Galah in the pet shop

I laugh a little when some top notch journalist PR staffer tells us that "all politicians lie" and that we voters know that and we don't even mind so much.

Hilarious.  Or it would be if it were true.  The truth is that we *despise* politicians who lie.  And we also seriously dislike their spin and associated stunts that are designed to get us to pay attention to them.  If you don't believe me then #asktony.

But in the "old days" the lies and the spin didn't last very long - they were perishable thoughts ;-)  And the permanent record was difficult to find after the event - and so the politician's outrageous lie tended to be forgotten after a few days.

And while the mainstream media still control that record - and don't resurrect it very often - there is a new kid on the block.

Bob Carr calls it the "Galah in the pet shop".

There are a few citizen bloggers who take the time to record the misdeeds and the BS of our politicians and their cheerios in the media - and to make comment about it from time to time.  And we sometimes manage to re-play those misdeeds long after said politician hoped they had been forgotten.

For example - I am sure that "big Joe" thought that this little lie would have disappeared off the radar by now.   I am pretty sure that the voters of North Sydney will be interested enough to see if he does it again next time.

And if he does then I am willing to bet that the outcome will be a lot different.

Yeah - in my dreams

One of the main reasons that our politicians don't do enough to bulletproof our economy - is because they don't know what to do - take you for granted.

Because they are consumed with staying in office.  The primary focus of politicians is to win elections and to keep on winning them.  All so they can keep their snouts firmly embedded in the trough.  And when they have finished with that then they get shuffled off to a diplomatic post somewhere where they can swan about and spend your money without having to be accountable to you.

Their KPI's are built around electoral success - which is mainly about beating the opposition every three or four years - instead of developing and enhancing their communities and providing opportunity and security for their constituents.

And unfortunately many voters have unwittingly bought into this same shitty deal.  Large numbers of voters are "rusted on" to a particular political party and its ideology.  Or at least some imaginary marketing enhanced interpretation of its ideology.

It's as though these "rusted ons" have lost the ability to "understand" and "think" about alternatives.  They vote in a particular way - always have done - and always will do.  It's how the political parties have designed and built and operate our polity Virginia.

The "rusted on" attitude is exploited by politicians - who do crazy stuff in an attempt to capture the undecided vote.

The best example of this that I can think of is the Liberal's "climate change denial" policy.  Complete BS gets promoted because Mr Abbott knows that rusted on Liberals won't defect - and he might have a chance to add a few more "crazies" to his collection of "rusted ons" by announcing that climate change is "crap".

Does it work?  I don't know - but he thinks it does ;-)  Too bad about the planet.

The best way to get politicians to start talking and acting sensibly will be to stop being "rusted on".  Take some time to listen to and understand your local candidates and their political parties - and then vote accordingly.

Put the wind up them and make them develop and offer up policies that are in the interests of the nation and the people.  Introduce some reverse fear into the election process - where the politicians are fearful that the voters won't elect them until they start to behave.

Yeah - in my dreams.

PS: Matt Taibbi has a much better political story - here.

Dimwits in charge

Today Standard & Poor’s downgraded South Australia's credit rating to "AA" from "AA+" - whatever that means.  But I suspect that little game ain't over yet Virginia.

That particular state has been in terminal decline for decades - the local polity is so broken that there is just no possibility that a "white knight" will turn up to rescue the place anytime soon.

As in most Australian states the type of person who is attracted to state politics - is not the type of person who is needed to get the place working again.

What’s needed is a vision and a collection of ideas and some comprehensive understanding of how to execute them.  I will return to that in another post.  In the meantime you might like to type the word "innovation" into the search box on my blog and hit Enter - or even read this.

Instead what we have is a political class and a bureaucracy in terminal decline - who's only purpose, has become to chase revenue, obfuscate and annoy hapless citizens.

Here is a small example.  Recently I was cruising along in my classic Citroen on one of the least congested and most remote highways in the state - when a police cruiser clocked me for being over the 110 km/h speed limit.  Fair enough I was doing 124 km/h.  The situation was safe and neither I nor anyone else was in danger - and the fine was $320.00.

In my opinion - the penalty is way out of proportion to the crime.  The thing that gets in my craw are the arbitrary numbers that are involved.  So why isn't the speed limit 112.345 km/h - for example.  And "who" is to say what is safe - and what isn't.  Not the highway patrolman - whose *only* interest was filling out the revenue form and checking paperwork.

It is sickening to realise that we citizens are being screwed silly - all to feed the dumb-arsed political machine.

But my complaint will make no difference - because in a couple of years the incumbents will get turfed out and another set of dimwits will be in charge and there won't be any corporate memory to guide them either.

The only question is "Why do we tolerate it"?

Cranks and Crazies

An issue that we will need to deal with soon is the fact that our political parties have inserted themselves between the people and the parliament.

These days it's the political parties that *control* our polity.  They decide who gets to sit in the parliament, who gets to call themselves "dear leader" and which policies are offered up to the people at election time.

And because "not paying attention to politics" is baked into our culture - we voters haven't even noticed that anything is amiss.

But even with all that Mr Abbott finds himself between a rock and a hard place because his state Liberal colleagues have selected, endorsed and even managed to get quite a few *cranks and crazies* elected.

They usually populate the Senate - because Australians are apparently less interested in who gets to occupy those seats.  I would love to see a real analysis of Australian voters' knowledge of the Senate - it would probably blow your mind Virginia.

Recently we saw a South Australian Senator implode and there are a few others  scattered across the political landscape waiting for the right moment to claim their 15 minutes of fame.  I am personally wanting to hear the Lib Senate leader from Tasmania tell us his version of the *facts of life* ;-)

We already know that many Australian's will vote against their own personal interest - when confronted with glitter and shiny stuff and Lib BS.  The problem for the Libs is that they thought they owned the crazies - and could control them.  But it appears they were mistaken.

The crazies are just using the Libs to climb the ladder of opportunity - it's going to burn them and the voters who aren't paying attention - but it's hilarious to watch.

F*ck You Australia

When Mr Abbott tells Coalition Members of our Parliament in both the House of Reps and the Senate - that he won't tolerate them *freelancing* - what he is really saying is "F*ck You Australia".

He thinks that as so-called Leader of the Liberal Party that he is entitled to tell your elected members what to do, how to think and what to say.

And most of your Liberal and National MP's apparently agree - because they tug their forelock and say yes sir - no worries sir - as long as you get us back into government sir - so we can get our snouts back into the public trough sir.

When the Australian Federation was created there was no thought for "political parties" or even for "political party leaders".  The intent of the founding fathers was to create a House of Representatives and a Senate - comprised of individual members who were elected by your vote - and who were accountable only to you and the other voters in their electorate.

The idea was that these House and Senate MP's would offer up to you and the other voters a compelling value proposition that would cause you and the majority of the rest of the voters to prefer them over the competing candidates - at election time.

Our founders designed a parliament where local competition was expected to result in a diverse and high quality selection of candidates being elected and sent to Canberra - to make important decisions for and on behalf of the nation and it's people.

And there was no concept of your elected Member being part of a "Marketing Franchise" - like McDonalds or KFC or Harvey Norman.

And yet that is how things have turned out.

Our MP's were supposed to think and act and behave in the "National Interest" and what we have discovered this week is that Mr Abbott thinks *he* can tell them what to do.

The "National Interest" seems to have somehow been replaced with "Mr Abbott's interest".

Funny but I can't recall ever being asked to vote for that - what about you?

It's Appalling

I am talking about the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Now I like to think that I am a reasonably astute and technically aware individual - I have been working with information technology for nearly forty years - and I have run a couple of statistical analysis software companies.

But I just can't navigate the ABS website.  It is impossible to find any real data at a state, regional or local level.  It is easily the most inconsistent and overloaded website that I have *ever* experienced.

For goodness sake - whoever is in charge - employ some proper design folks and let them determine the layout of your web pages.  Start again - because most of us have no idea what a Catalogue Number even is.

The ABS people might know something about data and statistics - but they clearly know nothing about data presentation and category navigation - let alone user interfaces.

It's one thing to have a high quality national statistics organisation - but it all counts for nothing if you can't disseminate the information.

Lets get this fixed now - for everyone's sake.

Slow Thinking Conservatives

Some of you will know that I spend a bit of time in South Australia - because I have family there and it's where I do a bit of *boat building*.

Mostly I hang out in a little seaside village that is hidden away from the rest of the world.  And that is just how the locals like it.

The location is great and the weather is mostly good but the place suffers in other ways.

Take politics for example.

The place is seriously conservative - like much of regional Australia.  Both the State ‫and Federal MP's are "right wing" conservative Liberals and it has been that way for ever.  The really scary thing is that many locals don't even know what that descriptor means.  You think I am kidding don't you, Virginia ;-)

The current State MP has the second safest seat in the State parliament - with something like a 26% margin.  He could be a cardboard cutout and the locals would still elect him.  There are a few who think he is.

It reminds me of Michael Moore's attempt to get a Ficus elected to Congress.

Which brings me to my point.  Infrastructure - or rather the lack of it.

Over the past 42 years - the Liberal conservatives have been in charge for 12 years and Labor has run the State for 30 years.  That's 2.5 to 1 in favor of Labor.

Interestingly, those numbers also reflect the infrastructure investment that has been made in this place.  It's been woefully underfunded - particularly the important areas like education and health - don't even think about roads and water supply.

I suppose there will come a time when the locals will realise that they have been short-changed as a result of their political choices.  But I sometimes do wonder if anyone who lives there is actually paying attention?