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TIME TO CULL THE MEMBERS |
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Click to go to Kevin R Beck Commentary and Articles |
Julia Gillard's Australia | New South Wales | Victoria | Queensland | Climate Change |
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Parasites, and termites, are eating at the fabric of our democracy and governments. They infest our governments, at all levels, maintaining power and control. The major political parties in Australia are prostituting representation, choosing the demographic constituencing of our parliaments, blocking access to information, selling access and manipulating the system to their personal advantage and interests. The members of Australias parliaments, and local governments, are in the majority honest and hard working. They are however shackled by their political parties and by the modern "management" of governments. If they want to keep their political careers in tack, most of them must toe the line. A few are of such stature as to be able to ignore the controllers. Our members of parliament no longer debate. Instead Governments have opted for the tactic of public relations, adopting sophisticated corporate practices. This includes maintaining control of journalism and the media. Manipulating the story, things like climate change, the global financial crisis, the extent of unemployment, hiding the massive failures and waste, avoiding the question and the answer, whilst wrapping themselves in secrecy. Public servants are cowed and made to serve the Ministers and the government of the day. They are no longer fearless and free to argue. A handful of powerful political controllers keep order. They cajole, peddle fear, entertain retribution, solicit for donations and sell access to Ministers of government. They engage in activities to coerce and silence. They sell favours and engage in open croneyism. Some accept bribes. Some sniff chairs that women have sat on, others are inherently dishonest. Invariably our system of control relies, and maintenance of office, relies on the ignorance, stupidity, lack of education, low cognitive reasoning skills, a person's inability to distill complex issues and ultimately the disinterest of Australians as to the quality of their governments. (Kevin R Beck, November 2009) |
" Freedom going once, going twice, gone in a trice" Peter van Onselen, Contributing editor From: The Australian November 21, 2009, 12:00AM THE law and order auction that is going on across the country is getting out of hand. Everyone wants to be able to walk the streets safely: that goes almost without saying. But how far can societies reach for this goal before the laws designed to curtail anti-social activities start to impinge on the rights of free citizens who have done nothing wrong? The most startling example of a piece of legislation that impinges on the rights of free citizens was passed by the West Australian Legislative Assembly this week. Next Tuesday, debate starts in the government-controlled Legislative Council. If the bill is passed into law, as is expected, police will have the powers to stop and search citizens at will, with no requirement of "reasonable suspicion" of wrongdoing. Civil libertarians have described it as the stuff of a police state, and they are not far wrong. Needing reasonable suspicion before frisking someone has been a bedrock of policing for centuries. WA Police Minister Rob Johnson doesn't seem to understand the significance of removing this provision. It is what stands between law enforcement officers serving the public and arbitrary policing. The new WA legislation -- the Criminal Investigation Amendment Bill 2009 -- is poorly drafted and doesn't contain protections of citizens' rights under the law that have become a bedrock of modern Western liberal democracies. Even the most basic understanding of political philosophy teaches the importance of the preservation of liberty. Liberals in particular are supposed to jealously guard against the dangers of an encroaching state. Johnson, the architect of these draconian laws, should go back and read 18th and 19th-century philosophers Thomas Paine and John Stuart Mill." (Source of extract: The Australian Newspaper, 21st - 22nd November, 2009: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/freedom-going-once-going-twice-gone-in-a-trice/story-e6frg6zo-1225800617230) |
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The electorate lacks the education, awareness and the cognitive skills to understand, distill complex matters and arguments, They have no interest in demanding, or particpating and interacting, to ensure, quality government, ethical practice and performance from their elected officials at local, state, territory or federal government levels. Sadly the politicians in power, in Australia, in this modern age (2009)are not likely to alter the status quo that delivers, and maintains, the power of public office. The electorate is powerless to deal with underperfrming public services. Queensland presents a constant model of decay in public office emulated by other states, and territories, within Australia. (Kevin R Beck) |
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Declining Ethics
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New South Wales Government |
Victoria Government |
Queensland Government |
| Western Australia | Northern Territory | Tasmania |
Australian Capital Territory Australian references |
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There will be no carbon tax 
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Australia's Emmission Trading Scheme, Going. Going. Gone, beneath the lies, spin and misrepresentation 
Activism and Game Strategy |
Oh Minister It's Not True |
Governments have lost respect and legitimacy Can Senator Faulkner restore federal government credibility? |
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November 2009: Failed States and Territories
The Northern Territoyr has given up any pretence that its elected parliament acts in anyone's interest other than their own and the power collective. Blatant stealing of federal allocated funds for purposes other than they are granted is endemic. These monies are used to feather the nests of a cotoerie that acts against democracy corrupting the process and operation. The parliament is a rabble of self interest and the public service is sycophant to the whims of the political and business class. The Australian government tolerates this indiacting that the current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is both hypocritical and morally questionable. "Nicolas Rothwell | October 24, 2009, Article from: The Australian The Northern Territory is a lost cause. We've had three decades to get it functioning, and now it's time to admit the system doesn't work and needs to be replaced IN Australia we are used to seeing progress in governance, not failure. We expect governments in our jurisdictions that function well, provide efficient services, and maintain a fair match between the rhetoric of politics and the facts on the ground. There is, though, a failed state in our midst. That state is not Aboriginal north Australia, where the social fabric is in shreds and tatters. No: it is the jurisdiction largely responsible for entrenching this degree of indigenous disadvantage: the modern-seeming, self-governing Northern Territory. On the face of things, all the standard attributes of a democratic society are present here in Darwin: a parliament, political parties, government departments, a range of key social institutions that look much like their southern equivalents. But in fact the Territory is best understood as an interlocking set of interest groups. It is heavily dependent on outside funding, the bureaucracy is shot through with politics, almost all medium-sized business relies on public sector contracts and the entire system is founded on the administration of an Aboriginal underclass." ,,,, "The unicameral parliament, housed in a large wedding cake structure, is the most visible of the Territory's failed institutions. On the 33 days a year that it sits, it is a place of confrontation, not a chamber for debate between its 25 members. "With the state sector so all-dominating, and its patronage so rich, political affiliation matters. Why support an opposition party when you will be excluded from the circle of favour that expresses itself in consultancies, contracts and development opportunities? In this environment, a party-state comes into being, and both sides in politics have developed such a regime during their years in power. Bureaucrats carrying out party dictates, politicised appointments to key posts, a climate of obedience, a culture of prudent silence: these are features of the Territory's map. It is easy to blame the present regime for some of the system's more peculiar traits: the creation, for instance, of parallel constituency "offices of the chief minister" in regional centres, staffed by failed parliamentary candidates. But in their quarter-century in power, the conservatives presided over a similarly bizarre "total state", with implicit codes of loyalty and allegiance lying at its heart. Buttressing this inner cement of unspoken ties is a culture of vociferous announcement. At the core of the Territory system is a mind-set reminiscent of Pacific Island cargo-cults. An institution is named, set up, housed and lightly staffed: problem solved. Thus Darwin is full of facades rather than real structures: an Environmental Protection Authority without powers, an indigenous advisory panel without input, a climate change portfolio without policies, a museum with insufficient funds. Such facade institutions, and the philosophy behind them, infect the air. they create a fantasy approach to administration, where Canberra always lurks, saviour-like, in the wings, and the declaration of a policy is sufficient to change the world."(source of extract as cited at opening) In South Australia the speaker screamed "shut up" to the members of parliament who have allowed the house to deteriorate into a rabble of make testosterone driven hubris. The Premier, Mike Rann, leads people who are thugs in suits. As in the Northern Territory politics attracts some of the lowest moral characters and the ethically challenged on the ladder of society. These precious, shallow, politicians are cioncerned with ego and their own beleived prestidge. THE Speaker of the South Australian parliament has threatened to resign after a second day of uproar over opposition probing of Premier Mike Rann's relationship with a former parliamentary barmaid. "The Speaker, Jack Snelling, stunned MPs, including a visibly shocked Mr Rann, by screaming at opposition whip Ivan Venning to "sit down" after he had complained of a threat made across the chamber by Treasurer Kevin Foley. Regaining his composure, Mr Snelling, a father of five and former union organiser, said: "If I don't feel that I am able to control this chamber, if members continue to ignore my calls of order, I will resign -- I will go over to Government House and hand in my commission. "The behaviour today has been nothing short of disgraceful. It makes me ashamed to be a member of this place." The extraordinary scenes came at the end of a tense question time during which Mr Rann was asked about the payment of legal bills associated with an incident at a Labor fundraiser on October 1. Adelaide businessman Richard Phillips, whose estranged wife Michelle Chantelois was previously friendly with Mr Rann, has been charged with aggravated assault against the Premier. The hostility between the two major parties was palpable as parliament resumed yesterday and the level of anger among MPs rose quickly."(Source: Extract Michael Owen, SA political reporter | October 30, 2009, Article from: The Australian) In New South Wales the media reports that the Premier nathan Rees has resorted to spying on his colleagues. "NSW Premier Nathan Rees has ordered a spying crackdown on his ministers, with special phone-tracking equipment to be installed in their offices. Staff from the Premier's Department have met at least one company to discuss close monitoring of ministerial phones, with a plan to put sophisticated technology into Governor Macquarie Tower, where Mr Rees and his ministers are based. The move has outraged his colleagues, who accuse him of unprecedented interference and rampant paranoia. ''It took [former US president] Richard Nixon 30 years to get this paranoid - Rees has got there in 12 months,'' one said. At the same time, tensions are reigniting between former health minister John Della Bosca and the Premier over Mr Della Bosca's attempts to retrieve private information from his confiscated computer hard drive." (Source of extract: Rees spies on ministersLISA CARTY November 1, 2009, Brisbane Times) One might well query the moral and ethical capacity of senior bureaucrats who would participate in this degradation of the people's democracy. But this is not surprising examing the calibre and operation of the NSW public service where appointment is clearly reminiscent of a by gone "royal court". So as the foundations, and integrity, of our democracies, and parliaments, crumble away in the hands of corrupt and self absorbed egos and interests, the Australian people, and media, are consumed with 78 Sri Lankans on a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Kevin Rudd has mcuh more to deal with than a boat if he is to achieve anything worthwhile in his time as Prime Minister. But does he know what is important? |
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August 2009: Northern Territory, labor government fails to deliver to aboriginal people,
wastes, and steals, federal funds for use in other government activity,
spends millions of the $A675,000,000 federal grant paying
consultants, trainers and others, before one house is built.
Paul Henderson, Chief Minister,
a labor public failure, in government, in Australia.
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