It’s been said England invented bureaucracy and India perfected it. We can now add ‘… and Australia deified it’.
In his book The Lucky Country, Donald Horne said Australia was run by second-rate people who rode on the back of the country’s natural resources ie pure luck, and then claimed credit for it.
Take the most important issue Australia’s politicians and bureaucrats have had to deal with in our lifetime – COVID19. They and the whole world have been focused on this every day for more than a year and when the vaccine became available, the UK vaccinated 25 million of its citizens immediately. Israel vaccinated 5 million and will have its entire population vaccinated within weeks. Australia on the other hand has been moving at a snail’s pace with Australians being told to book a vaccination on-line. Those most vulnerable to the virus – the elderly, then have to navigate their way through an on-line questionnaire or be told ‘phone-bookings only’.
The very word bureaucracy gives the game away. Bureaucracy is derived from two words – ‘bureau’ from the French word for ‘desk’ and ‘kratos’ from the Greek word for power, hence ‘bureau-krat’, ‘desk-power’.
Clearly, looking to politicians and bureaucrats to solve all the nation’s problems is not the answer.
The Australian Family Party believes we can serve Australia best by putting the family first. The State has a duty to the family. Society has a duty to the family. And what the State and society owe the family is recognition. Recognition that the family should be front and centre, not the political class.