I had dinner last night at the Watergate Hotel of
President Nixon scandal
fame. With its sharks-teeth brutalist architecture, it is hardly an awe inspiring building, but somehow it manages to retain its aura of elite status. Watergate has come to mean a series of political scandals, synonymous enough, that scandal of any kind, is promptly given the "gate" suffix. Nixon faced two years of impropriety and bad news - he left government with the claim of not being a crook. If he was in government today, he would give himself an award, if not a promotion.
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Most of the governments in Australia at the state and federal level have been in power for near or over a decade. This is too long. Corruption and hubris have a habit of entrenching themselves after approximately eight years. The federal and state governments now openly use tax payer money to push their party policies, abuse is endemic. The
Pittwater result
is a poor one, not only for Liberals in NSW, but for oppositions in general.
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John Singleton made a Fabian Society speech on Labor's chances of winning in 2007. Unfortunately the speech is not online, so I cannot read it directly, instead I am reduced to quoting Alan Ramsey in an smh op-ed. In the speech Singleton argued that Beazley was another "lazarus on a triple bypass", he should have just done away with the pretence, and called our political system a waitocracy.
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Supposedly the Labor Party lacks vision, leadership and an ability to engage the community. This is touchy feely garbage which ignores the realities of our Westminster forms of government and the interaction of the media with both the government and opposition. If Labor wants to get in faster they should wish for a recession, or alternatively make some sensible democratic choices such as term limits on the Executive and fixed term elections. (more)
The Westminster System is woeful in stopping incumbency. The British system has parties stay in power for close to a quarter of a century at a time, in Australia the churn rate is greater but party's remain in power often for a decade at a time.
This is a failing of the Westminster system, if Australia is to persist with a parliamentary system, term limits need to be introduced to increase the churn rate of the elected representatives in order to protect against incumbency, corruption and nepotism.
Poll : Best device to increase the churn-rate?
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