Party issues and by implication personal professional matters have of late consumed much of your attention and time and so, I imagine, distracted you somewhat from the concerns of those in the Nicholls electorate.
The difficulties of the National Party and its coalition with the Liberal Party, in the final analysis, have little or nothing to do with the broader wellbeing of our electorate.
Sam, you are our representative in Canberra, who just happens to be a National Party member, and sadly you respond to that party’s demands rather than those of the wider electorate.
Statistics show, clearly, that support for Australia’s traditional political parties is tumbling, and voters are looking for something different.
Sadly, many are responding emotionally, turning to authoritarian groups such as One Nation, which draw people in with populist ideas, reflecting many of the horrors we presently see unfolding in America under Donald Trump.
Here in Nicholls we don’t need anything reflecting those terrors presently afoot in the US, rather we need kindness, compassion and a genuine interest in the wellbeing of individuals, which begins to fall into place when we put people ahead of profit.
I am, I suspect, something of socialist trying the live and survive in an extractive capitalistic world that is in serious disarray, championing the individual and frowning upon those who swim against the current celebrating collaboration and revelling in the strength of community.
Late last year I listened to the co-chief executive of The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, say, repeatedly, that members of parliament worked for us (the people), not the other way around, as many politicians seem to think.
With that in mind, and as my employee, I have a list of tasks for you:
First: Ensure the survival of the ABC, a national institute that plays a key role in ensuring our democracy remains in tact (the foundational process that took you Canberra) and helps keep Australians alert and aware of what’s happening when our weather goes rogue, something that is happening more and more.
Second: Break the grip the fossil fuel industry has on politics in this country.
Third: Channel federal funding away from private schools and in doing so free up the cash for our public school system.
Fourth: End any interest you have in privatisation, a process that allows a handful of people to pocket the profits, leaving the public to pay the bills.
Fifth: Reduce Australia’s commitment to military spending, for if our world stumbles into a major conflict our tiny forces would last about as long as an icy pole on a 49-degree day (I saw an example of that earlier today when an icy pole left in the sun at Ouyen was gone in less than 10 seconds).
Of course, there is another matter, and that is attending to climate change, for if we don’t do that all the aforementioned will be irrelevant, as will the other 1000 or so matters on my list.
17°C