The story is told of a forest that was continually shrinking – but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe, you see, was very clever; it was able to convince the trees that because its handle was made of wood, it was one of them.
In a recent major analysis of voting trends, the Australian newspaper reported, “Support for minor parties and independents has reached its highest level in four years.”
The corollary of that of course is ‘support for major parties is at its lowest level in four years!’
Australia has economic and social problems that it wants to solve – employment uncertainty, high mortgages (which force both parents out to work), high cost of educating and raising children, high power prices, high water prices, social ills caused by the rupturing of family relationships, addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography, and suicide. Our politicians however, do not appear to be able to solve these. Watching Question Time should give us some clue as to why not.
As William F. Buckley once said, “We’d be better governed by the first 100 people in the phone book than by the stereotype politicians we are asked to vote for today.”
Hence the rise of minor parties and independents.
In his excellent book, ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’, author James Surowiecki describes how large groups of ordinary people are collectively smarter than so-called experts when it comes to problem-solving, decision-making, innovating, and predicting. The reason why, he explains, is that individual ‘experts’ are inherently biased. They are part of a club, whereas the knowledge and common-sense of the ‘crowd’ eliminates the bias and produces a clearer and more coherent result.
Take one example. The Australia Council gives taxpayer-funded grants to the arts. Dr Bella d’Abrera, Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs, has brought to our attention a couple of these grants. One was an $80,000 grant to a cabaret singer whose performance involved writing abuse about Prime Minister Scott Morrison on her naked bottom. The other $80,000 grant was to a ‘poet’ who argues that ‘bowel movements are perhaps innately connected to the art of creative writing’. If this is what passes for art, then we’re in trouble. The real problem however, is that our hard-earned money is being used to pay for it. As John Roskam from the Institute says, “Don’t force me to pay for this sort of thing when there’s real suffering and real pain being experienced by business owners who are losing their businesses, their marriages, and their families because they have been shut down. There are a million better ways for the government to spend $160,000 – like for example mental health services for children who have been locked up for two years. That’s how I feel and that’s how a lot of Australians feel”.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Which is where the Australian Family Party’s authentic, local candidates come to the fore. Our candidates understand their local communities – their crowd. They are part of the wisdom of their crowds. Which makes them far better representatives than the major-party nominees who go along with all that Australia Council nonsense as they work their way up the party ladder.
At this forthcoming State election, our candidates need to replace these major-party apparatchiks. But they need your support – by word-of-mouth, by volunteering on election day to give out their how-vote-cards and of course, financial support to pay for the how-to-vote cards. If you would like to help them, please make a donation here.
We have a great team of candidates, let’s get behind them. Otherwise, there’ll be nothing left of the forest we call Australia.