At least in Australian Politics you do. As we are about to find out down here.
So far on the first day after swearing in the new Parliament we have heard this:
- sacked the heads of 3 Government Departments – not political appointments those, they are Senior Public Servants
- integrated our government run aid agency into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – allegedly to siphon aid funding to tourism promotion
- started producing legislation to repeal the Carbon Tax
- stopped granting permanent protection visas, bringing back temporary protection visas
- instructed the board of the Clean Energy Corporation to cease operations
- and it is expected that the Climate Change Authority and the Climate Commission will be abolished.
Not a bad first day of work. A very bad day I’d say. Even David Suzuki stuck the boot in to our new PM in the local press. Justified in my opinion too. But the worst of it I haven’t even mentioned yet.
Australia no longer considers Science as important enough to have a Ministerial portfolio. Yes. It’s true. Honestly.
All policy for Science falls into the Education and Industry portfolios. Sport gets one. Border Protection gets one too. But Science does not.
I’m a voter. Have been since the day I turned 18. Never missed an election yet. This time around our Senate paper had so many candidates spread across it that I had to fold it in half to fit it into my polling booth. 110 candidates from 44 political parties on a piece of paper more than a metre long. Seriously. In our electoral system you can place a vote above a line which means you follow the Party voting instructions. Or you can number the boxes, by individual from 1 to 110. It took me a while, but that’s what I did. I don’t give a toss for parties. They can go and get stuffed. I vote for people. I read what they say, I take notice of what they want to do if they get in, and I vote accordingly.
Here are the results from my local booth in this election for the Senate (distilled by first preference by party)
Senate count:
Liberal Democrats: 38
Democratic Labor Party: 3
Senator Online: 1
Voluntary Euthanasia: 3
HEMP: 1
Carers Alliance: 1
Wikileaks: 2
Fred Nile: 5
Labor: 52
Katter Party: 6
Sex Party: 7
Fishing Party: 8
Greens: 19
Stop the Greens: 2
Smokers Rights: 1
Bullet Train: 1
Liberal/National Coalition: 181
Aust Independents: 1
Family First: 2
Shooters Party: 22
Motoring Enthusiasts: 1
One Nation: 13
22 different parties. I should probably be a bit worried that out of those 370 votes the Shooters Party got 22, the (dare I say redneck) One Nation party got 13 and 38 people just picked the first box despite the fact that the party listed first did no media advertising in my electorate AT ALL. I doubt that one of those people even knew who they were. Most probably had poor eyesight and thought it was the Liberal Party, not the Liberal Democrats. So 20% of the legal votes cast in my own local booth genuinely worry me. In all honesty after the election campaign we’ve just been through the 181 Lib/Nat voters do too but I live in a rusted on National seat where Barney the Dinosaur could stand as a National candidate and win comfortably. Would probably be better than our local candidate as well. Wouldn’t be that difficult I reckon.
So what is my point? Well, that Democracy is a fine thing among an informed electorate. Compulsory Democracy is a total dog’s breakfast in an apathetic, uninformed electorate. Which I believe is the whole of this nation. We are turning into compulsive whingers, feeding off the media scraps and venting our righteous bile based on complete and utter ignorance. So we have had a landslide win for the Conservatives in Australia. I think that is abhorrent. They do not have total control of both houses of Parliament and will be forced to negotiate with some people who are possibly even further right wing than they are. The lefties will probably be able to be avoided – I haven’t seen the final breakup yet. So it look to me that one decent South Australian by the name of Nick Xenophon will effectively be the power broker in our Senate, pending the final numbers. He at least is quality. But if they can bypass even him, they will try. And I shudder to think what will come from it. When Border Protection is more important that Science I cannot think positively of my government, the people elected by my fellow citizens and I to run the country.
Is this the day the music died?
Point of Yew 