Does it annoy you?

Politics in Australia annoys me. Most politicians annoy me. The community’s acceptance of the state of politics and the skill level of our politicians annoys me. Here is why:

When elected governments have an issue that they took to the election as a promise we will hear talk of how they have “a mandate for change”, “a mandate for action” which is fair enough given the Collins dictionary defines mandate as “the support or commission given to a government and its policies or an elected representative and his policies through an electoral victory”. Yet when they are breaking a promise, the word mandate and all its meaning vanishes. It is my belief that political parties contesting election should publish all the issues they are seeking a “mandate” on before the election in a clear and simple format, free of spin. That list then needs to be monitored and have the outcomes recorded against each issue stating what has happened, what is planned, why nothing has happened and will anything happen. I’m tired of promises being made, forgotten, distorted and buried.

I’m tired of the 24 hour media cycle, the politics it promotes and the style of politician that thrives under it. It is an incredibly lazy system that we have allowed to develop. The cycle is promoted by the media advisors of the parties in an attempt to keep their party in the headlines, it is sold to us by the media as what we want, when in reality the reason they are on board with the 24 hour cycle is that it lets them do very little work. All a journalist needs to do these days is take the press release, throw in a few lines of padding about things that don’t matter, then add a headline and presto, you have an article. Why search for the full facts? Why do any real analysis? Why ignore the spin and self-promotion that is hidden in all the press releases, the media advisors have given you a “just add water story” so that is all they need to do. This has led to society being inundated with announcements, headlines, promises, facts and figures, all unchecked all with very little analysis and even less substance. This inundation has lead to accountability being a forgotten word. Politicians are no longer held accountable for the truth and consequence of what they say and do, as society is so confused and swamped by what they have actually said. They are only held to account by their party on whether what they have said has resulted in a positive outcome in the polls.

What this means is we are left with a system that is inundated with fame seeking politicians and sitcom sized problems, problems that create headlines, get the politicians in the spotlight and make it appear to the electorate like our elected representatives are earning their keep. This has lead to simple solutions for simple problems and no one watching what is happening to the complex problems. If we want our society to thrive, we need to remove the celebrity of politics, stop allowing politicians to appear in our nightly news bulletins and front page stories as a daily occurrence. Only put them in our papers if what they have done truly warrants the front page, only interview them if they have something of substance to say. We need to stop applauding mediocrity, start applauding them for what they are elected to do, that is, make tough decisions, act on the behalf of their electorate, and work their backsides off for the good of the country and not for the good of the next election. If you want to be a celebrity, go win a Logie, don’t become a politician.