Leader, regime failure continues. What's new?

Richard Haass has hit the nail on the head, (The Age 28/12).

One leader, one regime replaces another, without real solution of the deeper problems of governance. Parties, leaders, factions all pursue power, not democracy – the rule of the people. It was ever thus, the mediaeval, the Machiavellian way, when power came from the muzzle of a gun. Time after time in history the people have been at the mercy of the whims of the powerful. Why?
The answer lies in the absence of an intelligent system of decision-making enabling a direct involvement of the people. The introduction of the ballot for elections has been partially successful in giving some power to the people, but stopped short at the election of ‘representatives’, whose representation is limited to party objectives making them ‘Busy, Yes. But effective?' as James Panichi explains in ‘Inside Story’, Swinburne, Number 7, 2011.

While prominent in Primary School graduations and the like, they are nevertheless able to stand aloof from the aspirations of an increasingly educated and thinking populace. So we, in our ‘advanced democracy’, are no useful model for the confused rebellions of the Arab Spring or any other. We have frustration with ineffective party governments. They have despair and death.

The power of modern weapons presents us with a crisis of world governance which can never be resolved until we face the challenge of real democracy—with each country having an increasing participation and authority of the people in the decision-making process.

An essential step forward is to determine that every deliberative assembly in each country is governed by the ballot of members — all being independent and holding regular forums for the growth of their constituents in political maturity.

Question Time in the House

Katherine Murphy (the age 25/7/11) compares the recent Question Time in the House of Commons (re Rupert Murdoch) with our usual rowdy effort, and we come off second best. Why? Good question! With 650 members vis-a-vis our 150, it would have to be more disciplined. With 5 year terms to our 3 it is more stable. With an election turnout much lower, as voting is not compulsory, English politics is not so intense perhaps.

Party control of members is far less strict than ours (with 1-3 line whips), and after all the English are rather more civilised perhaps!

Murphy believes Question Time should be retained despite the virtual contempt in which it is held, probably more so because, with being on TV, the party tigers are playing to the gallery. To suggest that parliament can do better is like asking someone to lift off by yanking on their shoe laces! The cause of the problem lies in parliament itself. It needs the secret ballot for the members to take back control, restoring real representation and parliamentary government.

The Mess we are in

As the problems of state and the world multiply, the only means of their solution, the capacity of the public to respond constructively through parliamentary representation has crumbled and declined to a sideshow and a joke—it now being suggested that its stupidity could make entertainment in parody as a reality TV program!

Long recognised as a democratic failure the allegiance to party politics is a triumph of public mental laziness over moral principle and stupidity over intelligence.
Hillaire Belloc and Cecil Chesterton spelled out in 1911 the essentials of genuine representative government:
1. An absolute freedom (of the public) in the selection of representatives;
2. The representatives must be strictly responsible to their constituents and to no one else;
3. The representatives must deliberate in perfect freedom; and
4. Especially must they be absolutely independent of the 'executive'.

In 1911 Belloc and Chesterton made a scathing attack on the party system in England. As they saw it: 'Instead of the executive being controlled by the representative assembly, it (the executive) controls it (the parliament).' This has always been the inescapable result of the formation of political parties—the common experience of all democracies.

Lindsay Tanners’ new book ‘Sideshow – the Dumming down of Democracy’ is a scathing condemnation of the way our democracy has deteriorated. When the best of our politicians depart in frustration, despair and bitterness, we had better brighten up. They retire defeated and their frustration and failure is to our peril. And the tone of Barry Jones’ current Age article ‘Intelligent discussion all but extinct’ merely repeats a recurring news theme.

Includes Extracts from new book:
‘The Battle for Democracy – The Secret Ballot vs the Party System’

Open letter to Pauline Hanson.

Pauline, Many admire your personal leadership strength and very real concern for the prosperity of government, which currently has little relationship with the principles of democracy so ably stated by Abraham Lincoln long ago—as government of the people for the people by the people. Democracy has not fulfilled that dream. But it can and it will, when we wake up and identify the cause of the problem.

Briefly, a different political genre is required that could give intelligent strong leaders, such as yourself, full scope to lead, but without the power and responsibility of domination, which so often proves the undoing of the best. The aphorism: ‘Power corrupts’, is just so familiar, its outworking having been seen with monotonous regularity. Its corollary: ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is just so familiar in many lands.

So, what is the solution, this political genre which might benefit leaders and the people as well? Pauline, the scene in which you could prosper, to your own and everyone else’s benefit, is a scene of parliamentary democracy in which every member is given the freedom, and the responsibility, of a secret vote on every debated issue in the parliament,

Everyone then has the freedom to be a leader when it is ideas and concepts that are the stuff of leadership, and their success is completely in the hands of the whole parliament. In this case there is much room for power, and pride in contribution, but absolutely no room for arrogance, as the ballot exercises a logical restraint.

It is clear that, with the ballot ruling in parliament, all members are very vulnerable to their constituents, opening for them a direct connection of participation, contributory power, and the ongoing ability to introduce alternative candidate. All this will happen in public forums each member will have to institute. Thus the power of the people to originate and influence policy will be continually felt in parliament, all matters being there submitted to the ballot.

Now this is the political genre in which political leadership can flourish without the strain and stress that now distracts and inhibits party leaders from giving of their best. This is the genre for you Pauline, the one in which you will shine and realise your full potential, unmolested.

So, if you want to form a new party, have one policy only – a referendum to establish the (electronic) secret ballot as the permanent norm for voting on all debates in parliament. Go, go go – and good luck.

Sheep hang in flocks, eagles soar alone!

As I was handing out Campaign literature I met a man standing by his Harley Davidson, in all his leathers (!)
Suspecting that he was a member of one of the bikie gangs, I asked him.
His reply was illuminating. He said: 'Sheep hang in flocks, eagles soar alone.'

What a perfect representation of party politics – 'sheep hang in flocks'. No wonder our political system has been corrupted by politics with ineffective government - like a flock of sheep, each looking sideways at each other to see what they can or must do. Political parties, like flocks of sheep, make weak, contestable decisions, being bogged down in conflict, ineffective at getting things done and failing to satisfy our need for effective solutions to the many problems increasingly infecting our horizon – haunting our future with failure after failure.

On the other hand, the vision is of a balloting parliament with its members all independent, each member achieving a close and instructive collaboration with the constituents. As a result they can become strong and effective in parliament, on behalf of their constituents being answerable to noone else. Each member will gather strength following a demonstrated intelligent, closeness with them in the regular public meetings they will convene, so soaring like eagles in parliament in the freedom and power of statesman-like effectiveness.

A great analogy Mick!

United we stand - Divided we fall

The truth of Aesop’s fable of the four oxen and the tiger, with their demise following their failure to use a combined strategy against the tiger, is starkly revealed in the failure of democracy to assist the rebels in the Libyan crisis. The democratic countries’ feeble failure to respond to the cries of the rebels for a no-fly-zone means that one more dictator gets off the hook. Democracy thus proves ridiculously incompetent to provide realistic support for a people in desperate need against a tyrant when the going gets tough. Yes, in the absence of the unity of a real democracy we fall. We fall short, we fall down on the job, we just fall.

Then again, where is the needed democratic structure of the UN which should be able to ensure that timely help can be given when so much needed? The UN is still held captive to the veto power of the permanent members (at Soviet insistence), being those which participated in the allied victory of WWII. Each member with the power of veto renders the UN practically useless for the most needed function of a world democratic government—putting right the many anti-democratic anomalies in the world today. What then is the remedy? Well, real democracy in the nations claiming that title would be a start.

The myth of the need for strong leaders to make the ‘tough’ decisions must be laid to rest. It is not strong leaders we need. In Australia today, there are four (maybe five) leaders touted by various groups as the answer to the nation’s problems. So party power interminably delays and distorts national decisions. The ‘too-hard’ basket overflows, to the discouragement and demoralisation of the nation.

We need parliamentary government based on the ballot - real democracy.

Australia could have been a world leader in a success story of efficient, progressive democratic government, making good progress in all areas, instead of the uselessness of the leadership squabbles which so preoccupy parliament, the media and popular attention. What a mess, compared with the world leader Australia could be.

We, who are each entrusted with a secret vote, are afraid to release our members to the same freedom in parliament, apparently being too thick to realise that as soon as they are made free in parliament they become the virtual property of their constituents - accountable to us. We are then in a position to ensure that that occurs.

In 1856, in Victoria, the diehard conservatives feared that the free vote would create chaos. It didn’t. It led to an era of prosperous democratic government. The chaos arrived later, with federation and the advent of party politics.

The fact is that we, politically, are just too mentally and spiritually lazy to embrace the advantages of a real, working democracy. The issue is whether we will face up to the responsibility of personal involvement, in holding our representatives to account — possibly once a month in public meeting! It is just a question of faith in ourselves and our ‘fellow Australians’ - perhaps really in God - thinking about the issues — as seriously as we think about sport! Or home and garden!

Unrest in the Arab World

The Arab world has been set alight by long suffering people held captive in dictator regimes by the ‘peaceful protest’ writings of the elderly American layman, Gene Sharp. Following, in effect, the teaching of Mahatma Ghandi, whose leadership ejected the British from India by peaceful protest following World War II, his suggestions have struck a chord of possible action, which has been spectacularly successful in Tunisia, then Egypt, and have now caused turmoil in Libya.

Unfortunately, it can be that courageous and successful protest movements eventually fall victim to the need for a constructive answer to the question of ‘what now’. No-one wants to see a rerun of the French Revolution or anything like it. The American revolution, with far different motivation (the British parliament was the villain, more than the Monarchy), was able to learn lessons from the French experience, in forming a republic, but still struggled to find a satisfactory answer to the same inescapable question. Unlike France they had the separate state legislatures to unite in a federal system, from which we subsequently, and substantially, derived our own federal system.

What about Egypt? They need an answer in the form of a new constitution and government suited to their country’s need. What sort of democracy will result?
Would American or Australian democracy be good enough as a model? Hardly! Who would want to see the confusion and ineffectual conflict of Western democracies resulting in Egypt or any other of the disturbed Arab states? They need better. The world too, has a stake in their success in devising governments OF the people. FOR the people and BY the people!

Democracy and Moral Influence - Of Ants and Men

Ants do not know of danger, or fear. We humans are blessed (or is it cursed?) with knowledge beyond limit that ants do not have. But knowledge creates responsibility, accenting our duty to others, while failure opens the door to guilt and the fear which raises barriers, leading to dislike, to hatred, to cruelty.

We are far from emulating the ants in any of our human, fear-traumatised environments. How then can we hope for successful global government and harmony in the world?

There’s no doubt that fear destroys empathy, resulting in various arrangements for self defence – politically, socially, from family to friends to factions to parties to nations, to empires – and personally, in diverse religions.
Yet it is true that in all of these defensive arrangements, relationships fall over, basically through selfishness. The laws and rules of dogmatic religion, designed to keep selfishness in order all tend to failure, as avoidance of conflict becomes a selfish end in itself.
Now faith, whatever its basis, is the opposite, and is a hopeful product of experiences created by received love (whatever its origin), giving empathy and inspiration. (By far the greatest inspiration of all is the cross of Jesus which calls us to a faith in the love of God and to a death of self).
Love begets love, breaking down barriers with positive thinking and solutions to problems. Individually, the reach of love varies enormously, according to individual inspiration and faith. For most it is the family. For a few, with a deep faith, it is the world, with many in between. We can each be part of the problem or part of the solution, as we are inspired, or not.
Politically, all democracies are bedevilled by the structures of political power which defeat democracy’s moral influence, killing its empathetic equality of power and political opportunity for all citizens. Power structures create fears of disadvantage and loss in an adversarial system which, instead of empathy, creates hostility.
A healthy start was made with elections by the secret ballot, in 1856, which has enabled the appointment of governments with greater fairness and much reduced violence, but selfishness and fear still stand in the way of honest, popular government, with the unethical influences or factions, parties and other powerful minorities.
Only the extension of the controlling influence of the ballot into all government decision-making can ease the fears that divide and antagonise. If we can win the democratic battle at the state and national levels there can be hope for the world. The question is: Can we, will we?

Reading their minds

Our fearless leaders have come in for intense analysis. In the pursuit of power there is the suspicion that what they say and aim to do may spring rather from ‘whatever it takes’ than sincere personal conviction.

Much is made of a previous statement of opinion or intent, with the idea that trust demands continual adherence to opinions once stated. But this does not leave much room for mature thought and changed circumstances..

Kevin Rudd is much maligned for his ‘desertion’ of his claim that climate change is ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’. He probably still thinks that. Then why did he change? In the face of very considerable public and politician reluctance I guess he was not determined or strong enough to press on with it. Bad choice! His subsequent unceremonious dumping, though spectacular, is not abnormal, given our political system and climate.

Julia Gillard, shows strength of purpose and, unhindered by religious profession, may well prove that successful ‘politics is the art of the possible’ – the Bismarck principle, which lives on still, ensuring that cynicism and the idea that ‘morality has nothing to do with politics’, will continue to dominate. Her goal, “the ‘possible’, will be an uphill fight.

Will it be just the best possible with climate horrors continuing to escalate, because the ultimate solution could well cost enormously and without the unity of the nation behind a leader it may all be of little help. We can only hope!

Meanwhile, it’s a case of God help the politician who believes in the ‘could be’ in place of what ‘is’.

There is an interesting article on the Obama presidency by Jon Taplin in May last year - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/30/the_art_of_the_possible/ . Obama could do with our prayers!

Australia Day and 'our flag' .

Our flag’s use-by date really stands out.

Founded in the nineteenth century, at the height of British Empire arrogance, Australia has long drifted away from all emotional and social, political and legal, ties to the ‘Motherland’ (how quaint is that word!). Certain similarities exist in our parliamentary and legal systems, but who is enthusiastic about their adversarial nature, apart from the lawyers? These too will come under scrutiny in their due time!

We are an independent nation, justifiably proud of our standing in the world.

The Union Jack, symbol of the expired British connection, still featured on our flag, has long been an offence to many, especially to the dispossessed original inhabitants’ descendants. Our flag, with its strange, foreign symbol, utterly fails the central purpose of a national flag—to inspire and unify all our citizens, so many of whom have come from many different countries, but are now real Australians in thought and deed. It’s time to shake our flag free from the Union Jack which in no way symbolises Australia’s unity.

What then? The answer is simple. We have a national symbol recognised the world over. We should just replace the Union Jack with the kangaroo, a move which can appeal to all Australians, including our Koori people.

There are many other important things which could well be changed, but one thing at a time will suffice, to get the ball rolling.

Constipated democracy

The release of another batch of leaked documents reveals the uselessness of the last ten years of negotiations to settle the Palestinian cause. The reasons for the inexorable annihilation of the Palestinian people’s hopes for the minimal justice of a separate state are quite evident, when any such state would have to be under Israeli army control—says Israel.

In the face of the unstated Israeli dream to control all of Palestine, the Palestinian negotiating position is hopelessly feeble and desperate, being entirely dependent on the effective support of the democratic international community—the UN.

But America has sabotaged the UN with its strongest-nation-in the-world stance, and proved itself a broken crutch to the Palestinians by its submission to Jewish influences within America. Thus Israel will have what it wants regardless, but without the entire security it has long craved. Only justice can entirely silence the restlessness of injustice.

Western democracy has a constipation problem. Imagine an American referendum on justice for Palestine! Is it possible that the American people, as a whole, would ignore the longstanding suffering of the Palestinians? I think not. But, like every other Western democracy, with the exception of Switzerland (and recently perhaps, New Zealand), the people are not invited to say. A pity—because the problems of the world, which linger on unfixed while the decades multiply, can only be peacefully resolved by good government—of the people.

Without the ballot solution of the present unrepresentative style of parliamentary governments, there remains only the (Swiss) Citizen Initiated Referenda initiative to have a chance to resolve the hiatus that exists between the feeble unrepresentative ‘democracy’ that the world is enduring, and the one which could bring the peace and prosperity the world so badly needs—good government at all levels—national and international.

Constipation! that’s the problem with our democracy.

Democracy - and social morality - at risk

As retired. Justice Jebhard, late of the Victorian Country court, said democracy is a moral influence in the community. I believe that is both true and a neglected truth.
It applies quite literally in the state, the nation and the world. The only reservation as to its validity is the degree to which democracy practise corresponds to the theory.

Thus we have a problem, as the theory of democracy has never been settled, with differing views proposed to suit the preferences of those to whom morality is less than a clear and urgent objective.

In fending off suggestions that the hate rhetoric of the tea party movement in America could be an underlying cause of the near death of the Arizona senator and the deaths of a judge, a nine year old girl (born as it happens on 9/11 2001) and others, Herald Sun correspondent Andrew Bolt sneeringly insisted that the rhetoric used in the clash of politics is a normal face of democracy. In so arguing, he unintentionally and ignorantly proved the Jebhard point.

We need an advance in democracy to lessen the conflict, with better attitudes than that prevailing in politics, remembering that politics also inevitably reaches out into the international sphere, either leading to peace or war.

To advance democracy will require a different approach, to encourage, and eventually even establish, mutual respect and cooperation as the normal attitudes of society to advance democracy, and enhance the moral life of our nation, and indeed, our world?

Democracy deficit

In a crisis of confidence in the American depression the ‘History Matters’ website reminds us that the “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”, the words of
FDR in his First Inaugural Address in the 1932 presidential election. The sun had not failed, the land was still productive but the ‘mechanics’ of the economy had collapsed in a crisis of financial and business confidence.

The (Melbourne) Age editorial in its last day of 2010, ‘Democracy deficit puts the world’s leaders on edge’, highlights the major governments around the world at loggerheads with their people, unable, in the context of many serious problems, to effectively govern – expressing a crisis of confidence in our ‘democratic’ institutions.

Fear is destructive and cruel, debasing instead of uplifting mankind to higher aspirations of cooperative achievement. We need the cooperation of courage and vision to lift us out of the fear and uncertainty caused by the evident flaws in the present modes of government.

Christmas - birth of the Saviour, and a New Era of Love and life

Do you understand Christmas and all its significance today for life with an L. It all goes back 2000 years but the message and its meaning are eternal. So here goes ...

Christmas has for 2000 years been the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Jewish promised Messiah who was to set them free, but the freedom He offered was spiritual, but they could not believe in Him so they killed Him on a cross.

But to those who received Him He gave (and gives) the power to belong to God and live a life of selfless love with joy, free from the clinging tendrils of false religion, based on rules, laws and doing of dead works.

He gives, to those who receive Him, the freedom from sin and self, that can give life real meaning, even to the slaves and those in physical prison - the freedom of the love of God and His creation including all of us, together with the real joy of finding the real meaning of life - LOVE!

'He drew me with the chords of love and thus He bound me to Him ...' Bound to Him is the perfection of liberty.

The Lord, Jesus, now rules forever, in blessing, to those who believe and receive His Spirit, to live in love and joy. But to those who refuse the blessings of belonging remain only the curse of a life unblest, with pain and regret - for ever.

A Conscience Vote in Parliament

Can there be such a thing? Really?

Not if it is a public vote. Because there will inevitably be some Members who will be persuaded by various pressures and political considerations steering their vote away from a pure conscience response. A genuine conscience vote demands the secret ballot in parliament.

Think about it. We have a secret (conscience vote) ballot at each election. As a result politicians must be careful to avoid hubris and other offensiveness in their stance for election. But, what happens in parliament? Push comes to shove and the votes are regimented on party lines, and the House is notorious for its worse than schoolboy behaviour and, let’s face it, less than complete honesty. With a secret ballot in parliament, the behaviour in the House would equal MPs civility during elections.

The resulting equality of voting with the secret ballot would not hinder passionate advocacy on each issue as necessary, but give each decision to the whole parliament. Thus each issue, no matter how serious, would be fully and honestly canvassed without any undue delay, with all the final voting clear, as all the arguments would have already been heard. In any event, in such a freely arguing and voting parliament, any issue could be revived if some change indicates that should be considered some time later.

Our democracy gained international respect because of the secret (Australian) ballot.
Its only shortfall is the need for ballots in parliament to govern all our decisions and enable our parliaments to decide—not parties leaders.

Activism is democracy's failure. Ballot NOW!

So many problems there are that governments (and we) face and so long do they take to decide, and how often the decisions are so unsatisfactory, for the simple reason that the people are far from involved in preliminary discussions.

On Monday Age/Voice 8/11, reports 2010 John Barry Memorial Lecture on 11th Nov. 'The role of activism in criminal justice reform' by the Vice Chancellor's Fellow Peter Norton AO.

My problem is this. It is calmly assumed that 'activism' is the important necessity to get such a problem duly attended to (along with dozens of other government problems).

Under the existing circumstances one could not be surprised but, isn't that a terrible indictment on the state of democratic government and the disconnect between a caring people and their government. So we have to rely on loud noise in the streets for harassed government to be pushed to act.

It is the isolation of the people from government by the party system - and their dis-empowerment, that produces a defeatist despair in the face of so many problems which cannot be truly solved without the widespread concurrence of the community. Retired Judge Gebhardt once said that democracy is a moralising force in the community. But it is plain that aspect of democracy is working feebly and incompetently at best, when we consider the crime among youth, the irresponsible, and often fatal, manner in which cars are seen (or just heard in the wee small hours) hurtling through our streets.

Moreover, law abiding citizens are now less inclined to be involved in incidents for safety sake. Gebhardt's viewpoint is underlined by the comment of Al Smith, Governor of New York in 1923: 'The solution to problems of democracy is (simply) more democracy!'

The point is plain. Our democracy's intimate connection between people and government has never materialised to bring the community unity that can extend the moralising process community wide. Gangs and murderers should be terrified, not law abiding citizens.

Stress, stress and more stress.

Higher interest rates add to the consumers’ burden.

Yes, they will, and may dampen Christmas sales, which is why this comment heads the business Age commentary by Lucy Battersby on the Cup Day interest rate rise.

Heavy advertising and consumer/borrower debt, urge the economy to ever higher dependence on credit living, with all its wants. Heavy advertising of things new and expensive drives the excessive consumer demand that endangers the calm and confidence of the modern community, with a heavy mix of need and greed. We need the feverish economic activity to make the jobs to fuel the demand—and the faster the better, because slowing down is dangerous.

The constant competitive demand for lower prices drives high powered production with cost cutting and across-the-board tension in our ‘affluent’ society, whose affluence is a basic myth. We are a ‘wantitnow’ society which cannot save nor wait because without spiritual fulfilment immediate material satisfaction is the urgent need.
It gets me when I hear so often, a child asked: ‘What do you want? Instead of “what would you like”’. Do we really want to see our children caught in this wellbeing-destructive mindset? Twiggy Forrest made an interesting comment on QANDA last night: ‘I know many rich people who are no happier than you who are here’. He thus gave his vote for the satisfaction of doing—contributing, rather than ‘wanting’ and ‘having’.

Compare also the words of David in Ps 23: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I will not want. Some may think that means ‘I’ll never be in want’. It doesn’t. He meant that knowing and serving God satisfied his deepest needs. He therefore refused to want. His refusal to grab the kingdom after being anointed king was entirely in that character. It’s a good read—1 Sam. On.

In the early days of America, Europeans complained of the ‘damned wantlessness’ of the Indians. And once upon a time it was said that if you invented a better mousetrap the world would beat a path to your door.
How things have changed! There must be a better way than stress, stress and more stress.

Nil desperandum!

Despite all, never despair!
Some pertinent remarks in the Age today (2/11/10), point to the basic problem the world faces in the future of governance, at every level, and the world.
Above all, the world looks and hopes for peace but, there can be no peace without order and there can be no order anywhere in the world without good government.
While we ardently subscribe, in theory, to the principles of democracy, we are still like children at play. Refusing to accept our participatory role, we prefer the ease of trusting in strong leaders. We are fools and blind!
Andrew Norton (p17) makes the simple point with regard to university allocation of places: ‘we should trust the wisdom of the crowd’, noting that enrollments in various disciplines tend to follow the needs that ‘the crowd’ sees in the economic trends of the time. Fair enough!
Tim Colebatch (p15) headlines his report on the Gillard visit to Indonesia with: ‘Indonesian reforms hit a roadblock’, commenting that Julia Gillard and President Susilo Bangbang Yudhoyono: ‘both began as reformers but gradually have shelved the big changes to keep interest groups happy. Both are no longer rocking the boat. Both are drifting.’
Similarly, Tom Switzer, research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and editor of The Spectator Australia, determines that ‘the roots of US despair stem from expectations about America’s right to economic prosperity and world leadership that no administration or congress may be able to meet. …They (Americans) are in a foul mood, suffering from a lack of confidence and overwhelmingly believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction … (giving) rise to rapid mood swings within the electorate.’
Although the world’s people all long for the sanity of good government, and peace, the democratic dream of ‘government by the people’ is denied by the dominance of interest groups.
The parliamentary rule which will ensure that all MPs are independent and connect with the people, can never come other than by the adoption of the electronic ballot for all parliamentary decisions.
There is light at the end of the tunnel!

The Murray – Darling Basin

This Authority overlaps at least four states which is odd from a political point of view. Too many governments are involved while the environmentalists have their oar in too. The farmers are deeply worried. It is said there has been far too much water allocated to irrigation. Particularly excruciating to food growers must be the extensive allocation to cotton farmers on the Darling, with big properties, but above all they are irrigating with huge arrays of water sprays. Surely evaporation must result in huge water waste in that warmer climate— and as they say on the Murray—cotton ain’t food.
The basin authority reminds one of the Tennessee Valley Authority in America which also extends over several states through the catchment area of the Tennessee River.
It was ‘created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression.’. A comprehensive development tool, ‘TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee Valley Authority) .
But for the Murray - Darling Basin the driving force is environmental—the water-starved condition of the river system itself. The question is: does the authority have the same comprehensive development agenda as the TVA. It seems not—hence the substantial worry for farmers’ and their business infrastructure communities.
Authoritarian control is likely to lead to serious financial loss and community discouragement throughout the basin.
All residents in the catchment area have a real stake in the decisions to be made and need to have a voice, to allay their fears of unjust outcomes. The answer, to give coherent policies and stakeholder confidence would be for the basin to have its own democratic regional government possibly one hundred electorates, overlapping the several states involved, with independent representation throughout.

Afghanistan confusion

Here in Australia the parliamentary debate on Afghanistan is very welcome, not least because it opens the door to a future pattern of government openness in matters of 'defence'. The fact that differences of opinion have appeared there is equally welcome for the same reason, for which we have the Independents to thank, especially Rob Oakshott and Tony Windsor. A conscience vote would seem to have been eminently appropriate as well- short of a secret ballot.

The ‘view of the PM that we will need to be involved militarily for a further two to four years, beyond the nine already spent, illustrates the very vagueness of an expected outcome, as outlined by the two years, or possibly four, and maybe up to ten years of unspecified involvement! That would indeed be a record of incompetent interference in the affairs of other nations!

Talks with the Taliban, already under way, underline NATO’s uncertainty, with echoes of the Russian failure there, American failure in both Vietnam, and Iraq now closer to Iran then ever. We haven’t won any of the changing objectives after nine years, so our exit strategy is dead, and the only remaining option is to negotiate with the Taliban.

But that won’t answer our fears for the mistreatment of women under that regime.
We are slow to realise that the day for interference in sovereign nations to impose other values by force is gone.

We must turn our attention to international moral influence through the UN to see human rights improved everywhere. The UN has the role, and its power and authority, savaged by the US over Iraq, must be enhanced by the loyal endorsement and support of all nations. The UN needs every one of them. That must be our hope - politically.