Mike Bolan Politicians represent the party, not the public
IN another revealing piece by Matthew Denholm (Protest push risks Lib seat, The Australian, 5 Sep 07) we find that Ben Quin, liberal aspirant for the seat of Lyons, on deciding to represent his electorate by querying subsidies for the pulp mill, has raised the ire of the liberal party. Then follows a revealing line that states “State Liberal director Damien Mantach said it was not acceptable for candidates to contradict party policy.”
It seems that Ben Quin came to his decision on the basis of many meetings and discussions with members of the communities that he hopes to represent, in other words he is trying to represent the views of his electors and, as a consequence, win a seat in parliament.
That is the manner in which our representative system is intended to work.
But the State Liberal party doesn’t allow that. It isn’t ‘acceptable’ for candidates to represent their electors if it contradicts party policy. The public is basically offered a choice -‘vote for the party line’ or nothing. Our representatives don’t represent us, they represent the party. It’s up to the public to get behind the party, not up to the party to support the public.
Mark Vaile, on the SBS Insight program 4 Sep, stated that the party listened to all viewpoints then put them through a ‘policy filter’. What is a policy filter? Filters remove things so a policy filter removes things that the party doesn’t want included. Thus only those viewpoints that ‘pass the policy filter’ are going to be included in party policy. In other words party policy determines party policy, not what the public wants or needs.
It should be clear that for a nation with a diverse population, like Australia, there is no ‘one size fits all’ policy. What is really needed is a range of approaches that meets the broad spread of needs that exist in the community. We also need open minds to try to deal with our fast changing environment.
It is almost impossible for a multi faceted approach to spring from the ‘party line’ method articulated by both Mr Mantach and Mr Vaile. Theirs is a self-fulfilling world where their policies (i.e. prejudices, deals, preconceptions, history) limit their study of the needs of taxpayers with virtually no reference to what is wanted, or required, by the taxpaying public. Theirs is the world of the first World War generals, sacrificing millions of lives for their outmoded ideas of trench warfare.
Once again, good for Ben Quin.
We need to find more politicians who are actually capable of thinking for themselves, and who are actually interested in representing their electors.
