Electioneering

Mark Latham, caused a little bit of a stir when he published his diaries recently. I am not sure that I am keen on reading them, but at the same time I suspect that within his book there will be kernels of truth, and understanding, of both the Australian Labor Party and Australian Politics. (Of course I might be giving Latham too much credit.)

I was perhaps a touch more interested when I read a speech Latham gave entitled 10 Reasons Why Young Idealistic People Should Forget about Organised Politics, and a responding article in The Age 10 Reasons Why Politics can be Great.

In sum, perhaps truth is in the middle. Politics can be both richly rewarding, and deeply distressing.

Mark Latham’s first point was public apathy. He broke the electorate down into for groups, those who are well informed “conservatives” or “progressives”, those who are “down and out, and for this reason distrust the Government”, and the apathetic middle class who vote from their wallet, but are largely disinterested.

Perhaps this is overly simplistic, but I think contains at least a kernel of truth.

To be sure, politics is not a career you’d want to take a family through, given how ruthless and relentless elements of the media often are.

In the follow up piece, I guess the below kind of sums it up –

There's so much that needs to be done. Who got the children out of detention? Who freed the long-term detainees? Courageous Canberra politicians! Who's going to pass laws to cut greenhouse emissions? Who's going to get justice for our indigenous people? You! No one else can do it.

Sure politics may not be a fun-filled life, but it’s an area which cries out for idealists, to reform the system, and reform our society.

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Before I leave the area of politics, I was thinking, about the debate surrounding our system of voting, and length of terms. Just thought I’d leave my two cents worth here. I like the idea of fixed terms; it means we know when we’re going to vote, and four year terms means that stuff could well get done.

I know you can’t legislate people to care about who, or what they vote about, but the least we can do, is make people need to show up, and perhaps mark a bit of paper.

The other thing in the debate that intrigues me is that in the reforms they are suggesting that those who have been incarcerated are ineligible to vote. I don’t think I like this idea because I think it makes on comment on those who are criminal as beyond rehabilitation.