With our own 'counterfeit' democracy how can we possibly export it?

Corporate elites then evade popular scrutiny of, for example, policies allowing private access to public assets (natural resources, water, public utilities) on “efficiency” grounds.

At the same time this mass media labels as “terrorists”, to be exterminated, those poor and desperate Palestinian and Iraqi youth fighting to protect their families and homes; and as “defence forces” those invading armies many thousands of kilometres from their homes, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The corporate anxiety to not upset traditional financial ties with the Empire helps block debate over the implications of our strategic alliances. The failure of this debate has automated Australian complicity in the worst of war crimes, making shameful war criminals and puppets of our political leaders. They glorify invasion and cover the crimes of Falluja, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, with great enthusiasm.

However this narrow and twisted debate means that Australian consumers of corporate media are shocked to discover that Australian soldiers and Australian citizens are then bombed and attacked. There is little comprehension that the slaughter of tens of thousands, carried out in remote places, and in our name, will invite retaliation.

The Australian representative system (mostly single member electorates - unusual in the world these days) sustains the two party machine that remains faithful to this corporate consensus. Only in some Australian parliaments (mostly the less powerful upper houses) is there a little wider representation, and these few struggle to find a voice through the same strangled corporate media, and the stupefying consensus. The major parties compete to ingratiate themselves with the Empire and corporate elites. They sometimes grumble but, as good administrators, they always comply.

Finally, there is no real public debate about or understanding of citizenship in this country. In the “republic” referendum several years back, what was remarkable was not simply that the “consensus” model did not allow for a popular vote for President (the main reason for the failure of this referendum). There was also virtually NO discussion of citizens, or their rights. Yet citizens must define any republic. No system of government has legitimacy without clearly defined citizens' rights.

Corporate and political elites have marginalised calls for bills of rights, even though Australia is now one of the few nations on earth without such a guarantee. There are semi-coherent murmurs of the role of the courts, or of more emphasis on “responsibilities”. But the reality is that a body politic not founded on citizens' rights (which then define responsibilities) is one that fosters privilege and elite interests. So much is now understood around the world.

Australia has a counterfeit “democracy”. We cannot rightly claim to be a democratic country (let alone preach it to others) because our administrators are imperial puppets, our channels of mass communication are in a tight corporate grip, our system of representation is flawed and we have no clear concept or guarantees of citizenship.

How much we have to learn about democracy. Discussing what it is to be a citizen, and extracting ourselves from the latest imperial war would be a good start.