Labor and Liberal vote with each other 80% of the time. On all the big issues, they #collude. In methodology, they #worktogether to keep accountability and transparency at bay. They form a deep, thick, murky swamp. We've had a glimpse, in the last week, of the #power that voters possess in a democracy. That power has always been there, but it's been rarely used. For 100 years, a #politicalclass has captured Australian democracy and told us that we are mere #spectators in the careers of party hacks. Our job is to endorse the ruling mob or replace them, occasionally, with the other mob. Even when we #change governments, 95% of the politicians stay put until they retire. The #LiberalNational parties will tell us to change the faces of those who govern at the next election. No, we need to #change the game. For all their huff 'n puff, Lib 'n Lab are in bed with each other in #how they govern: - Both allow a bloated #publicservice to control the machinery of government in jobs-for-life, without accountability or limits on service. - Both allow #MPs to occupy jobs-for-life without term limits. - Both conscript taxpayers money to fund their #politicalparties, paying themselves $6.68 for each House and Senate vote they will get in the next federal election. - Both appoint their #mates to government posts without public hearings into their suitability or their vested interests. - Both siphon off taxpayers money to practice #porkbarrelling and #votebuying, and misuse government #advertising for party political purposes, without any mechanisms of accountability. - Both fund #peakbodies and #advocacy bodies with taxpayers money to control access to government and create patronage networks across the country. They collude with each other in #how they govern. And they are in bed with other on all the big #policy issues: - Both are wedded to #massimmigration without social integration as their only economic growth strategy. - Both protect #BigBusiness and drown small biz in a flood of #regulation and #compliance paperwork. - Both hold provider-centric #social policy - they fund social service #providers instead of funding the #users of services and our families. - Both throw taxpayers money at their preferred #energy types - nuclear or renewables - instead of allowing a competitive energy market to operate. - Both drive the #deindustrialisation of Australia by prioritising investment in non-productive assets (property, gaming, financial speculation). - Both #outsource national security to the USA, downgrading our capacity for the defence of the nation. - Both respond with knee-jerk simplistic nonsense to #complex social issues: both want to #ban social media for kids, increase the #prison population in response to crime, and foolishly legislate to tackle #misinformation. On and on it goes. It is a deep, thick, murky #swamp. It's #time. Yes, it's time to #draintheswamp. https://lnkd.in/g_rhzUBh Join #DemocracyFirst today. https://lnkd.in/gB7mz-3d
Matthew McMahon
1mo
Traditionally (right up until the end of the Howard/Beazley era) the Libs were centre right, Labour centre left. Now Labor is far left and the Libs centre left!! Everywhere else in the world the divide has widened as parties have grown more extreme in their views, both right and left. But Australia is a strange set up, the two parties have grown closer together! Go figure………
Andrew Noble
1mo
A swamp. No it's a Canberra cesspit.
Greg Green
1mo
Vern some interesting valid points but remember Dutton worked as a police officer detective senior constable in the Queensland Police for nearly a decade upon leaving school, and later ran a construction business with his father. So he is not just a career politician that has not seen the outside world and its workings. I see him as a man that is well planned and will do a good job into the future as we saw his commitments in all his other political positions he is a leader that is what I believe.
Helen Huang
1mo
Thanks, Vern Hughes, for your valuable insights. For decades, the #bureaucracy and #corruption within our #government have gradually undermined our democratic system. It’s time for a thorough cleansing while we still have a small window of democracy left.
Roxanne Mysko
1mo
The swamp is very big that needs draining - sadly people have voted these disrespectful politicians into power, they have misused their power and trust = that equals corruption against citizens
Jim Welsh
1mo
BOTH are past their use by dates Fossils 🦕 🦖……. Only SERVING the neoliberal masters. It’s about waking up now. Admitting what has failed. Taking responsibility for your truth Beyond old legacy stories …..
David Spencer
1mo
There is one party in Australia that frightens all the other parties because they do not want to play the game. Imagine a Nation where everyone was treated the same. The Polls in the UK show that many people wish they had taken a chance on the Reform party in the UK because what was earlier labelled by the media as a far-right group is now considered the only hope to regain stability.
Mark Prince
1mo
Septic tank is a better starting point, a swamp evaporates over time. A Septic must be pumped out and disposed of.
DV Advocacy: Electoral Candidate: Author: I Am Woman Empowerment Director: 2022 UNAA(WA) Gender Equality Award, 2020 Australia Day Award: VCP at Pinjarra Community Garden
1moIt's #time