Why politics has become so bad

Now hardly anyone joins big parties. The current dominant interests are property developers, the most appalling union leaders, elderly tax avoiders and religious fanatics eager to stop widely held moral positions being put into law. They represent big bags of cash, not large numbers of people.

Progress now depends on people reclaiming their citizenship and forming a new grand coalition. The new divide is between those who want to maintain various illusions and deny any fundamental change is required, and those who want a rapid transition to the acceptance of new realities in energy use, morality, social organisation, education and so on. There is scope for great disagreement within the two camps but no more so than the old left/right split.

A new approach is needed to provide a long list of policy changes. But just as important is the need for leadership in touch with reality when the impending financial, population and environmental crises strike. Crisis management by people looking backwards, such as Abbott, would be a disaster.

The ALP would once have been the party to form the basis of the new coalition of interests but is now more than ever controlled by cynics and conservatives. There is a complete absence of leadership. The Libs are already established as the flat earth party, refusing to believe anything is changing and still fighting the old battles against public services while maintaining a one-dimensional short-term economic view of society.

One Nation and PUP have shown that success for a new party can be rapid but both fed on dissatisfaction without offering a real alternative. A party that represented the broad views of the majority of Australians could do even better, but only if sane citizens get back to playing the political game rather than just commentating.