Going to a party - A Political Party #auspol

You only need 500 verifiable members to form a political party. Anyone can create one.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission:

All federally registered political parties must meet the eligibility requirements for political party registration on an ongoing basis. These include:

* Being an organisation (constitution, structure and membership) with an aim of endorsing candidates for election to the House of Representatives and/or Senate; and

* Having:

– at least one Commonwealth Parliamentarian who is a member of the party but not a member of another party; or

– at least 500 members who are eligible to enrol on the Commonwealth electoral roll and who are not also relied upon by another party for registration purposes.

Plainly these requirements have been orchestrated by and for the political parties that have gained control of our parliament.

And our actual members of parliament seem to have gone right along with it.

Was there a fight before they handed over control or was it done in the usual way - bribery and corruption - charm and suasion?

Having a political party as the interface to our politics is like having a corporation as the interface to our wallets - without the protection of the ACCC.

I am curious to know how and why it is "a good thing" for the people of the nation to have a political party determining policy for them and for their hand picked representatives in the parliament?

Have we inadvertently outsourced our representation?

And if political parties are such a good idea then why is the Australian Constitution silent about them?

OK I do understand that the duds in the parliament do benefit - because they don't have to do much thinking or say very much as they follow the leader - but how is that of benefit to the dud's constituents?

It seems to me that political parties mainly provide a thick layer of insulation between the people and their parliamentary members - and I would argue that is not a good thing because it tends to muffle both the actions of the member and the voices of the people.

Australia and Asia #auspol

Alison Broinowski has a brilliant article about Australia's engagement with Asia or rather lack of it - over at "The Conversation".

For me at least our ham fisted approach to engagement with Asia and our genuflection to the United States is what has helped "distort" our domestic politics. Apparently Mark Arbib spends his days leaking our secrets to the US embassy - when he should be on his bike across Asia.

Why is it that neither our Prime Minister nor Opposition Leader has a history of engagement with Asia? How does either of them expect to be an effective leader of a nation whose future is so intertwined with the region - when neither of them can be bothered to engage with it?

Their only serious regional engagement is by cheering on the decade old war in Afghanistan - where the US is spending $10 billion per month invading a country with a total annual GDP approaching 4/5ths of 5/8ths of SFA. I don't get it.

Our domestic politics are so badly broken because our current political leaders and their parties have no frame of reference across our region. They take their cues from a sick and broken US ideology. But as Andrew Bacevic has pointed out :

employing ideology as the basis for policy is a recipe for disaster.

They actually don't know how poorly we are viewed across Asia because they don't have any long term experience or relationships with the people who live there. They view it as a place to stop over and do some shopping on their way to somewhere else.

Or they view it as a never ending source of fodder for our imaginary "world class" universities where we spend years training Asian students - so they can end up driving our cabs and serving in our convenience stores.

And anyway how is it that insular and opportunistic local politicians can actually get to be Australian political leaders when they have so little international experience?

Beats me too. But it doesn't seem to bother anyone else.

Perhaps that is why Lee Kuan Yew so famously called us "The poor white trash of Asia".

One Brave Politician #auspol

All it would take is one brave politician to show how it is done.

I was reminded of this again the other day when I was reading Crikey about how Alan Jones is *so influential* in Sydney.

Apparently despite The Parrot's weekly audience of nearly half-a-million listeners, five out of six people in Sydney never listen to him. I am sometimes in an office with five other people - and often wonder who the odd person out is ;-)

And former NSW premier Kristina Keneally said :

There's not a politician in Australia who wouldn't take his call.

Really. Don't her comments just show what Australian politicians are made of?

Everyone knows that Alan Jones is a right wing blatherer and a bully and a bore. Some also think he is a shrill little shill.

All it would take is for one principled politician to stand up for themselves and their constituents and to refuse to be drawn into his orbit - for his power to start to evaporate.

Does such a person exist amongst our political class?

And if one of them had the guts to do that with Alan Jones then others might find some courage in response to the other radio shock jocks and the television make-believe merchants and the Murdoch infestation that has taken over our media.

And then we could start to develop a modern political movement that actually serves the place. One where we could respect our politicians and celebrate those amongst them who would take a stand for the people and for the nation - instead of for the vested interests.

Could it ever happen - or am I just day dreaming again?

Trade Me #NZ

One of the great technology and business successes in our region is "across the ditch" in New Zealand. It's called Trade Me.

This place really knows how to *do* a modern technology based enterprise. It has been hugely successful in New Zealand and I am forever amazed that they haven't migrated their business and technology model to Australia.

Because we need it here. The local players are all very weak and even the industry giant could learn a lot from our NZ cousins. Plus a little bit of competition from someone who knows what they are doing would smarten the locals up a lot.

But since 2006 it's been owned by Fairfax - which probably explains why it isn't represented on this side of the Tasman ;-)

Five things that make Trade Me so successful are;

* It's simple and clean User Interface and category Navigation.

* Huge User base - approaching 2/3rds of the NZ population.

* An enormous Category List with lots of Products.

* The Buying and Selling processes are much easier than elsewhere.

* NZ bricks and mortar businesses use it extensively - because it adds value.

Some amazing stats here. Nearly 700k people visit each day and there are more than 2.8 million members. All in a country that has a population of about 4.4 million.

New Zealand does many things better than we do - but the performance of Trade Me is just outstanding. We all should be agitating for the Fairfax board to open their eyes and ears and bring it here. Or sell it to someone who will.

#NewsCorp Makes List of 10 Riskiest Companies for Investors

GMI identified a "Risk List" of 10 companies whose weak governance, poor environmental or social records or misaligned compensation structures present hazards to investors that aren’t adequately reflected in their current valuations.

Here's what they had to say about News Corp:

Although there have been some high-profile management resignations and a few name changes at the board level since the recent scandal, there is little indication that the quality of the company’s governance is improving — particularly in the crucial area of the relationship between the board and Murdoch. As an example, the company’s investigation into the phone-hacking scandal is being led by directors with strong ties to the company and the Murdoch family.

Plus the guardian reported this and Paul Krugman has added this.

Is anyone else paying attention to what these guys are up to?

Thinking @adelaidethinker

I am a bit of a fan of the "Thinker in Residence" programme that is run by the South Australian Government. Well I am when it exposes the state bureaucrats and politicians to some world class "thinking" - as it sometimes does.

And that is what has happened after someone in power finally agreed to invite a road safety expert into the "thinker" programme.

Professor Fred Wegman has investigated the issues and done the homework and has published his interim report here.

And it is good. Well worth a read and with any luck it will set the scene for a much more sophisticated approach to road safety in South Australia. Time will tell if professor Wegman's effort has been worthwhile.

One amusing element of his report is the following paragraph on page 3:

Professor Wegman notes that many South Australians believe that the road safety problem is related to extreme behaviours — high levels of speeding or drink driving. While he acknowledges that such behaviours are a problem requiring continued action, he says in fact, the majority of crashes occur to ordinary people making ordinary mistakes on the road network.

Amusing because the reason that South Australian's believe this is because the main characteristics of the state's approach to road safety has been a "fear and penalty" programme that targets those twin evils - "speeding" and "drink driving".

The propaganda seems to work quite well but the impact on road safety is probably marginal. It's taken about 40 years for this particular myth to be busted.

It will be interesting to see how and if the bureaucrats and police change tack to a more subtle and sophisticated approach and how many of them get shuffled off into retirement during the process.

#OccupyWallStreet

If you spend 10 or so minutes going through this slide pack (it's 41 images) then you will be much better informed about what the #OccupyWallStreet protest is all about.

Here is a summary:

* Unemployment - The unemployment rate is at the highest level since the Great Depression.

* Jobs - This is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s.

* Corporations - Profits just hit another all-time high.

* Bosses - CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker's.

* Workers - After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.

* Wage Share - Wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.

* Wealth - The top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth. The top 5% own nearly 70%.

* Taxes - Taxes on the nation's highest-earners are close to the lowest they've ever been.

* Bank Margins - The "net interest margin" made by US banks in the first six months of this year was $211 Billion.

* Bank Profits - And that has helped produce $58 billion of profit in the first six months of the year.

* Bank Salaries - The average banker in New York City made $361,330 in 2010.

And who wouldn't be protesting about all that?