Begging Bowls and Ballot boxes

Begging Bowls 

The media has alerted us to the global swing in a number of democracies from the left to right. Will that swing deliver government that is any more “for the people”. It has been like that for decades, perhaps centuries? The pendulum tends to periodically swing backwards and forwards. It swings from one extreme to the other.  Voters just hold out their begging bowls  for a small piece of the  political pie. We put votes into our ballot boxes for others to use.

Big Business Bribes

Far from “government for the people” Australian voters and communities are primarily governed for the benefit of a select few. Big business bribes, euphemistically called “donations” to political parties weigh down the democratic see-saw. They leave voters suspended in mid-air. Then political party members, party donors and big business lobbyists put the voters on the merry-go-round.

Publicists  razzle-dazzle them while business carves up that lucrative political pie. It delivers huge profits to donors! One organisation recently donated $400,000 to political parties. It received over $25 billion in government benefits from taxpayers money. Federal politicians are being asked about large tax concessions going to some of Australia’s highest profit-earning miners.

Whose to blame?
Whose fault is it that the politicians just walk past us voters with our begging bowls and on to the donors with their big money buckets waiting to be filled with taxpayer funds? We are trying to cope with the cost-of -living crisis deliberately inflicted on us to boost corporate profits. Is it the fault of politicians who do the bidding of these big business barons. They receive millions of dollars in payments and heavy lobbying from them? Does the fault lie with big business itself?  What about the bureaucrats who look primarily to their own career advancement. Can we blame the public servants who sometimes treat the public with outright disdain?

Voters hold total power  to elect parliament and direct what government does. It is fairly and squarely our fault, the Australian people ourselves. Primarily blame rests with the 17 million of us who are voters. Many of us begrudge having to vote at all. Aussies seem to  fail to realise that our vote is what determines all the laws and services. That includes roads, schools, hospitals, defence and public transport that we need.  We resist working with our elected MPs, helping them to shape society the way we want it. Sadly we don’t even look after our hard-working ministers in every way we can.

We prefer an “Elect and Neglect” approach with confrontation and criticism freely thrown in. People expect ministers to give up their family lives to attend to our needs. Government Ministers are paid way below salaries in the business world. Often the work is harder. Voters are more demanding of politicians than shareholders are of company directors. Ministers who dare to  use government facilities to help them cope, get sacked. It is easy to forget that life is a two-way street. There is merit in realising that in the end such an approach results in our own wishes being neglected too. If we don’t go out of our way to help them it is delusional to think that they will go out of their way to help us.

Vote + Voice = power & influence

Some believe that, without being actually told, their chosen Members of Parliament will instinctively know what the Australian people want done and if they were half competent would do it. 27 million Australians have varying views on almost everything. No psychic osmosis informs a majority of our elected representatives of what we want!  Perhaps we all want different things. Or some want the same and some want different. Some have the philosophy of “What is good for me is good for everyone”, like General Bullmoose of old.

Parliamentarians have no way of knowing what Australians want without those Australians personally telling them. It’s no good telling one local MP in a parliament of 100 or 200 MPs. Half of them are fighting for power with the other half. They want that local MP’s seat in parliament for themselves. Some MPs just don’t care about voters at all!

The most effective solution for any voter is to tell each and every MP in the relevant parliament what they want done. Votergrams, developed as part of the quest by voters for that fair Australia concept,    make that easy. Telling all MPs gives each one an equal chance to help, enabling voters to then rate each MP’s performance in doing so on Voters Network. That facilitates voting by objective assessment. If we elect MPs based on past performance instead of on party prejudice or slick promises, we stand to be pleasantly surprised. Most politicians cannot tell before they take office what they will be able to do when elected.

There’s no free lunch

Our MPs have to be sensibly convinced to do what we believe is needed. That is where the Votergram strategies and techniques come in.  In every community it is the same. Only a small percentage of the population will actually put in the hard yards to achieve what needs to be done. They are the ones who get it done. They make the effort, give the time and put their money where their mouths are. They use highly effective Votergrams”. A former PM once said “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. Someone pays and it is usually in the end the person who enjoyed the meal. People who pay for Votergrams are usually delighted at the results. This week one voter received their response within minutes of sending their Votergram.

Ballot Boxes empower Begging Bowls

Many voters are unaware of their potential power of political persuasion. They prefer to delegate that power and influence to a  representative body or association. It can do the work for them with staff funded by membership fees. That way others who benefit also share the cost.  It is a fair viewpoint.  But life works best when we all take turns to shout a round of political persuasion, as we would the drinks. Some people have the mistaken view that an association is more powerful than one voter. They forget that with membership numbers in the hundreds or thousands, it does not vote in elections. Nor does it control the votes of their members. Organisations are ideal for conducting research and making submissions. However, they still only carry begging bowls, because they hold no real voting power. They are begging parliament to do what they claim their members want. MPs know that organisations don’t always represent the views of all their members. That is obvious at AGMs. When one voter shouts a round of political persuasion, politicians know they are serious.

Votes rule with ballot boxes!

Votes are all-powerful in democracy. One state Premier pointed out to a meeting that 10,000 signatures on a petition still results in only one document. Most MPs never read it at all, if they even know about it. Frequently they don’t. 10,000 Votergrams would have the whole parliament absolutely riveted on the topic with considerable concern over marginal seats. When a voter sends a Votergram and pays to do so pollies know the voter is dead serious.

Voter-Power can rule democracy if voters want it to! Power and Influence rests firstly with individual voters because only they can re-elect or replace MPs. Secondly it rests with both voting and non-voting Australians who can influence voters of others in marginal electorates. There is no chance of all 17 million voters or 27 million Aussies telling all  MPs what they want done. So politicians must rely on those who do tell them. Even the poorest Australians can do that. Votergrams have found people to sponsor Aussies who cannot afford the modest price themselves.

Profiteers and racketeers seek to make their fortunes by draining the government coffers. They crowd into the vacuum left by voters deserting MPs after each election. Profiteers take billions of dollars in lucrative contracts, grants, subsidies, laws, policies and tax concessions Voters don’t even seem to notice or care.

Tug-o-war

It is not unrealistic to view democracy as a multi-dimensional tug-o-war. Those who pull hardest get what they want. The common solution of a protest rally just makes the politicians look stupid. It denies them the credit for solving the problem. If it achieves its aim it creates long-term resentment. It is akin to parents protesting outside the High School, trying to make their teenagers clean up their bedrooms. As Shakespeare wrote, “Discretion is the better part of valour!”

Australians can greatly increase the appeal to MPs of their begging bowls All they need do is carry in their other hand an invisible ballot box. Most Members of Parliament willingly help voters who approach them all politely persistently and in the privacy of parliament. But if they don’t, voters can wander into a marginal electorate. A friendly chat with people walking along the streets works wonders. It does not take locals long to reveal where they too, feel neglected.

More Marginals than ever

In our 151 seat Federal House of representatives there are about 70 marginal seats currently held by less than 10%. The Ballot Box choice of campaigning in marginal electorates is a rarely needed, an  absolute last resort. Political persuasion is about speaking quietly and carrying a big stick. Politicians and political parties concentrate their campaigning in marginal electorates. So can voters.

Set the agenda

The key for Australians is to start 2025 with a New Year resolution. Confer with other Australians to set the agenda. Give it to our elected parliamentarians. Then work with them to shape that “Fair Australia” our national anthem sings so loudly about. There is no point choosing and paying representatives if we don’t tell them how we would like them to represent us. We must work with them to achieve it and thank them when they do