Disclaimer: these are unedited excerpts – and may be out of sequence. Strong borders and a strong humanitarian immigration program 62. To maintain Australians’ confidence and trust in the integrity of our migration system, Labor will fund and maintain robust border security measures that support the orderly processing of migration to our country and […]
Archive | Australian Politics
How Many American Idiots Are There? 73 Million.
This was no ordinary election. By now, you know that. But I mean it in a slightly different way. Not just that Trump’s still trying to steal it, and the GOP’s in cahoots. No, I mean that this election was something like a census of American Idiots. If you’ve been keeping up with the news, […]
Is a Unity Government of National Emergency possible?
How can we reimagine democracy?
Australians’ faith in politics has collapsed – how can we reimagine democracy? “Late last year the Democracy 2025 project of the Museum of Australian Democracy and the University of Canberra released a major piece of research finding that trust in democracy in Australia has plummeted from 86% in 2007 to 41% in 2018. Through quantitative […]
Populism’s problems can be fixed by getting the public better-informed. And that’s actually possible.
Ron Levy, Australian National University Many commentators have been alarmed at the electoral wins of ultra conservative leaders around the world, as well as policy decisions such as Brexit made by a popular referendum. They see these as signs of a rising populism. In its benign forms, populism can simply mean ordinary citizens’ desire to […]
A Contract with the Electorate
This doesn’t require any structural change, just a procedural one. Contesting parties and independents each publish a policy prior to an election at any level. Each candidate enters into a legally-binding contract with their electorate to uphold the policy they subscribe to, whether party or individual. If it’s a party policy, then each party-endorsed candidate […]
Community Plan Candidates 2017
Here are the candidates who have expressed their support for, and/or contributed to the drafting of, the CPCC so far: Wyong Ward: Group A – Louise Greenaway – Central Coast New Independents Group D – Kyle McGregor – Labor Party Budgewoi Ward: Group A – Doug Vincent – Labor Party Group E – Sue Wynn […]
Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump
ON THE CORROSIVE PRIVILEGE OF THE MOST MOCKED MAN IN THE WORLD Once upon a time, a child was born into wealth and wanted for nothing, but he was possessed by bottomless, endless, grating, grasping wanting, and wanted more, and got it, and more after that, and always more. He was a pair of ragged […]
Flux & Issue Based Direct Democracy
by Max Kaye, first published on http://voteflux.org on Friday, 26 May, 2017 The Flux Movement is founded on (what I now call) Deutschian Fallibilism. It’s an evolution of Popperian Fallibilism and David Deutsch’s book The Beginning of Infinity does a great job of explaining both the theory and exploring the breathtakingly profound consequences. In one light it’s […]
Ordinary Australians
ORDINARY AUSTRALIANS © G. J. Olsen Esq 2017 Ordinary Australians, take a bow Proud of what you’ve done? Set the bar oh so low And acted so very ho hum Your politicians appeal to you “Mums and Dads” they say They throw you bones for you to chew And send you on your way Ordinary […]
