The Australian parliament has failed the Australian people

What is democracy?

A democracy is a nation in which the people rule themselves, either directly or through elected representatives.

At the time of writing, the early 2020s, Australia was not ruled by the Australian people, it was ruled by one or another of two political parties, and they were both more under the influence of moneyed interests, particularly the fossil fuel industries, rather than the Australian people.

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Ways in which the Australian parliament has failed the Australian people:

The Liberal and National coalition might as well be one party. Neither party has any hope of getting into power federally on its own. They are both right wing, both against action on reducing emissions, both strongly pro fossil fuels, both seriously lacking in ethical standards.

• The back-bench parliamentarians of the major parties (Labor and Liberal/National coalition) are no more than seat-holders; they almost never vote for reasons of conscience or justice, and almost never against the party line. They may as well not attend parliament at all. This is not democracy.
  
  
• The cabinet ministers (and shadow ministers) are unwilling to express any opinion that is even slightly out of line with party policy. This is not democracy.
  
  
• We are seeing much less action on climate change than is needed and that the Australian people want.
  
  
• Both major parties are strongly supporting the fossil fuel industries against the wishes of the Australian people.
  
  
• Federal parliament continues to oppose voluntary euthanasia (and/or assisted dying) when polls indicate about 80% support for it among the Australian people.
  
  
• Neither major party is supporting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the source of the most reliable and unbiased information for the Australian people.
  
  
• Parliament is passing draconian anti-terrorism laws that can also be used to silence whistle-blowers.
  
  
• Both major parties have slavish, unjustified and unjustifiable devotion to the USA and its excesses.
  
  
• Inhumane and illegal treatment of refugees continues.
  
  
• Parliament did not hold the government accountable for their cheating the East Timorese over the Timor Sea gas field. They continue to allow the prosecution of those involved in exposing the crime.
  
  
• Parliament allows the using the Australian Federal Police to pursue the ABC and others for reporting on matters that the public had a right to know about.

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Unequal access to parliament

The following was extracted from an email received from Climate 200, an organisation that supports honest, worthy, independent people who hope to enter parliament, especially those who will push for action on climate change.

[Toward the end of 2023] the Senate voted in favour of a motion moved by Independent ACT Senator, David Pocock, to establish an inquiry into lobbying.

Senator Pocock wrote in a media release that he’d been “shocked since the election at the lack of transparency and the resistance to establishing a more open and accountable system."

“Over 2,000 people have unfettered, all hours access to Parliament House’s private areas. While I fully support people having access to politicians, we need to make sure that access is democratic, open and transparent.”

I've written more on how lobbyists employed by moneyed interests have been corrupting the Australian political system elsewhere on these page, for example in Vote Smart, Liberals don't want action on climate, government.

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Community independents; reason to hope for a more democratic future!

Quoting Wikipedia "Ten candidates for the House of Representatives and one candidate for the Senate considered teal independents were elected in 2022, of which seven were elected for the first time."

'Teal' independents are probably more properly called 'community' independents.

This was a huge step toward bringing democracy back into the Australian Parliament. I have been doing what little I can to encourage more independent members of parliament for years; I can only hope that this trend continues.

The apolitical organisation Climate 200 played a large part in supporting the Community independent politicians. They seem to have proved to be an organisation whose time had come; people seem at last to be getting fed-up with the status quo.

Related pages

External pages...

Climate 200 and more honest and independent politicians, a hope for the future

The political system is letting down the Australian public; The Conversation, by Michelle Gratten, 2023/10/30. A quote:

“Today’s Labor and Liberal backbenchers are much more quiescent than a few decades ago. Labor celebrates its more diverse caucus, but that doesn’t extend to a diversity of views at caucus meetings.”

The teal win is a tectonic shift in Australian politics; Australian Financial Review, written by Kylea Tink, published 2022/06/01. A quote:

"Two major parties more interested in maintaining power than purposeful policy have left Australia falling behind the rest of the world. The message from federal election ballot boxes is clear: Australians want politics to be done differently. Over the past 10 years, we had very little legislative reform. Politics, it seemed, had become a contest of egos and the two major parties were unable to work together to bring our country to a better place."

On this site...

My pages on politics are listed on my Australian Home page;

The world's greatest moral challenge, Climate change;

Support independent politicians, Vote smart;

Thoughts on a possible confederation of independent politicians and candidates. Climate 200 came later and has been very successful in achieving what I was pushing for.

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