The market is very small and trying to pass off opposition policy as your own is far too difficult. It is far easier to quietly use a position of public trust to further individual financial gain, safe in the knowledge that parliament protects its own. The problem is perpetuated by politicians who cannot string two sentences together saying one thing on talkback radio, then embarrassed by the public outcry issue further statements that set out to clarify the issue by clouding the waters. Serious discussion is put on the back-burner so as not to alarm the electorate which gets a dose of political journalism that leaves even the most cynical observer with the impression that no one knows what is going on. This political fraud is more obvious at election time when politicians of all persuasion try to sell the electorate a bunch of policies in an attempt to claim a mandate to do something completely different.
Most people only realise the have been hoodwinked once a government has been elected.
Unfortunately, this fraud extends way beyond the political arena. Politicians leave politics and enter the private sector where they use their political connections to ensure they maintain an effective degree of influence. The true colours of any politician are only revealed when they leave the political arena and are forced to spend their retirement flying the standards of their masters, the media barons, as they fan the feudal fires of the media wars Bikie gang members, who have cottoned on to this, are keen to clean up their act and improve their public image. One gang has hired a public relations team and lined up a television deal. The ABC, keen to cash in on the success of South Park and The Simpsons , is filming a new children's series.