power, but not once did anyone say they would petition the State Government for help. Too much talk about traffic and I don't even own a car.
Sorry, I get emotional on this topic. It's just that when I started studying politics years ago I actually had the intention of becoming one and fighting for what the people wanted. Years later I've seen the lies, the cover-ups and the corruption and I've become so disillusioned by the whole thing. I've talked to those who see through it and those who are ignorant of it and it just annoys me. The recent changes to the Senate was to reduce the number of Independents to make way for more main party members, when it turns out that most Independents actually base their voting decisions based on their electorates feedback. You know, doing the exact thing you were voted in to do.
I love my country and it just makes me sad to see the direction it's going in.
Update: So the Senate change was to basically bully the Senate into passing the Governments bill or they'll force an election and some of those people will loose there spots. Funny thing is, the bill is to create an organization to stop building Union bullying. Hypocrisy at it's finest my friends.
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