Cosmetic reform or real reform?

Parties dependent on political fund-raising open themselves to lobbyists willing to buy favours. Candidates beholden to party members for pre-selection and campaign backing tend to favour the group, frequently small, sometimes corrupt, which appointed them at the expense of the wider electorate. Most people are represented by someone they have never seen. No wonder politicians make little attempt to find out what constituents think or need beyond what professional lobbyists tell them or what they learn from the sample of supplicants who approach electorate offices.

The job of the government is to represent the interests of all Australians. The job of the Opposition is largely to ensure respect for and a means of accommodating minorities and minority views.

This is an important qualification to the principle “rule by the majority” and is more essential when governments with little more than 50 per cent of preferenced votes claim a mandate to implement change regardless of consequences foreseen and more often unforeseen. Oppositions especially should be looking for new ways to engage electors in the political process between electoral cycles. The means of communication are here already, without having to wait for the National Broadband Network.

Some of the higher profile celebrity politicians such as Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull and even occasionally Tony Abbott use the new media of Facebook, and Twitter to enhance their reputations with the young. But regular communication between the elected and the electors has yet to become routine. Interactive websites and the new electronic media along with email and phone texting are far more directly engaging than traditional media. On Line Opinion is more inclusive for readers than the major metropolitan newspapers and evening news services are. Members of Parliament have no need to represent their constituents in ignorance and no excuse for doing so.

Accountability is still required during question time, in Parliamentary debates and ultimately at the ballot box. Government and Opposition alike should engage directly with the people bypassing the intermediary of mass media. As citizens we too should seek direct contact with our elected representatives and reject the filter unelected individuals seek to impose. Above all we should try to see through the bias of those who take advantage of their privileged positions as journalists and commentators.

With or without our direct involvement, we always get the government we deserve. But without our active participation, democracy becomes a charade for power-hungry elites. Reforming Parliament is not enough to secure our democratic government.