Why voters are turning off major parties

I find it almost amusing that the Australian mainstream media (MSM) ponders why Australians are giving up on their major political parties and politics generally. There is simple answer. Social media is taking over the traditional role of the opinion-based MSM in effecting voting outcomes. I’ve written previously about the effect that social media is having on and in society, but observing the disintegration of the Liberal Party and Labor’s Bill Shorten poised to sleep-walk his way into the Lodge, does not bode well for Australia’s future. Shorten lacks the vision and vigour required to be great leader. He reminds me of a bottle of flat Coca Cola, his fizz dulled by an overload of sugar and hot air.

I’m one of those millions of voters that think simply voting in the opposition to turf out a tired and bereft government that’s lost its way, is no real solution for our nation. Asking if I should vote Labor or Liberal is like asking me if I’d prefer Coca Cola or Pepsi, I reject both. Just as consumers have turned off those unhealthy sugary drinks in favour of fresh fruit Juices (a more healthy alternative) so it will be for our two major parties. Essentially, they are a pale imitation of one another on almost all contentious issues in Australia. People are rightly outraged about exorbitant power prices, a direct result of successive governments of both persuasions privatising what were state owned electricity generators. Privatised toll roads are another shocking example. We’ve been sold down the river by these incompetent legislators, who continue to refuse to accept culpability for often negative outcomes. We continue to hear their empty rhetoric that it is all a question of supply and demand driven by market forces. I say ‘bullocks’ to that. There could have been privatisation of the retail market without the need for the generation and wholesale markets to also be sold.

Governments in Australia have designed a way to craft their cues from a subservient Public Service employed now more as ‘political consultants’ on how to secure the life of the government, Look no further than the recent passing of Australia’s surveillance laws in the Parliament by both major parties. Long term necessary public policy is being trumped by sheer political survival.

The political system is well and truly broken and people are waking up to it more and more, informed through their social media. My prediction is that the future of this nation will eventually rest in the hands of a charismatic and genuine leader who can speak to the Australian public openly, honestly and truthfully and work to join the many disparate groups into one movement, securing the numbers in Parliament to govern with the power to make reformational change and its name is not Hanson.

That person does not currently sit in our federal parliament. I believe it’s only a matter of time that such a leader emerges purely through a groundswell of social media.

The implosion of the Liberal Party is a symptom of the lack of adequate public participation in politics and the inability of major parties to make that happen. My observations of our former PMs Abbott and Turnbull (Caretaker ScoMo, is a philistine and I have little to say about him), but resting for one moment on Turnbull, ‘the great pretender,’ he is quite a piece of work. As a ‘so-called moderate’ he was incapable of keeping his party together and decided to bow out, pissing off to New York, telling us he’s “retired from politics” and will no longer “comment on Australian domestic matters” ... sigh ... fast forward to more recently and he’s out there on Radio National discussing the endorsement or otherwise of the Member for Hughes, one of his vicious executioners.

I remind my readers that current membership of both the LNP and Labor is at an all time low. I estimate the LNP has less than 15,000 and Labor at 20,000 tops. This means the majority of Australians are governed by a very small, what I call ‘political class,’ trying desperately to hold on to power, by hook or by crook.

A new charismatic leader emerged in Italy recently called Peppe Grillo. A comedian and political satirist who happened also to be ineligible to sit in the Italian Parliament, but he created the 5 Star Movement in 2012 receiving over 33% of the national vote in Italy’s recent election, securing them coalition government, much to the world’s surprise.

I predict Australia’s time is just around the corner.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, told us long ago in his famous treatise ‘the Republic’:

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

We see this being played out in Australia in 2019 with great clarity. We know we are capable of so much better than this and we will intervene and cause necessary disruption of our own making.

As both government and opposition are hell bent on turning Australia into a police state, chipping away little by little at whatever citizen ‘rights’ remain, the majority of Australians find this unacceptable. People get their news and current affairs through social media, regardless of MSM opinion-based reporting. This supports the change I believe so many voters like me want.