The Meeting Place > Political > Is our democracy for sale?

Is our democracy for sale?

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Ben
2 yrs ago

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, you couldn't help but notice that Australia's democracy is in crisis.

Former NSW Premier Glady Berejiklian was forced to stand down and will front the Independent Commission Against Corruption, federal politicians are routinely accused of pork barrelling and misusing public funds and Labor is dealing with its own accusation of branch stacking in Victoria.

Tonight at 8.30pm, the ABC will air a stunning documentary called The Big Deal which should serve as a wake-up call about the frightening extent to which money has infiltrated politics.

Directed by The Chaser's Craig Reucassel, the movie shows us why we should care, and how we might work together to ensure our democracy is safeguarded from being sold to the highest bidder.

Watch the trailer here:

If you can't watch it at 8.30, you can stream the documentary at https://iview.abc.net.au/show/big-deal.

If the movie leaves you with more questions than answers, there is a Q&A fundraiser happening at 6.30pm on Thursday 21 October, hosted by comedian Tom Ballard, and featuring director Craig Reucassel, Greens Senator Janet Rice and independent climate researcher Ruchira Talukar.

Are you surprised at the extent at which money has infiltrated politics in recent years? Will you be watching the documentary tonight?

8 comments
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54-11
2 yrs ago

It has been a long time since we had so many corrupt politicians, at every level. The Bjelke-Peterson & Russ Hinze years in Queensland come to mind, but that was just at a state level. Now, we seem to be surrounded by corruption.

The worst thing is that the most prolific offenders claim their Christianity as a cloak to hide the criminal and dishonest behaviour. It's no wonder that Morrison and his band of merry thieves and charlatans don't want a federal ICAC.

The ALP is also complicit in this corruption, as we saw with Obeid and Macdonald in NSW.

"Keep the bastards honest" - what a sick joke that is played on the Australian taxpayers.

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Dave R
2 yrs ago

Big money can buy most politicians and rules the big parties.

Been that way for decades but it appears to be getting worse or even accepted as the way things get done since some don't bother to hide it nowadays.

The current federal government is probably the most utterly fiscally and morally compromised in the history of Australia.

Individuals like Clive Palmer, Rupert Murdoch and most big multinational tax dodging companies call the shots.

 

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RnR
2 yrs ago

Is our democracy for sale?

Yes it seems, sad to see.

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Incognito
2 yrs ago

Watched the Big Deal online, very interesting to say the least. Amazing what is going on and what they are getting away with, but we all knew that us voters have little say these days, money talks and always has.

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Farside
2 yrs ago

Voters seem to rarely punish governments for decisions taken during the term. Almost always come down to short term politicking and trying to change the minds of a few thousand voters in marginal seats because the "rusted ons" have either already made up their minds, or living in seats where the vote makes little difference.

Even yesterday's historical decision by the Government to overrule the Speaker's decision to refer Porter's slush fund will carry negligible electoral consequences. It just becomes another entry on the long list of moral and ethical failures the Government has found itself on the wrong side. Even those feeble minded lackeys that agreed with the Speaker (and the pub test) fell into line and remained silent.

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CARRIE
2 yrs ago

Think a much bigger issue is the sale of Australian assets to the Chinese.  Don't have any objections to a lease agreement but definitely not a sale.  We cannot buy land or homes or ports in China so why are we not reciprocating in kind.  Australians want our assets for Australia.

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Tom Tank
2 yrs ago

One of the basic tenets of capitalism is that your property is yours and unless it is a Security issue you can sell it to whoever offers the best price. To change that would require a huge change in conservative attitudes and the shutting down if the IPA and probably Murdoch Media.

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Mondo
2 yrs ago

Effectively we do not live in a democracy which is supposed to be "by the people FOR the people." We live in an auctionocracy. The people vote for the party they believe will do the least harm which then uses that mandate to auction its authority to the highest bidders be they big business or unions. The interests of the people are then totally ignored because the political parties are on the payroll of the vested interests. 

 

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Farside
2 yrs ago

not bad Mondo. Never heard the term 'auctionocracy' or that explanation before.

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Lucca
2 yrs ago

Yep,  Mondo is right, we live in an "auctionocracy" and our democracy is going very cheap

www.auctionsinkentucky.com

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Sue Ridge
2 yrs ago

Ho hum, it is noted that there were no conservative voices on the program. Turnbull used to be a conservative until someone took away his toys and he hasn't forgiven them. What if the laws were changed to stop political donations? Would that make any difference? My thoughts are that those who donate to various political parties would find another way. Look how the unions do it now, they buy advertising space supporting the Labor party. In 2007 they spent about $21M in advertising and, coincidentally, when Labor was elected the unions were granted $21M for a worker education program.

 

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