WHAT IS REQUIRED TO STRENGTHEN AND IMPROVE OUR CURRENT POLITICAL SYSTEM?

Dated 5th August, 2024.

Requirements for preselection of candidates

Ten years work experience before becoming eligible to stand.

Limit tenure to two or three terms at most.

Limit remuneration to average weekly earnings (a privilege – seek leaders not persons who make politics a career or who seek the money or personal glory). Businesspersons do not make natural political leaders unless they have a natural ability to be able to “compromise” and are “compassionate”.

Prohibit Public Donations

Public donations should be prohibited by companies or individuals to political parties at any time. Funding of political parties should be limited to annual fees paid by members of the party.

For elections - the money should simply be taken from the public purse pursuant to an agreed formula.

Establish a political party that is center of road

Establish a political party with policies that are “center of road” and adopt the Plato “public good” which is to always make decisions that are in the best interests of the majority of citizens.

Australian Politics is too far left or right and such is for “minority groups” and not for the majority of voters.

More freedom in political parties for individuals to express a view on policy that may oppose the party policy. If political parties do not allow an individual politician within the party to express an opinion that is personal and opposes the party policy, then the party is the loser with an increasingly sympathetic public. Today people want honesty and honesty is not achieved by somebody pretending to go along with something that such person opposes.

There should be more debate at a micro policy level.

Too much legislation today is made with little or no follow through by politicians on how it is rolled out and administered and regulated.

Public service should be strengthened

The public service should be strengthened. This could be done by a secondary course introduced in Year 10 at school with a university degree at the end of it.

Agents, spin doctors, advisers, staffers, consultants should be significantly “culled” from the political system and from the party system.

Public Appointments

All appointees to courts and tribunals and authorities should be made by an independent non-political board. Today politics has too strong an influence on appointees. The same applies for all government and semi-government bodies and authorities.

Politics

We need a group of young people between 20 and 50 years who like the policies:–

  • Abolition of State Governments.

  • Restructured Municipal Councils.

  • Simpler laws and full accountability and transparency in respect to all decisions made by the national government and semi-government and statutory authorities.

  • By 2050 Australia becomes a republic and has a national day the day we become a republic.

  • Change the tax system to support user pay as the principal source of tax revenue. The tax-free threshold should be significantly raised and a wealth tax and death tax introduced at a high net worth level of say $5 million and indexed annually.

  • Restructure the wages system by having a simple base wage for work done at a few levels – unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and very skilled.

Housing Policy

  • Have a housing policy that acknowledges the plight of poor people today by increasing public and social housing and making it affordable for such people to rent.

  • In the short-term caravans could be used to house poor people and placed in designated locations in each major city and regional areas.

  • In the medium term the government must work with town planners to encourage and embrace decentralization. Decentralization is simply achieved by a government giving tax incentives to companies and businesses to establish or reestablish themselves in regional areas and for people to work there. The people could also be given tax incentives to relocate to these designated regional areas. This would relieve pressure on housing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It would result in more moderate price rises or indeed a gradual lowering of property prices in those cities. It would improve the quality of life of many people who with a relocation would find cheaper housing and a better quality of life in the regional designated towns.

  • A long-term rental policy should be introduced. If a tenant pays the rent on time and maintains the property to the reasonable satisfaction of a “reasonable man” such tenant should have the right to remain in the property for a maximum of 20 years. As a trade-off for investors we should abolish state land tax.

Education

  • Education has taken on the role of a parent – with increasing numbers today, children enter school without any knowledge or feeling for things such as good manners and care for other persons and a desire to learn. School syllabuses have over the last 10 or so years encouraged self-confidence and entitlement – rights but have not balanced such rights with equal discussion about respect for other people.

  • I recommend a “wellness program” be incorporated into the education curriculum from pre-school progressing through primary to adolescence and year 9 so that children at an early age can develop good family teachings on well-being and in particular respect, honesty, gratitude, determination and resilience to succeed and understanding of being a better person by learning and seeking knowledge.

  • We need more education outside classroom teaching into settings that offer alternative education pathways to students to learn.

  • Teachers should be paid more. Higher pay will provide higher demand for young people with the right aptitude and intelligence and desire to teach.

  • All schools need access to laptops for every student.