Politics is a dirty word

The unfolding nonsense in Canberra within the Coalition Government demonstrates yet again the stupidity of our political system. For years, successive Governments have been enmeshed in internal party politics. Politicians owe more allegiance to their parties than to voters in their electorates. The people do not elect Prime Ministers – they elect local members to Parliament who appoint the PM. The best way forward is to dump preferential voting and go back to a ‘first past the post’ system for elections. That would eliminate the absurdity of candidates winning a seat (particularly in the Senate) when they only received a handful of votes. The next step would be to ban political parties – they corrupt our political representatives by imposing a duty on them which is seen as more important than governing the country for the benefit of the cdommunity. 00

Australia's lunatic fiscal policies over the past few years has just about guaranteed that we will slide into recession this year. It's likely that the Australian dollar will slip to 55c US in the third quarter. At least the Federal Treasurer is making noises about cutting the excessive level of spending – but we are yet to see any action. Sustainability and economics In many opinions, Western society has been in decline for decades (if not centuries) but we do seem to be heading towards the abyss at an ever increasing speed. Australia is probably a reasonable reflection of what is happening elsewhere (at least if the drivel in newspapers and on television is any guide. There has been little real political choice when it comes to elections as all party hacks scramble for the 'middle ground' In Australia there is virtually nothing to choose on economic policies between the Liberal/National coalition and the Labor opposition. Both also have almost identical polic...