Government Of the People, By the People, For the People: Can we have Democratic Government without Democratically run Parties?

In the news this week there’s a few fundamental misstatements being peddled by the Liberal-National Party Government that can be usefully investigated and discussed.

1. The latest Coalition Budget claims to be a “long term plan” for the economy.

The Liberals have no Policy process, their minute-to-minute Policies are whatever the current "Parliamentary Wing” Leader decrees.

The lack of consistency, or planning, in Policy matters is highlighted by the multiple backflips of Howard - Nelson - Turnbull - Abbott - Turnbull - Morrison.

Remember Turnbull’s “Innovation Nation”? 5-minutes of thought-bubble that went nowhere.

2. The Liberals Federal Executive have no apparent rights to direct the NSW Liberals to do anything, let alone enforce “Captains’ Call” preselections.

There is no “Federal Liberal Party”, there is only a Federation of Independent and self-governing Associations that chose to field candidates under the one banner.

The outcome of the court case by NSW Liberals Matthew Camenzul will be illuminating.

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There will be election coverage targeted at 21 May 2022 with 14 May also possible, simply for Morrison et al to disrupt media timetables.

I'd like to see comparative investigations & reporting on how the major Parties are governed & run internally,

Even the bold experiment that was “Australian Democrats”.did they live up to Don Chipp’s mission statement, “Keep the Bastards Honest”.

The implications are that the Democtrats having the Senate balance of power delivered both stable government and very good policy outcomes.

I’ve looked at NSW and Federal Liberal party organisations:

they are in no way representative or democratic.

The "Federal Liberals" seem to have no members, no way for people to join. Just who do they represent?

The State "Divisions" are broken into a "Parliamentary Wing", those serving in parliament, and the "Organisational Wing"of ordinary members.

All policy decisions and platforms reside solely with the Parliamentary Wing - wholly unaccountable to anyone, let alone members - with all power seemingly vested in the current Leader.

There is no policy consistency or continuity within this system: especially apparent since 2007.

I’d contend this “seven-headed Hydra” of separate, independent state Associations with a Federal body does exactly what Menzies intended:

it delivers and retains all power and policy / decision making into the hands of the Parliamentary Branch Leader, initially Menzies from 1945 to 1966. After Menzies, it's been an unstable, squabbling mess, even during the Howard era.

This Coalition of Fiefdoms structure (‘Federation’ in Lib-Speak) explains why & how State Liberal Premiers and governments are seriously opposed to the Federal Policies - something that cannot happen with other Parties which are Democratically run and Representative of their members.

I’ve asked friends who are members of the Liberal Party about their Annual Conference - it seems to be secret and unreported - versus the very open & transparent Labor Party Annual Conference. Online it’s simple to lookup who Gough Whitlam talked to in 1969 and what was said to whom.

I suspect very few "Liberal Party” members understand the organisation or policy processes of their own “Party”, or that it is not a single national Party, but a bunch of mostly squabbling fiefdoms.

When I read the Federal & NSW Liberal constitutions, I was unable to see how there could be an “intervention” into the internal processes and working of NSW Liberals, such as is happening now. They are separate & independent entities, related only by branding, not even the same name.

I’ve not understood why the AEC gives the Federal Liberal Secretariat the $2/vote of Public Funding for candidates stood by other entities, the State ‘Divisions’ for Federal elections, while the AEC directly pays the State ‘Divisions’ in State elections.

I think that's an interesting area to investigate.

Since 2013, the Federal Liberals have walked the Parliament and Government away from Good Governance and established, Democratic Principles to something very different from our history.

They've repeated in Parliament their own non Democratic internal structure and organisation.

“Brandis-ing” by the Executive Government.

Brandis ignored, with impunity, all FOI requests for his diary, ignored Senate orders and court orders up to and including the High Court.

Quite extraordinary actions for any Minister, let alone the Attorney General responsible for upholding the Rule of Law.

When Brandis ‘retired’ and was given his sinecure of choice in the UK, all the legal and parliamentary orders and investigations evaporated - but the need for the information still remains and can never be filled.

Justice needs to both be done and be seen to be done, not ‘firewalled’ to “before times” and buried without consequence or comment.

The Coalition Government since 2013 has elevated Secrecy and deliberate Withdrawal & Withholding of critical Public / Governance Information to an art form.

It’s not only the obvious Acts and Regulations, it’s also deliberately removing long-standing reporting and information. The first assault was slashing the funding of the ABS, trashing important, long-running data series.

It’s no longer possible to discover what the “Tax Expenditure” cost of Negative Gearing or the Capital Gains Tax Discount for personal investments (housing). These alone account for the majority of our deficits. In effect, it's a Wealth Transfer via the Tax System from the low end to the most wealthy - it's deliberate and intentional policy of the Coalition government, begun by Howard and Costello.

The ATO was directed to removed these long-standing reports, along with many other critical financial & tax transfer reporting.

The Treasury reports Budget Outcomes - but while the Government Accounting system it runs provides detailed line-items per ‘Grant’ - it’s impossible to track what’s in a Budget and what was actually spent by any branch or agency. This is deliberate obfuscation designed to hide from the public where their money is going. Budget announcements are just that, announcements of intent. Without the possibility of following through actual expenditure, we have no idea of what the Coalition has done with our money.

Another long term change, beginning with Howard in 1996, has been a fundamental change in the Operation & Responsibilities of the Public Service.

Departments & their officers are now there to “serve at the Ministers’ Pleasure” - not to provide value to the Public, not to Effectively & Efficiently spend taxpayers’ money, providing Services and Policy advice.

There are no checks & balances on Ministerial directions, or accountability of their staff / ‘advisors’.

This is blatant politicisation of the Public Service, a co-opting of the interests and finances of the Australian public for the whims and purposes of Ministers, in service often of "Mates & Donors". There's no need to look further than the infamous "Sports Rorts" scheme to prove misuse of taxpayer money.

Since 2019, the Coalition has had a bare majority in the Lower House - yet Morrison and his Executive run the lower house as if they had an overwhelming majority, not barely in charge.

The unprecedented use of the “gag” motion is a countable indicator of this, as are the rulings of the Speaker against the Opposition.

The Coalition since 2013 has delivered a Parliament and Executive Government that is a reflection of their secret, byzantine and unplanned, directionless internal Party structure. The Bully at the Top model isn't part of the Westminster Democratic system, it's the hallmark of dictatorships and unrepresentative monarchies.

Part of the Big Lie the Coalition has promulgated, very successfully, is the Prime Minister is not simply ‘chairperson’ of the Executive, but a quasi-President.

The Coalition and supporters have convinced votersthat Federal elections are about “voting for the Prime Minister” - who in reality is only voted into power by his Party Room, only 75 or so votes.

In the tradition of Secret & Opaque processes and information, the Liberal Party now claim a membership of around 60,000. Around 2005, it was reported that both ALP and Liberal Party membership had declined to around 20-30,000 each - smaller than the Adelaide Crows Club.

Where did all those extra members come from? There's no obvious benefit of ordinary membership of a Liberal Division now. The only people to benefit from being members are those that manage to get elected, or appointed as a staffer / advisor to one.

There's got to be a very good reason for this rather large increase in Liberal Division membership - but it will forever remain shrouded in secrecy and obfuscated.

We’ve re-entered an age of “backroom deals” and “faceless men” - within the secretive, unaccountable group that is the Liberal Parliamentary Wing.

I’m sure the majority of Australians are unaware of the depth and consequences of these changes - and the implications, personally, for their future.

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I grew up in Queensland under Joh - since 2013, Federally I’ve seen the same nondemocratic take-over of government occur, but at much larger scale:

deliberate maladministration, nonfeasance, negligence, lack of accountability / consequences and trashing of moral codes and conventions.

Joh never had a majority of the plebiscite in his 20+ years, he relied on an electoral Gerrymander that was, ironically, introduced by the ALP to give them a hold on power.

The Premier / Prime Minister is not a President, with near absolute power, in a Westminster Government. The One who makes all decisions.

The Executive Branch of the Federal Government has been co-opted, exactly as Joh did, using Regulations to avoid passing laws and implementing the whims & wishes of Ministers.

The Parliamentary workload is almost nil. The amount of legislation debated and passed since 2019 is a small fraction of what Julia Gillard, in a minority government, was able to pass.

The “Gag” is routinely & aggressively applied in the House to prevent debate - doing Joh proud, when he only had a single chamber. Again, something the ALP had done to cement its hold on power, abolishing the Queensland Upper House.

Press Conferences & media interviews with the current Coalition Government are for dissembling, bragging, announcing - never for answering questions or being held to account.
The Gold Standard for media conferences was Julia Gillard standing until the assembled media had no more questions to ask. She didn't dismiss questions, refuse to answer them or waffle endlessly without answering - she provided real answers.

Joh used draconian laws to empower police to quash dissent, silence discussion and intimidate or imprison effective activists.

The current National Security, Terrorism and Media powers have been vigorously applied multiple times by the current government. Our Private Rights have been eroded massively since 2001. Meanwhile, nobody is talking about introducing a Federal "Bill of Rights".

Under Joh, the QLD Police didn’t just become a conduit for Corruption and enforcing Executive Branch will, it became violent and abusive, targeting minorities.

We still see the legacy of that in Queensland police action to this day in minority communities and lower socioeconomic areas.

Under the current Government, we’ve see the creation of Home Affairs - with an extraordinary concentration of powers, intelligence gathering, policing, investigation and it’s own black-clad jack-boot brigade in Border Force.

This is only what we know of.

Under this secretive, underhand and unaccountable Coalition Government, we have absolutely no assurances they've not spent our money on more draconian, intrusive systems of mass surveillance and paramilitary reaction forces.

The Fitzgerald Inquiry didn’t nearly end Organised & Systemic Corruption in Queensland. It did send it underground and forced them to refine their methods & be more discrete in their communications.

Heaven only knows what is being done & how far the octopus extends in the age of Secure Comms provided by “What’s App” and “Telegram”.

The Fitzgerald Inquiry revealed a far larger extent & range of corrupt practices than anybody outside the inner group could’ve imagined.

Remember the Inquiry report was only the tip of iceberg: what the Terms of Reference allowed and the what could be uncovered during the limited time of investigation.

Note: Fitzgerald did an outstanding job with the time and resources at his disposal. The intent of the Liberal Party government who ordered the Inquiry was only ever to take down Joh and his closest conspirators. Their intent was never to "Fix the System" and weed out systemic and endemic corruption.

The decade plus of targeted legal harassment of all the media and individuals involved in exposing Joh - as a deliberate warning off of others - is mirrored now with the long running Witness K / Bernard Collaery case - while Downer and others who ordered illegal bugging of a small foreign power have escaped without examination, investigation or consequence.

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