Last week saw Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, schedule a Federal Election for July 2nd this year and the fight for my electorate of New England looks impressive. Although the election is not formally declared, and Turnbull can await the end of the year, the campaign is off and running here. Prior to 2013, yes - we have a 3 year electoral cycle nationally, our member was Tony Windsor, an independent ... and a very good one at that. He was a true independent thinker and highly consultative with his electorate. Moreover, he held this seat by an impressively large margin, something like 62% on a two-party preferred vote after allocation of preferences. We are allowed multiple transferable votes and if there are five candidates we can number them from one to five.
Anyway, Tony retired in 2013 and I was sorry to see him go. In his place we elected one Barnaby Joyce from the National (read Country) Party and he has subsequently go on to be elected leader of his party and become Deputy Prime Minister. In a way I quite like Barnaby's colourful personality, but the government has stumbled its way through the last few years with some dreadful policy making, and long raucous fights to get policies implemented , especially in the Senate where it is nowhere near a majority of the votes. Part of the problem was the previous Prime Minister's (Tony Abbott's) dreadful leadership. He was a bully with scarcely an original idea in his head and zero negotiating and leadership skills. He talked all the time in meaningless slogans, one-liners designed for ignorant TV and radio audiences. The problem is that this country, like all advanced nations, confronts huge adjustment to an accelerating tsunami of new technologies and the globalisation of just about every aspect of economy and society to the extent that governments have to be extremely agile on their feet. To make matters a lot worse still, domestic society is hugely fragmenting, with like the UK, perhaps 7 to 10 major interest groups separated by age, lifestyle choice, wealth and income, city-country, skills and knowledge, risk profile and many other dimensions.
Now, the two major political groups (the Liberal and Nationals vs the Australian Labor Party) with their need to present a united front to the electorate are stifling constructive debate about the future, and this is in my view disastrous. Complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing social and economic environments require carefully considered and highly civil discussion presided over by excellent leaders who can explain problems and alternative solutions to often scared electorates, while at the same time being open to hugely transformative thinking about public sector management and issues like environmental management, social equity, and economic innovation. Are we getting this with parties on both sides riddled with intellectual cripples, monumental ignorance about the issues at stake, party whips dedicated to the suppression of unusual ideas, and malign public relations specialists trying sell images of political harmony. Well, you've probably guessed my position. The answer is a resounding no and, in my view, the existing political apparatus is long due for the trash can of history.
And this is where the likes of Tony Windsor come in. He was a breath of fresh air, carefully thinking about issues, future oriented, engaging with his electorate fully, explaining and justifying his actions - something we desperately need from all our members of Parliament rather than sycophantic monkeys performing meaningless dances. Worse still, many politicians seem increasingly tied to a string of vested interests with (often unjustifiable) historical entitlements and positions of influence to defend. This is partly because of the increasing expense of running party machines and electoral campaigns. Tony Windsor seems removed from the stench of this apparatus and his slick on-line electoral presence is into things like crowd-funding of his campaign.
So, with this background, in mind, I turned out this week to his first political address of the current campaign held in Armidale's town hall and the meeting was packed with a mostly adoring crowd. Tony is only a little younger than me, but gave an interesting speech justifying the role of independents like him, explaining his achievements during his parliamentary career, and stating his reasons for seeking another term - coming out of retirement. It's going to be an interesting contest because opinion polls to date seem to suggest that he's in with a good chance of unseating the deputy Prime Minister. Here he is in full flight. I only had my mobile phone with me so the picture is not of usual quality.
AS
