Australians' preference for passive politics is a wide-spread problem

The closeness of voting in marginal seats in both state and federal elections demonstrates that our individual votes do matter. Individuals do, in reality, have the capacity to influence the outcome of elections.

We have to acknowledge that we can change things if we want to – we can have input and we can be part of the process.

But we have to engage our brains…we have to be part of it.

We have to want the process of the management of Australian life, politically, corporately and culturally to change and we have to have the engagement and will to do it.

Australians must fight harder if we are to have the sort of national management we want and need. At the moment we probably have the government we deserve because we are prepared to put up with it and allow others to do the work.

It’s not good enough – Australia deserves better.

No more can we justify supporting a political party …"because dad always voted that way", "because workers vote Labor" or "because Mr. Howard seems like a nice man".

We need to look critically at the representation we are getting from our delegates in all walks of life – from the committee of the local footy club, to the local council, to the boards of public companies, to the executives of trade unions and to the parliaments.

If we want Australian society to reflect the way we (as individuals) would wish it to be, we have to get around to doing something about our apathy. We cannot expect change if we are not prepared to drive it from the grass roots. No longer can it be acceptable to be an armchair critic and expect change to be visited upon us.

We need a press that has the courage to be independent and fearless - not slavishly following the whims of its media mogul boss or seeking the approval of a party political hack masquerading as a statesman.

Independent media sites on the internet present a wonderful opportunity means of promoting balanced and reasoned argument. But they do not reach the mass populace and are not in the business of influencing opinion.

The ‘mainstream’ popular press is more interested in pursuing the goals of its (collective) major shareholders and catering to the lowest common denominator. Just how much reporting of ‘Big Brother’ do we need in our metropolitan daily?