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Australia's shadowy wisp of a democracy

By Greg Lees - posted Monday, 21 December 2009


Assuming he is genuine, this is an excellent example of our enfeebled democracy. If he objects to it now, why did he not object to it then? I suggest, because the executive rules with dictatorial authority even over ministers who despite their position have no power. So what hope for us then, to influence our masters?

Furthermore, with our body politic in its weakened state, what role can dissent play, if it is found unfavourable to the Sun King of the day? Even if one agrees with Kevin Andrews that immigration is too high, there is no comfort thinking a vote for him or his party is going to alter immigration one iota, because just as it does not matter what a minister thinks, it matters even less what the citizen thinks, so disenfranchised are we from this political system we have, for in essence, it functions closer to a dictatorial model than the democracy which it pretends to be.

Oh for that magic wand. Failing that, there should be a serious discussion about introducing citizen voting referenda within a government's term, as with the Swiss voting system. It should not be hard to garner public support for this creation/addition as we truly need to inject some democracy into our politics, for currently it is but a shadowy wisp, almost gone.

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With thanks to Kevin Andrews whose outrageous hypocrisy sparked this missive.

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About the Author

Greg Lees was born in Bendigo and educated there, majoring in Environmental Studies and Philosophy. He is now retired and 'settled' in Melbourne for the last four years, after much travelling in this country and overseas.

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