Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston |
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Time to rebalance people power in OUR Parliament
In the absence of a commitment from either big party to restore the health of our democracy, the only place on the people's side is a Senate not owned by either of the big two parties. That way, a government which backs liars or incompetents as ministers faces Senate inquiries and Senate orders to produce relevant documents. Plus, a Senate not owned by either big party means Senate Question Time becomes a place for real questions, requiring relevant answers.
At this election, Canberra voters have the power to re-empower our Senate and our democracy by electing Kerrie Tucker to the Senate. As today's letter to Australians by former Prime Ministers Mr Whitlam and Mr Fraser calling for a return to ministerial accountability shows, this issue is above party politics. An historic choice by Canberrans to replace the Liberal Senator with Kerrie Tucker on November 24 will tell both parties that Canberra voters expect something better from both of them, for all of us.
Also see Peter Ellis on Howard's slap dash public service and Peter Andren's plea to voters on Radio National this year to focus on the importance of their Senate vote:
Within the next six months voters will go to the polls in the federal election. And whichever side prevails and forms government in the House of Representatives, the most important election in my book will be that for the Senate.
Why so? Because the 2004 election delivered the government control of both houses of parliament for the first time since 1980 and I don't think that's good for a healthy democracy. Over that period we had a balance of what I call responsibility in the Senate that tempered the excesses of government, and by and large achieved a healthy consensus in legislation and Senate procedures.
Senate inquiry processes were set up that properly scrutinised legislation and government administration. Contrast this with the situation post 2004. A government in control of lawmaking has the power not only to frame electoral law to its own advantage but to dismantle the means of accountability.
Such a winner take all governance means the proper scrutiny of government at this most critical period in our history, when security, human rights and global warming issues predominate, is now beyond the control or amendment of non-government representatives, who after all represent more than fifty per cent of primary voting support.
Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser unite to demand the return of ministerial accountability, by letter to major newspapers today.
No matter how grave their failings may be, ministers no longer resign.
This principle is the bedrock of responsible government. In its absence, the capacity of the parliament and the people to hold a government to account for its actions is substantially weakened.
It is 31 years since the last official inquiry regarding the principles of ministerial accountability at a federal level. That inquiry framed the doctrine for simpler times. It could not anticipate the major changes in governance that have occurred since then.
These include an enormous growth in the powers of the executive, the now pivotal role of ministerial advisers, the outsourcing of many crucial governmental functions and the expanding influence of the lobbying industry.
The Freedom of Information Act, an important safeguard introduced in 1982, has also been undermined significantly by the practices of recent governments and restrictive interpretation by the courts.
The Canadian and British governments (of different political persuasions) have recently taken steps to strengthen ministerial accountability. They have recognised its fundamental importance and the need to re-evaluate and fortify it so that the representative democracy may function as it should.
We believe it is critical that this issue is addressed in the forthcoming national election and then acted upon by whichever party forms the new government.
We take this opportunity to urge all political parties to commit to the establishment of an independent and comprehensive review of the operation of ministerial accountability so as to modernise and strengthen it.
This is a matter that transcends party politics. It goes to the very heart of the way we are governed.
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Two bob Bob's latest ad
As Australia enters the last week of campaigning, the Greens have launched a television advertisement to have voters concentrate on restoring the balance of power in the Senate.
The ad features a double act by Senator Bob Brown having his ‘two Bob's worth’ and can be viewed on the Australian Greens’ YouTube channel.
Bob 1: “Voting Green in double action voting.”
Bob 1 & 2 together: “Especially in the Senate.”
Bob 2: “First you’ll get Greens senators who’ll take responsible action in the Senate.”
Bob 1: “On climate change, the pulp mill, for pensioners and fair workplaces.”
Bob 2: “And your vote can win back the Senate from government control.”
Bob 1: “Get back the balance of power…”
Bobs together: “…By double-action, double-value voting.”
Bob1: “Take action.”
Bob 2: “Vote 1 The Greens!”
Bob 1: “That’s my two Bob’s worth.”
The advertisement will run in Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia.
Hide, no seek, ignoring Parliament passe
SENATOR PENNY WONG, SHADOW MINISTER FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
HOWARD GOVERNMENT HIDES 3 KEY ANNUAL REPORTS
The Howard Government has failed to table three key departmental Annual Reports in a bid to hide unpalatable facts until after the November 24 election.
The Prime Minister, John Howard; The Minister for Workplace Relations Joe Hockey; and the Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews appear not to have signed off on the three outstanding Annual reports.
Mr Howard is up to his usual tricks, hoping the facts contained in these untabled reports slip under the radar.
Annual reports are required by Parliament to be tabled by October 31. All other department annual reports have been tabled.
There is nothing in the Caretaker Conventions that prohibits the tabling of departmental annual reports. PM and C Tabling Circular 2/2007 states:
Departments and agencies should finalise reports for transmittal to the Minister and arrange for the report to be presented out of sitting by the due date in accordance with the individual agencies legislative requirements.
Taxpayers can only speculate whether:
* The 06/07 PM & C Annual Report will detail the massive advertising expenditure of the Howard Government through the Government Communications Unit.
* The Workplace Relations annual report is likely to contain fine detail on the Work Choices Advertising and marketing campaign and perhaps statistics on uptakes of AWA and the removal of penalty rates and overtimes.
* The Immigration annual report will reveal a continued decline in government compliance checks of 457 visas; at the same time as cases of abuse are increasing. The report may also provide detail on the significant compensation paid in the cases of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon.
The Australian Government is again denying the public further access to legitimate information because it may affect its electoral chances.
Its another slap in the face for open Government in Australia.
Lib/lab well balanced in evil
Just goes to prove Alan, under lib or lab, our freedoms, personal security, society and future are doomed. They are evil personified, with only semantics as the difference. History shows us the majority of society always follow the worst leaders and are easily deluded, it also shows us those same majorities suffer the most in the end.
It's primitive 20th century ideologies keeping the people trapped into believing they have no choice but to be led like sheep. Only the will of the people can change the outcome for us all and evolve our society instead of enslaving it. To do that they have to abandon the past and create the future, by ridding the country of political parties and introducing an accountable sustainable system. It won't happen, the majority of the human race is to unevolved to live rationally and logically into the future.
Police pushed to charge terror suspects
From The Australian today:
Chaser Detained By Qld Police at Howard Launch
From Crikey:
Right, y'know that civil liberties campaign that everyon'es talking about but nobody's doing? It's near a now or never situation.
Civil Liberties
Richard Tonkin, I assume you read the following, but because this is done by Labor you are very quiet.
"The NSW Government is to make permanent a host of powers that the police gained only temporarily in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riot.
The temporary powers included the ability of the police to close bars and hotels, to stop and search vehicles and people, to seize cars and phones and to disperse mobs.
These powers were due to expire in December.
The powers are now to be made permanent, and expanded, Police Minister David Campbell said".
Priorities and Partisanism
Alan Curran, I'll choose to not take offence at your insinuation that I'm being partisan in these matters. We had a similar situation in SA a while back, when our Labor Premier tried to grab use of counterterrorism laws to go after bike gangs. He was howled down by our DPP, and rightly so.
That Iemma has taken permanent control of APEC security laws was sadly predictable. Such power acquisitions should have had more stringent requirements placed on them. Where's the NSW DPP on this one?
I've noticed to that the Sydney security loudhailers are staying up forever. Does that send a shiver down your spine, Alan? It does mine. Soon they'll probably be used to tell you when it's curfew time.
Every party in power that gets to a point in its political life where it attempts to legislate itself into omnipotence should be told to leave. It doesn't matter their political inclination.
NSW is definitely ready for "The Police State" number plates. As I've said, I don't trust SA's leadership on such issues either. Deprived of the field of opportunity that Howard has created for them, though, by pulling Australia out of this counterterrorism mess, I doubt that Iemma or Rann would be able to introduce more draconianisms (?) into society.
The simplest way to get rid of the counterterrorism problem is to get rid of the Federal Cabinet. Hopefully we can start afresh from that point. That, though, is what must be done first.
Jokers
Ern, this happened today:
As you would say, how can you trust them? Garrett let the cat out of the bag and now Mike Kelly opens his mouth and confirmed what Labor is all about. I suppose Kelly will now be seen standing beside Rudd on TV saying "It was just a joke".
This should get people thinking in the marginals, and we still have two weeks to go. I have emailed George Newhouse to get his views on this. I am sure the people of Wentworth would like to know what is going on.
Newhouse - anyone home?
If you get a reply, Alan Curran, Mr Newhouse will say what he has said at every meet-the-candidates meeting: "the Shadow Minister has said..."
It's not that he doesn't have ideas of his own, it's just that his overweening ambition wants to make sure he doesn't upset the applicart by expressing them.
Although the look on his face says clearly that he is as pissed off with the ex-mistress as she is with him.
Nobody home
Malcolm B Duncan, well it looks like another Star Recruit is a flop, this morning we learn this:
"Labor's great hope in the Sydney seat of Wentworth may be an invalid candidate in this month's federal election, after he failed to resign from a state government post before his nomination".
As I said weeks ago, this man is a nightmare. Considering this man is a solicitor and you would think he would know about these things. It is impossible to get a reply to emails, I wanted to know how he could accept preferences from The Greens when he knows their Policy on Israel. I will be confronting him before the weekend, and I intend to embarass him in front of the Jewish population of Wentworth.
Margo: What is your understanding of the Greens policy on Israel, Alan? And what are your objections to it?
Let it rip
Beginnings for reform
Alga, I agree and disagree.
Your reference to ‘brain dead academics who are destroying via incompetence and ignorance, every aspect of society’ is ill informed and contrary to fact.
There is a lot of good work being done by academics who are concerned for the path Australia is taking, and the attacks upon democracy and the structures that underpin it.
A great many of the problems revolve around political parties and party politics. For a strong and vibrant democracy to function it will always depend upon a robust and independent public service.
The adoption of the Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP) would be a good start.
If it were bolstered with the abolishing of all party contributions by businesses or organisations while individual contributions were limited to $1000 which could only be made to the contributor’s local candidate for use within that electorate, the influence of parties would be severely curtailed.
Removing all government funding of candidates and parties would further strengthen local influence.
A fixed term of three years with a set election date, like the second Saturday in November, with all government advertising controlled by an independent body and a ban on any electioneering being funded by the government entitlements of incumbents would add further improvement.
Limiting the total number of terms that any person could serve in all political positions combined would reduce the deadwood and ensure that representatives had at least some contact with reality.
I would suggest three terms.
The remuneration and perks paid to serving politicians during their tenure ought to be their total payment. No ongoing privileges, no superannuation.
Probably not comprehensive, but this ought to establish a reasonable platform from which to reform the system.
To rebalance, remove the burden, party politics
You'll never get accountability from elected representatives whilst we have a system controlled by unaccountable politicians and bureaucrats. Adding more and more commissions, committees, inquiries and investigations will only exasperate the problems. All these methods involve bureaucrats running them, they will do nothing but feather their own nests, lie and deny responsibility, as we currently see.
What we need is a referendum style government the people control and a bureaucracy which has each department head personally responsible for the outcomes of the department and accountable to the people through 6-12 monthly public revues. The same should be done with politicians, judges, local government and all who hold sway on our lives and society.
Why should we continue down the path of giving control of our lives to brain dead academics who are destroying via incompetence and ignorance, every aspect of society. You can only attain balance when the people have real control, until then you will always have elitist imbalance and we see the results of that everywhere we look.
To have a new start, you have to get rid of the old first, that can only come about by removing the present system and replacing it with a truly representative and empowering system. Just a quick look at life presently shows the people are against more than 75% of policy and law implemented by government across the country. If this doesn't represent the reality, then nothing ever will and our only outcome is collapsing chaos. Neither lib nor lab have any policies which make sense for the future, just more of the same slide into calamity. Rebalance comes from removing the burden creating imbalance, that's party politics and unaccountable bureaucracy.
Keep the pressure on, citizens
See Culture of secrecy serves itself, not us:
MALCOLM Fraser and Gough Whitlam, writing in The Australian yesterday, lamented the serious decline in standards of ministerial accountability at the federal level. The former prime ministers called on political parties contesting the election to commit to a wide-ranging review of public accountability. That review is urgently required.
Other comparable countries, such as Canada and Britain, have engaged in sweeping reforms to strengthen ministerial responsibility. There has been no inquiry about this in Australia since the Coombs commission reported in 1976.
This is why the whole notion of ministerial responsibility has been so neglected. It is why ministers can preside over grave mistakes in their portfolios and still give hardly a backward thought to resignation.
Take immigration detention. The Palmer report into the case of Australian citizen Cornelia Rau, who was detained mistakenly for months, concluded that there were serious, entrenched problems with the administration of the Immigration Department. Nothing much happened. Former police commissioner Neil Comrie investigated the wrongful detention of Vivian Solon. He described the departmental culture as negative and its administration as catastrophic. The departmental head apologised. The minister stayed.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman, John McMillan, investigated the subsequent, similar case of Mr T. He described the department as having engaged in cruel behaviour. He also noted that there were 210 similar cases still to be investigated. No minister has accepted blame...
Phillip Ruddock ...
Souless
David, you have been sorely misinformed! Ruddock doesn't have a soul.
Faustus
Go GetUp!
Dear friends,
Today John Howard officially launched the Coalition's election campaign - to be followed by Kevin Rudd's campaign launch on Wednesday. It's only this week that most voters will really start to pay attention. Make no mistake: this election, and the future of Australia, are still very much uncertain.
So today, we're launching the final stage of "Australia GetsUp '07" - the largest independent election effort in Australian history. From now until the election, we'll be sending you an email a day with effective ways to make a difference. With your help, we can focus the media on our key progressive issues - just as millions of voters make up their mind. And we can directly reach thousands of undecided voters in key seats - using volunteer-driven, neighbour-to-neighbour outreach, proven to influence the issues that are at the top of voters' minds when they go into the ballot box.
But to pay for it, we need to raise at least $100,000 this week. It's a big goal - but together, we can make it. Remember, Australia GetsUp '07 is a completely independent campaign. That means no one else will fund this - it's up to each one of us to give what we can to shape our future. Can you spare $25, $50, or $100 for a progressive Australia? If so, now's the time. Please contribute today:
http://www.getup.org.au
Where will your money go? Our ambitious plan for the final sprint calls for:
All these things have a cost. And because we're not beholden to any political party, we depend entirely on you, GetUp members, to fund this campaign. That's the price of independence, but it puts the power into the hands of the people - and that's the way it should be.
http://www.getup.org.au
What happens in the next 13 days will affect Australia for generations to come. And it all comes down to some pretty practical questions:
Will we have enough flyers to reach every swinging voter, or will we fall short? Will we be able to support enough volunteers to cover every marginal seat, or will some fall through the cracks? Ultimately, the question is, will politicians realise that they have to take action on the issues that matter to you - like climate action now, closing the indigenous health gap, and getting out of the mess in Iraq?
We can't afford to sit back and wait for the answers - we have to get out there and choose the future. In the next 12 days, with your support, we can do just that. Please give what you can:
http://www.getup.org.au
For the future,
The GetUp team
PS - On the weekend, over 150,000 people gathered in 50 cities and towns across Australia for the Walk Against Warming - a powerful testament to what we can accomplish when we come together, and a source of hope for what's to come. Donate now to help us keep the pressure on through the election.
I'd vote for that, but...
...I don't believe Ministerial Accountability alone is enough. It's too easy for them to blame the allegedly fearless and impartial bureaucrats.
And, it's clear that our Federal Public Service has been the architect of multiple egregious cases of democratic abuse in recent times. It's true too that it basically delivers appalling value for money for the tax dollars we spend on it, both in productivity and quality of outcomes.
So, let's enhance the concept with similar standards of accountability, and a much greater level of transparency being applied to our Federal Public Service.
Who knows, maybe the ideal will infect the States too?
Margo: Agree re Public Service accountability. The Greens want an independent authority to investigate public servant's whistle blower complaints and protect them from retaliation. As you know, I want an Australian Honest Politics Commission, to handle that, political donation disclosure, and allegations against politicians. However, if the pollies have to be accountable, they'll make sure the PS is too.