DEMOCRACY FIRST

DEMOCRACY FIRST GENERAL STRATEGY FOR NATIONAL ELECTION IN 2025

Voters must today decide between old archaic political party structures which take “forever” to make public policy and an intelligent, visionary, lateral thinking and practical small group of persons who constitute a modern political movement where policy is determined, rolled out and easily understood by the Australian citizen. And where policy will always be in the interest of the Plato “public good” majority of Australian citizens.

Democracy First is a new and vibrant political movement with intelligent, lateral -thinking members who are encouraged to be free, liberal and lateral with their thinking on all policy. Every Democracy First member shall be entitled to vote on policy and equally may abstain from voting.

Today natural political leaders are few in number. Leadership has been crushed by political party structures that stifle vision and lateral thinkers. Such has not changed over the last seventy five (75) years. Certainly not enough in Australia today to occupy nine (9) lower and nine (9) upper chambers of government. Today there are not enough good politicians to sit in just one (1) lower and upper chamber of government.

Hence, the need to have a new Constitution drawn which will not include a whole layer of government today – the state and territory governments should be abolished.

Local municipalities would become the “eyes and ears” of their communities and responsible for the rollout of all policy determined by the national government which would be represented by members from each state and territory in both chambers in a form to be agreed.

The benefits are massive :

Each member would hold his/her seat for a maximum of two terms of parliament.
Each member would be paid the “average annual salary” each year and would only qualify for a parliamentary seat by serving at least ten (10) years in private practice.
Terms of parliament would be increased to four (4) years.
Each member would provide a ten (10) year Vision Statement on policy such person has a knowledge or interest. Each member may vote or abstain from voting on any matter.
Detailed and thoroughly considered policies and strategies are developed and discussed in a better performing parliament. Decisions are made not on “party lines” but by intelligent, practical, fair minded “individuals” – the majority decision creates the policy in accordance with the Plato “public good majority”.
Financial – a saving of around $200 billion each year.
Do away with spin doctors, agents, advisors, consultants, special interest minority groups, big business, unions and all the “power brokers” that have effectively today usurped “the people’s” democracy over the last seventy-five (75) years. We will return the national parliament to the Australian citizen.
Constant “haggling” over money and financial commitments between national and state and territory governments in infrastructure, health, education, transport, law and order and housing is simply cost inefficient (all monies are paid by the taxpayer). Joint powers worked last century but are totally ineffective today.
If the national government was a national commercial enterprise it would have either:-
a. Rationalized many of its state activities given the advent of sophisticated computers and algorithms;
b. Sold off such activities, or
c. Merged such activities.
The national government needs to do this now in the best interests of the Plato “public good”.

Today money is absolute power and allows the powerful monied people interested in politics to do whatever without any discussion with or at times no consideration for “the silent majority of citizens of Australia”. There is no better example of this than the Suburban Rail Link in Victoria today and how this policy and commitment has been made and funded. It has been done with no consultation or insufficient consultation with the community.

Each and every Democracy First candidate is dedicated to understand and assess all policy with absolute commitment and integrity and will vote as he or she believes to be in the best interest of the majority of people in such persons electorate.

Democracy First will give democracy back to the ordinary person. Democracy First will provide responsible government for the majority of ordinary, fair-minded Australian voters and their families and future generations. That is the purpose of each Vision Statement. That is the objective of each and every candidate standing under the name Democracy First.

Today democracy is in tatters. Power is in the hands of a few mostly wealthy narrow-minded people with selfish single minded objectives that has led to what we have today – dishonest government with one and one objective only - power and money and not “government of the people, by the people and for the people”.

We will change that. We will govern honestly and openly and with full transparency. And we will govern always in the best interests of what we perceive is the majority view of the Australian citizens and not as done today where all political parties provide policy which is either too far left or too far right or too narrowly conceived and made with little or no consultation with public interest groups. Vision statements on all policy may change with time but such simply affords the Australian people with knowledge of policy and future policy. Such in time will lead to the demise of political parties and government will be in the hands of dedicated, intelligent, fair minded persons who will act in the best interests of the majority of all Australians in respect to each policy made (and not govern for particular small minority groups of people).

The national parliament should be strengthened by a more efficient and intelligent public service. This would be achieved by creating “career public servants” by starting studies in year 10 at secondary school followed by a university degree. With time (it is a 15 to 20 year project) we do away with the multitude of agents, advisers, consultants, spin doctors and lobbyists whose fees are excessive and who can not be trusted with confidential information and who invariably advise government with a view based solely on votes and power and money. It has led to weaker government and few if any natural leaders.

DEMOCRACY FIRST SPECIFIC STRATEGY & POLICY
ALL DISTRIBUTIONS OF MONEY TO CITIZENS SHOULD BE FAIR AND “PASS THE PUB TEST”.

1(a) FINANCE AND TAX POLICY

Simplify our Tax system:-

Reduce emphasis on income tax and increase emphasis on “user-pay” for tax revenue.
The tax free threshold should be lifted to $45,000 (same level as the social wage below), then,
10% tax levied between $45,000 - $100,000;
20% tax is levied between $100,000 and $200,000;
30% tax levied $200,000 and above.
These tax rates should be indexed annually in line with inflation.
The long-term objective is to have the poorer citizens on tax-free income and the better off citizens on an average flat rate of around 15%.
Introduce a wealth tax on the net assets of individuals to be agreed but say $5 million dollars or more.
Introduce a death tax on the net assets of individuals to be agreed but say again $5 million dollars or more. On the death of a partner in a legal relationship no tax is paid on the transfer to the survivor, but a low interest rate is applied and on the death of the surviving partner, death tax is paid in full before a distribution of the estate is made to the beneficiaries.
Capital gains tax is abolished (such is effectively collected via wealth and death taxes).
The corporate tax rate for foreign corporations trading in Australia should be levied at an agreed percentage of turnover derived from the sale of goods and services in Australia by the foreign corporation and paid quarterly just like GST.
Australian corporations will pay a rate of tax as determined by parliament from time to time which shall at all times be a competitive rate in the world market place.
GST should be increased from 10% to 15%.

1(b) SOCIAL WAGE

For poor persons increase the “social wage” from the current aged pension level of around $22,500.00 for an individual to $45,000.00 for all individual pensions.

The full cost to do so will be as much as $500 billion each year. This increase would be rolled out over a ten-year period from the savings made by the abolition of state and territory governments each year as best one could afford from such savings.

Provides dignity for the old, poor, infirm, injured, disabled and unemployed.

Generates increased GDP (productivity) as most of this money will be spent and not saved to improve the quality of life of recipients.

Increased GDP means higher profits for Australian business so direct benefits of a significantly increased “social wage” is provided to both the poor (pension recipients) and the rich (owners of capital).

1(c) RESTRUCTURED WAGE SYSTEM FOR THE WORKER

The base objective of the restructure is a “base wage” – salary for work done in a much smaller number of work categories. I have suggested just four levels – unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and very skilled.

There may be more but the main objective heading into an era of robots and AI is to simplify and make the basic wage structure fairer by establishing it for different categories of work.

Unions would still represent workers employed in various industries as today. The simple change is that each type of work undertaken is first classified as above.

This does away with the current working arrangements where someone who holds a stop/go sign at a building site today receives for a normal 40 hour working week upwards of $120,000.00 per annum while a nurse on shift work (day and night) and after three years study receives between $50,000.00 and $85,000.00 per annum.

Other industries where Australian workers see insufficient return for their labor include Teachers, Ambulance workers, Emergency Services Workers, Aged Care Workers, Police. (Sadly all government employed persons but such group does not include the public service or politicians.)

Each person regardless of the industry or employer would receive the same “base rate of pay” as other workers in the same work category.

This policy would again need to be rolled out fully over a ten year period and is estimated to cost another $500 billion as all wages would be adjusted to the highest wage in each classified wage class.

2. HOUSING POLICY

(i) Today we need to immediately improve the availability of places for people in Australia to have a bedroom to sleep – take these people including families off the streets and away from living in cars and vans.

Bedrooms in apartments and houses could be rented and the facilities at the property shared with other persons who occupy other bedrooms. There are currently an estimated 13 million bedrooms in Australia today. Occupation of just some of these bedrooms could significantly ease the current housing crisis. The rent received by a landlord could be tax exempt

(ii) Secondly, caravans could be used at selected sites around the country to provide for homeless individuals and families.

(iii) We need a national housing authority solely responsible for planning, building, purchasing, funding and allocating public and social housing to poor individuals and families. Such housing should be based on need, demand and cost and include three-bedroom houses, and one, two and three bedroom apartments that would be purchased or rented and allocated to poorer members of our community.

(iv) In the private market where a house or apartment is rented if tax concessions for “investors” are continued then such should be offset by a tenancy agreement where if a tenant pays the rent each month on time and properly and reasonably maintains the property the tenant should be entitled to up to a 20 year right to occupy the property. A Tenancy Rent Dispute Board should be established to determine new rents that cannot be agreed by the parties. This will create a new group of individuals and families who for various reasons choose to rent rather than buy a house or apartment to live in and by a long term tenure can live there “as if” owner with a continuity of suburb and surrounds including schools for children. Such provides for a much healthier family or individual social environment.

(v) A better structure needs to be established to look after an ever increasing number of tenants. I recommend tax concessions to builders who build to rent and private consortiums or individual investors that purchase long term rental investments from special licensed builders of these properties. These private consortiums or individual investors would also be licensed and would then rent the properties in the marketplace and may receive a guaranteed minimum rental return from government as our incentive.

(vi) A new Australian citizen today should be required to wait two (2) years from the date of citizenship before being entitled to purchase property in Australia. Such decision is made by necessity to reduce demand for both houses and apartments in Australia today.

(vii) Finally, the Foreign Investment Review Board should for a short period of say two (2) years refuse any application by a foreign person for approval to purchase any Australian residential property.

(viii) The above are all short to medium term policies necessary to relieve pressure on the housing shortage in the Australian residential property market today. Long term national government policy must commit itself to a comprehensive decentralization policy. It does this by giving tax concessions and various incentives to encourage business to transfer from the major cities to selected regional towns. People will follow the businesses relocated or established in these regional areas (with tax concessions if necessary). People will be able to purchase housing at lower prices and enjoy an improved quality of life. The policy will reduce demand for housing in greater Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and such will lower or moderate any future rises in house prices in our major cities.

(ix) With the abolition of state governments and with the sole function of local municipal councils to act as administrators for decisions made by the national government, the national government is provided with the sole control and power over planning for all types of buildings across the country. This will significantly reduce costs and significantly increase efficiency in the roll out of every future building development in the country.

3. MIGRATION AND CHILD CARE, FAMILY CARE AND AGED CARE AND INFRASTRUCTURE & DECENTRALISATION

Migration today should be limited to migrants who can take up work Australians either do not want to participate in or in which there is an under supply of labor.

There are currently many small towns in Australia in decline because the current children of farmers no longer wish to farm but instead find alternative employment in the major cities in Australia. These small towns could very quickly be turned into vibrant “new towns” by providing in each town a “Medical Centre” occupied by qualified doctors and nurses. Initially a number of these small towns could be created with such services as “aged persons towns”. This would give its residents a new lease of life and improve social enjoyment and quality of life for them. It could also provide a good source of work and opportunity for migrants wanting to resettle in Australia without having any major effect on house prices.

Child care, family care and aged care workers under my new policy should be permitted to work in these fields in Australian homes and thereby provide support to working parents, families and old persons.

The worker would need to satisfy strict selection criteria. These workers would provide an important choice for parents with pre-school children (a child-care center or a family support person). Likewise a choice at home to assist and support families and aged care persons.

Such is a win-win-win for the government, Australian families and overseas “housemaid”. It simply requires a wage and terms and conditions that are affordable and agreed by all parties. And respect and understanding to make it successful to all parties whether such person looks after pre-school children, older families or in the end aged persons. Such migration does not increase housing demand but provides a better quality of life to the Australian citizens and the overseas worker from developing countries such as the Philippines and is rolled out at a much lower cost to the national government.

4. LAW AND ORDER (Exclusive State matter today)

Police force

(i) Police need to be trained better with longer and more comprehensive and specialist courses such as white collar crime, computer theft, different sexual assaults, sexual/financial/social bullying and vilification.

(ii) The strategy should be “proactive” policing and not “reactive” policing which we have today and which we have had for the last twenty (20) or so years.

(iii) There should also be more police “on the beat” and there should be an increase in numbers of police investigating white collar crime.

(iv) Traffic regulations should be given to a special non-police entity. It is demeaning and lowers public appreciation of the police to have them enforcing road laws.

(v) Police should be paid more to attract intelligent fair-minded individuals to the force and be better resourced.

(vi) Graffiti should be attacked not supported. A special non-police entity should be established to prevent and enforce graffiti penalties. Penalty appeals should be heard before a specially created board as part of the process.

Law Courts/Judges

Bail should be harder to obtain.

All judges in our legal system should be appointed by a special independent board established in each state.

A pro-bono legal scheme using retired specialized lawyers should be established to provide legal advice to ordinary citizens who today have no access to the legal system other than a low level legal service by underpaid and under resourced lawyers.

Prisons

Prisons are currently at full capacity and more need to be built to house persons incarcerated.

5. CORRUPT AND DISHONEST CONDUCT

Corrupt and dishonest conduct in politics and business is increasing at a rapid rate throughout western society including Australia today.

(i) First abolish all political donations to political parties or politicians. The money to fund elections by political parties and independents should be simply taken by agreement out of public revenue.

(ii) Social equality is the “initiator” to change attitudes in society from a “me and only me” – “does not involve me so I do not care” – “I will do anything for money” to a more honest and respectful society where its citizens are respected and treated equally regardless of their sex, age, religion, race, color or social – economic standing. This mindset needs to be taught at pre-school and in primary schools in Australia today.

(iii) Business and capital can assist by having a more balanced approach between profit, employees, suppliers and customers. The government should lead both the individual and family and business towards this objective.

(iv) Establish an apolitical independent authority or board to appoint better qualified persons to head up and work in government and semi-government authorities which regulate and oversee various businesses and corporations in Australia today. Most big businesses today seek the profit at the expense of the customer – food retailers, telecommunications companies, insurance companies, superannuation businesses and banks for instance.

(v) Democracy First candidates will work towards being social leaders also. There is a need for our society to become more honest and respectful with and towards each other. Honesty and respect must be prioritised and developed and strengthened in the home and school and seen by our young in the way the adult Australian acts, speaks and behaves.

6. EDUCATION

(a) Primary and secondary schools

Education has become a political playground for politicians as a result of losing sight of what is valued and important for each student in Australia today. The national government funds universities and tertiary colleges. The state governments fund primary and secondary schools. And both along with the municipal councils and private enterprise fund pre-school centers.

The central education objective over the last 10 or so years has been to give a child self-confidence.

Respect to and for other persons, honesty and a desire to learn and seek knowledge and become a better person each day as a result of that increased knowledge have been left behind.

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

Recommendations

The curriculum is over-crowded. It is a tick box style with insufficient time spent on in-depth analysis. It should include a program to teach children from an early age basic well-being and good family teachings in respect to honesty and gratitude, determination and resilience to succeed and to be better from learning.
NAPLAN should be discontinued. It is not valued today by sufficient numbers of students or teachers to justify its existence.
The syllabuses need to be balanced and interesting so that the students are from the outset encouraged to learn and improve their mindset. We need more education outside classroom teaching into settings that offer alternative education pathways for students to learn.
Discussion, debate, reasoning have been left behind and understanding an issue or person replaced by an immediate judgment of that issue or person.
Learning then needs to be developed in smaller groups of various different intellectual abilities (such to be regularly reviewed). This learning includes writing, expression and numbers. The development of honesty and respect should be introduced into the syllabus in grades 1, 2 and 3. Elementary political, legal, social and economic and religious matters should be introduced into the syllabus in grades 4, 5 and 6. From grade 7 students should be encouraged to find “interests” in a subject or subjects and be guided by the school and at home in the development of that interest.
Each school from grade 1 should establish a social welfare program where monies are donated by the child to help other children in Australia and overseas. It is most important today to “extend family” from the traditional family unit to other persons in Australia and around the world who for various reasons need our help. It is a mindset thing that is desperately needed in the western world today.
The national curriculum needs a national teaching registration to allow for easy teacher transitions between states – this is retarded by the current constitution and the power it has given to the states in education.
Teachers should be paid more for what they do today. Higher pay will result in a higher demand for young people with the right aptitude and intelligence to teach. The syllabuses for a teaching degree and allied certificates need to be reviewed and strengthened so that teachers make a career in teaching and do not leave the profession as they have and continue to do today. The same national syllabuses need to be rolled out across the country.
All schools need access to laptops for every student. Today students in schools in low socio-economic areas share a laptop with one or more students. In 2024 this is totally unsatisfactory. Funding for this essential piece of equipment should be provided by national government. It is essential for a student to have his or her own laptop to succeed today. It is today social and economic discrimination by government.
A new secondary course commencing in Year 10 called “Government Public Service” should be introduced and continued after Year 12 as a degree course at university. Over time this will provide Australia with a stronger and more intelligent public service at all levels.

b) Pre-school / Kindergarten Services

There should be a public enquiry into how this has been established and rolled out. The total annual cost is around $20 billion each year. Instinctively Democracy First feel it has been a “rort” and continues to be a “rort” today.

Pre-school children should be encouraged to learn from aged adults in homes in their street and neighborhood. This could be rolled out and be much more effective and done at a much lower cost to the taxpayer. At the very least it should be offered as a choice. Australian governments have very much failed the child and its citizens with the cost and rollout of kindergarten and pre-school centers over the last 20 or so years. We need to balance the needs of individual children with different personalities, interest and learning styles and abilities. It is not easy – best done with small groups of 2, 3 and 4 children.

c) University and tertiary school

First and foremost interest charged on HECS fees should be abolished. The fees should be repaid interest free over a period up to ten (10) years from completion of studies.

Again education policies in this industry have been made with haste and lust for money. In many instances the student has come off second best. It is open to “rorting” if it is not properly regulated and managed. At some colleges providing students pay for their certificate the students get their certificates regardless of their attendance record or essay/assignment record or exam record. This is hardly an education. It is a rort created, managed and controlled at the outset by successive Australian governments over the last twenty (20) or so years with one (1) and only one (1) objective – the money.

7. HEALTH

More money must immediately be provided to improve the health services in this country.
The wages of all persons in the health industry need to be increased.
Hospitals need to be built where they are needed and not to simply win votes in an electorate.
Limited dentistry work by way of an annual check up should be included in Medicare.
Medicare has become a health tax as now less than 50% of the standard medical consultation is refunded to the taxpayer. Medicare should fully refund all persons receiving the social wage in respect to medical services. Such would relieve the strain on emergency departments at all public hospitals and be a fair policy in respect to an essential service particularly at this time when cost of living increases across the board affect poor persons much more than other citizens.
Develop small medical/hospital centers in outer-city areas and regional areas in the country – in cities such will provide quicker and easier access to medical/hospital services and in the country such will provide an essential service and help retain and develop the infrastructure in that regional town.

8. FOREIGN POLICY

A “neutral” foreign policy for Australia just like Switzerland in Europe. This would save us billions of dollars each year currently spent in Defence.
Restructure and reconfigure the United Nations. Transfer the current “world policeman” title from the USA to a restructured and reconfigured United Nations and provide it with an army, navy and air force. And have the United Nations acknowledge and accept all political systems in the world today and the sovereignty of each country (Ukraine and Gaza/Palestine and Taiwan being the exceptions).
The USA must transfer the power of having the world number one currency to ideally a “basket of currencies” traded under a new name. This new currency should come under the control of the World Bank – there should be a merger of all banking and financial activities currently undertaken by the Bank of International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The United Nations should become the “controlling coordinator” of all aid to third world and developing countries. The various entities that have evolved simply because of the weakness of the United Nations should continue to work under the direction and coordination provided by an effective United Nations.

9. ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

Our policy is to thoroughly examine and trial all future energy options to replace fossil fuels – nuclear, renewables including wind, solar and hydro, green hydrogen, biomass and geothermal energy. Small scale them all over the next few years. In 2023 65% of our energy came from fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) and 35% from renewables (solar 16%, wind 12% and hydro 7%).

Democracy First is committed to acknowledging climate change and producing a fair and considered policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% from a 2005 standing by 2030 in Australia inline with the current national government policy.

It should have its very own ministry.

A “fair and considered policy” is a policy constantly under review. Such then allows discoveries as are occurring today such as by the Australian company Sea Forest Limited which uses a special type of seaweed to reduce methane gas emissions from livestock by 98%.

As more and more people and governments in the world commit to climate change more research will be undertaken and more discoveries made and hopefully by 2050 Australia would have made a significant contribution to the full transition of the production of energy from fossil fuels led by coal, gas and oil to the production of energy from renewables led by wind, solar, water and other alternative energy resources such as nuclear and green hydrogen.

10. TWO (2) LARGE SCALE PROJECTS

Create an “agricultural hub” somewhere in Australia by damming north Australian rainwater and thereby increasing the rate of flow of the Darling and Murrumbidgee rivers in Central/Eastern Australia to create a “vast food produce industry” to feed the world. This was first suggested in the Bradfield Report to the National Parliament in the 1930’s.
Create a “tech hub” and encourage tech entrepreneurs to invent and create tech products much like Silicon Valley has been developed in the USA today.

11. INDIGENOUS PERSONS POLICY

Democracy First agrees to give full recognition to indigenous persons in the Constitution.

We also certainly believe a long list of previous Australian national, state and territory governments have failed to advance the cause of indigenous persons in Australia since Federation.

Democracy First was neither for nor against “The Voice”.

Our policy is to review what we have done in the past to determine where we have failed indigenous persons and to commit to a micro analysis one on one interview with every indigenous person in this country 10 years and older to provide an assessment of age, sex, location, interest, level of literacy, objectives in life, employment etc. In simple language a dossier on each indigenous person. Today we have the technology that was not available 125 years ago or even 10 years ago to effectively collate such information into a “blue print analysis” from which various experts in the fields of education, indigenous persons’ affairs, teachers, social welfare, various fields of employment can review and analyse the information and provide recommendations to a steering committee appointed by the national parliament. This steering committee will comprise of indigenous persons and other knowledgeable well minded persons in various fields of work. There are approximately 825,000 indigenous persons in Australia today. Just under 100,000 are full blooded indigenous persons and the balance part indigenous.

We recommend a “pilot micro analysis” be undertaken by 500 researchers appointed by the government to each interview 200 full blooded indigenous persons and provide a report to the steering committee.

This report would provide a much better overview than the government recommendations provided by “the Voice”.

It would then allow us to better educate and better service the needs of all indigenous persons by adopting the recommendations of the steering committee. It is another 20-year project along with much of our policy in this paper – but in my view this is the preferred way forward.

CONCLUSION

A new Constitution would recognize indigenous persons and the date of such new Constitution could be the date we celebrate Australia Day.

A new constitution. A republic which leads the western world by moving away from a federal system of government to a simple national government with state and local municipal administrative and advisory centers is the way to go.

I will not see it, but I hope my children will. A vote for me is a vote for this future as outlined. I seek success. If not, I leave you with this paper.