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The vision thing

15/5/2019

1 Comment

 
By Ed Thexton 
 
I READ a lot about vision and the fact that no party has a vision for the country.  Don’t we really want to know that the things beyond the control or influence of the individual are being managed for our betterment?  That amongst other things, past wrongs are righted; corporate regulation is effective and the government of the day looks beyond benefitting their partisan support groups and uses their position and our nation’s resources to enrich all our lives by addressing the needs of the marginalised.  If, however you are fixated on a vision and you’re satisfied with a vision as a slogan, then Mr Morrison, the advertising man, is the one for you. ​
But perhaps vision is being confused with principles.  Principles are the underpinning narrative of the political parties.  A party without principles is no party.  Who forces Independents, the lone wolves of parliament, to articulate their principles?  And is it possible for the lone independent to give due consideration to the breadth and depth of diverse issues a government is confronted with?
 
It’s pretty simple really.  Running anything, especially a country, in this world, is complicated.  The more hands to the wheel the better.  Hence the benefit of a party structure to help with the business of thrashing out the principles that underpin the policies. 
 
In as far as politicians run anything, you can hardly expect anyone to be able to do it without some time in the job to focus.  That’s why I like the Labor approach at this election.  Stability.  This group, after the preceding period of disgrace, have had years to understand their responsible areas.  They have had the moral fortitude to go public with their policies months out. 
 
And where do these policies come from?  Policies come from work.  Work and respect go together.  Policies are far more than ideas.  Ideas inform policies, sure, but policies, among other things, are the end result of the considered evaluation of alternatives. 
 
You just can’t govern effectively on the run.  Policies help to minimise unintended consequences.  Even the best of ideas have these. That’s why thinking about things helps.
 
Mr Morrison, your party has run its natural course. The best have left.  You have been so busy with pursuing business as usual that you, your team and your policies have missed the fact that the world has moved on.  Take the time to build a new team, forget charisma, go back, work on your policies and give the others a crack.  
 
It’s time for renewal; Tony and Russell, that includes you.  Same sex marriage and climate change, arguably the defining issues of the times have found you on the wrong side of the social and science divide.  For the Liberals, this federal election appears to be a rehashing of the Victorian State election script which failed so abysmally.  To paraphrase the ABC’s Jon Faine at that time – male, pale and stale.
 
Ed Thexton is a member of the ALP.
​
1 Comment
Pamela
17/5/2019 03:19:13 pm

Ed, stability? Really? How quickly people appear to have erased the memory of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd comedy. One could say that was the episode which started the period of instability as people saw how self-interested politicians can be.
I hope you don't include Turnbull senior in your statement that "the best have left" the Liberal party, although one now wonders whether he was planted by the left, his preferred party. I believe the best remain.
I think PM Morrison has surprised quite a few people and I wouldn't say that he's been doing anything on the run. Quite the contrary.
"Male, pale and stale"? Don't be so hard on yourself Ed.

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