Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKimm might have a point.
Essentially, at each election, our governments pendulate between Labor union bullies and Coalition big business apologists, with cross bench seat warmers fighting for relevance.
We are fed a media dumb doodle of spin, lies and sensationalism when we need facts.
A week out from a close election, our media was more concerned with Mike Rann’s ex fuckee than his record as State Premier! Much more entertaining than dry issues like Murray-Darling water management.
Last week McKimm drew our attention to the Swiss Parliamentary system, where all parties share government and Cabinet posts are divided up in proportion to the number of seats won. Reportedly, that delivers a high level of understanding of the issues and absence of misleading invective.
Adversarial political debate, what we hear from Canberra, is a mixture of ignorance, ego, disinformation and lies that keep the waters muddied and the punters confused. With truth difficult to find, no party feels secure enough to confront really difficult issues like people smuggling and climate change. Wriggle room has gone. We need truth and decisive action, so what to do?
In Tasmania, seats are split between Libs 10, Lab 10 and Greens 5. No party has enough people to fill all cabinet posts, so with the Governor telling Bartlett to grow up and work with the Greens, even ex-premier Paul Lennon suggested the Greens should get a cabinet post. As I write, ABC news announced the Greens may be offered two ministries. An experiment worth watching, maybe with wider implications.
More here: http://tasmaniantimes.com/
P.S. Seems Lennon has forgotten the Greens want a corruption inquiry into his alleged improper relationship with Gunns! Then again, he probably feels safe with both Lib and Lab luminaries on the Gunns board! Bumper sticker seen in Hobart: ‘Tasmania, the State of Corruption’. Ouch!
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Very perceptive (as usual). We lived in Tassie for many years and I've often been fascinated by the political (and other) goings-on there.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the relatively small size of the place makes it unique in many ways. I worked in the Ed Dept's central office, for example, and several times a year I could easily swing around to visit all regions within a very few days, and it was never difficult to find out what was really going on in different schools.
Similarly, relations between party members of all persuasions are probably often closer than in other places. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, I imagine. (Who's slept with whose spouse often figured in quite a few exchanges that elsewhere might never get down to that personal level!)
And I never quite fathomed the intricacies of the Hare-Clark system for distribution of preferential votes, but was always assured this gave a fairer result in elections - and enabled the Greens to do better in that State than elsewhere. Still, they're a long way from the Swiss model you refer to.
Too bad we can't identify what it is that has produced aberrations such as the Swiss and Scandinavian models of government and social systems. Could it be the milk of contented cows?
Definitely worth keeping a watch on. Another great title - 'dumb down doodles' - ha!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I may know nothing of doodles, other than this is what some drawings become -- and it rhythms with noodles. But in good dumb down fashion, let me proceed anyway.
ReplyDeleteFormerly in ‘Arson About’ you mention: “Young people, I hesitate to call them Hippies, moved out of the city in an attempt to create a life for themselves [in the bush] ... small enough to feel manageable.” Next post, ‘Dumb Down …”, you mention the media’s lack of enthusiasm for investigating and reporting completely on some issues.
Does overlapping your two recent posts reveal a truth about the media and their customers? Do many people seek a small manageable life and therefore demand that the media supply them only the information that they want to have in their life’s scope?
It is great to have your blog and stories to drop in on for all the value your writing provides. Reaching back again here to your previous post: Another ‘Fire Captain’ of a similar type protecting public lives and property is Smokey the Bear. He says, “Only you can prevent forest fires” while probably never even meeting Jimmy Roberts -- and sir, he has become recognized as an American icon. Doesn't seem equitable
!!
Yes, I've worked in television enough to know that even news items are chosen for entertainment over erudition! One standout exception is our government funded ABC, advertisement free and (we trust) unbiased.
ReplyDeleteBut it has relatively low ratings. Most media goes for the mass market, so we have a huge percentage of people who are never exposed to the issues and think, with some justification, 'if it was all that important, we would be told!' Of course, media is a business first and educator rarely. They know dumb and dumber escapism it where the money is. Understandable but tragic.
"Humanity is the first species ever, with the ability to predict its own extinction, has the technology to prevent it, but lacks the wisdom to do so."
Recognise the quote?
The way things seem to be going, it won't be long before most State level governance is forcibly outsourced ("annexed" is such an ugly, emotive word) to the Feds.
ReplyDeleteThere won't be as much competition, then.
With apologies to Howard supporters (I supported 'Honest John' first first time around, until he withdrew funding for renewable energy research from UNSW), once in power he revealed racist neo facist tendencies and I went off him a bit. But it was gagging of the CSIRO on climate change and the core promise line that lost me completely. Jotted this down at the time.
ReplyDeleteHonest John.
He swore he would keep evil from us
Terrorists, Greenies and bombers.
But then made Australia
The Climate Change failure,
And said, “It was not a core promise!”
Now, Madam, as you point out, (and the notion of no state governments is supported by a sizable chunk), imagine having that whole layer removed and JH given free reign (sic)! George Bush with afterburners!
I have looked into the face of Howard, unfettered and completely ummitigated... and seen Hell.
ReplyDeleteI'm not necessarily a proponent of culling State Government, merely an observer:
The States lumber around like a mob of wooly mammoths, about to go extinct. A lethal combination of their own stupidity and poor judgement (Qld) and corruption (NSW) - to highlight but a few failings - has left them teetering on the edge of the abyss. The Feds, with their developed forebrains and cunning opposable thumbs, are more than happy to push them to their doom.
Madam, I love you whatever your gender! Ha ha!
ReplyDeleteMr Ray! I do declare I'm all woman. But devotion, however equivocal is always acceptable.
ReplyDeleteDUMB DOODLE EH ?..GREAT TITLE STAFFORD
ReplyDeleteDOODLES IS THEIR PROBLEM...ME THINK
GRANNIE ALWAYS SAID , AND I THINK SHE WAS RIGHT.'
OLD FOSSILS WITH TOSSELS
THEY THINK ARE COLOSSAL
OR
DON'T LET YOUR DINGLE
DANGLE IN THE DIRT
KEEP IT IN IT'S POCKET
AND 'WE ' WON'T GET HURT.
AND
REMOVE ALL MIRRORS AND WE MIGHT GET SOMETHING DONE AROUND THE PLACE....