Australian Political TURMOIL (Another Prime Minister!)
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 2018-08-25

Young Australians would be forgiven in thinking that Australian Prime Ministers never last a full term. For the last eleven years, not one Prime Minister has served out an entire term. Not one.

Just two days ago, on 24 August 2018, another spill was called and Scott Morrison was elected leader beating Dutton, 45 votes to 40.

So now we have another PM! What a country we live in, hey? The Prime Ministership has become a revolving door. The Chinese Communists must be having a great laugh. They love to see democracy in turmoil. With all its flaws, the Chinese Communist Party can be assured of one thing – its stability. A stable government is a good government in that a stable government can get things done.

In Australia, the fact that the office of the Prime Minister has become a revolving door means that the government can rarely focus on good policy implementation. Instead, due to the influences of social media and the like, the government focuses more on popularity and how to win the next election. It’s a complete farce.

With an unstable government comes an unstable economy. Investors become uncertain of future policy and therefore choose to invest elsewhere. Political apathy grows as the people who were voted in are quickly voted out by factions in their own party. The population start to lose faith in the government.

Policies that were promised at election time simply cannot be implemented due to political instability. It’s harder to pass legislation as leaders are too busy maintaining their own job and fragile party room coalitions than coming up with good policy. Instability equals stagnation. 

The BBC has called Australia the “coup capital of the democratic world”.

We have become a world fixated on social media. Just as online video creators are chasing the most “likes” and “number of views”, so too are politicians. It has become the driving force of the modern Australian politician. Populist politics has taken hold.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Australia is added to a Chinese political textbook as an example of why democracy does not work. Political instability; constantly changing leaders; inability of the government to bring about any significant change. Is this democracy? Or are we living in something simply called democracy?

Governments of the last decade have frequently put their own political gain ahead of the national good. Short-term policy stances are the norm. Many politicians seem to be unaware of the concerns of the common man. Politics is seemingly ruled by those who can offer the biggest political donation such as big business and mining magnates. Do the politicians actually care about the average Australian anymore? Are we a democracy, or some kind of monetocracy?

Although voting in Australia is compulsory, I have no interest in voting anymore. It doesn’t achieve anything. We’ve set up a system where it doesn’t matter who we vote for. Ultimately, the parties choose their own leaders mid-term without considering the will of the Australian public.

Australian politics is clearly broken. We pay these people a lot of money to govern the country, but instead we get a group of spoiled school children fighting in the schoolyard. The system will continue to deteriorate unless some radical changes take place. However, the elected elite don’t want the system to change, so any real change will be hard to bring about.

The biggest problem stems from the fact that the ultimate goal of our career politicians is to win. That is, they want to be elected and to control the parliament. Their goal is not to “serve the people”, but to win elections.

What do I think will happen in the future with regard to Australian democracy? I don’t know. But I presume technology will ultimately serve a role. People can’t be trusted to rule. They serve their own self-interests. They are greedy and even despotic at times. I think we will continue to see our system deteriorate until one day, the people will have had enough.

Scott Morrison may have achieved his greatest dream, but he certainly has a big mess to clean up. I hope we don’t head down the same road as countries such as China and Russia where their governments are well on their way to becoming full-blown authoritarian regimes. This seems to be a growing trend around the world at the moment. 

Anyway, I wish Australia the best of luck and hopefully we can fix this broken system and fix our so called democracy.

RELATED LINKS
Australia: Coup capital of the democratic world
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34249214
Geopolitical Trend: Authoritarianism Spreads Around the Globe
https://globalsecurityreview.com/geopolitical-trends-authoritarianism/
Malcolm Turnbull: The 'refreshing' PM felled by revolts and revenge
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45292458

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