Firstly, there is no such thing as democracy, outside of the concept and a dictionary definition. What English-speaking countries call "democracy", is the ability to vote for a totally unqualified person that looks and sounds good to the masses, who will then act as spokesperson for the oligarchs.

There is only one better example of this than the back-stabbing of Rudd by Gillard on behalf of a few large mining interests... George W. Bush.

Secondly, there are companies and conglomerates in the world that control more wealth than our entire economy, and some, even bigger than the American economy. It is these interests that "rule". We just take care of "local affairs". America is ruled by stock markets, banks, the Industrial Military Complex, oil and arms interests. Not the American people.

The Reserve Bank, which is representative of ALL banks in the country, gives policy to the government. WTF?!? So the banks set policy, not government, on interest rates and the like. The government, whoever the (often totally) unqualified spokesperson in office is at the time, merely recites what is told to them to tell us.

None of this is "democracy" as we understand a "democratic government". We don't elect leaders, we elect followers and spokespeople that will tell us what we "should know". But it will 99% of the time, be in the interests of those larger forces...banks, resources, and foreign interests of influence...the US. Politically, we function as its 52nd State.

This why only faces change, but things stay the same. Even political dogma between Labor and Liberal is BS. Howard won his first election on social dogma, and Keating won office on Liberal dogma. Hawke won saying that we wouldn't sell uranium to the US anymore. Well, a month later he flies over there and meets with Ronny Ray-gun and cohorts, returns to Oz, and we're selling even more uranium to them. End of issue.

We don't control our country, we only populate to farm the resources and act as a market place and a workforce.

Try as I might, I'm unable to imagine moral leadership on just about anything coming from Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. We don't currently have any leaders who are interested in anything other than gaining power and holding onto it at any cost, it appears.

Anybody who cares about morals and ethics better fasten their seat belts, because they are in for a very bumpy ride for a very long time. These things are simply not issues anymore in government and media.

One day, probably not in our lifetime, people will wake up sickened by the loss of these things, and then they'll do something about it. Until then, keep expecting a downward spiral and figure out how to survive it as best you can.

James, your 3 areas of complaint are all a bit superficial if you don't mind me saying. The 2 complaints viz journalism are insoluble - try getting a media proprietor to NOT follow the pack! The complaint viz HTV cards is more interesting, but also a bit pointless if your summation that voters are cynical is correct.

What really affects outcomes that can be changed to improve (restore) democracy to our electoral process is the elimination of mandatory preferential voting. It is a bane on humanity that the political process does not permit voters to exhaust their preferences voluntarily (i.e. by only picking candidates they approve of). In the Senate we have the fundamental corruption of above the line as well, the source of all recent preference horse trading by all major parties, including the Greens - despite Bob Brown's insistence on last night's episode of Insight that there was something more honorable going on.

The law can be changed at the flick of a switch if BOTH houses approve of this simple change.

Now that would go a long way to restoring some value to our battered old democracy.

Go ask your local member to make it so. They are your humble servants after all.

I agree with bitey, although would also like to add that compulsory voting in Australia has a lot to do with election being no more than a popularity contest.

Sir, there is sincerity and good will in your article but some vacuum. You forget that all avenues of knowledge are barred to the ones who have little time, after eight hour manual work, to seek independent information and all that is available to them is servile journalism.

The uninformed or misinformed voter cannot but diminish the quality of democracy and, at present, with draconian privacy legislation and the means of information in the hands of business speculators, voting is a democratically fruitless exercise.

If you add to this fry the legislation that makes voting compulsory and secret (logically incompatible conditions) the democratic process finishes as an exercise in absurdity.

For this I go to the boot where I vote for myself only.

The Australian Elections this time around isn't about Policies with long term implications, nor strategies that will lead us into a millennium of future prosperity and World class - it's a disingenuous lackluster, myopic cocktail of giant ego's, vying for World acclaim, personal aggrandizement, and the termite-ridden Lodge at Kirrabilli.

The much vaunted TV debate was an anticlimax, with neither scoring earth shattering points. Worst, it showed up the Press Corps question time which accentuated their abysmal ignorance and grasp of the Economy, and their pubescent thirst for the inane ! Cultural cringe, at it's worst.

Gillard's duplicitious proxy of Kevin07, by a conniving cabal of back-stabbing opportunist in the Labor Party, is indicative of the malaise that Oz Politics has descended to. Morally, there is no precedent. Queenslander's, for which the Elections will be decided on ( 16 marginal seats ) are rightfully incensed and outraged.

Gillard, a single, avowed Welsh agnostic, has been repackaged as a baby kissing, family loving, egregious fashionista, trolling the shopping Malls, to resurrect her faltering popularity and refocus on her scatological claims of championing the underclass " battler's ", cause !

Visceral mad monk Abbott is promising a deja vu, JWH's bizarre Asylum seeker's offshore gulag - even suggesting Pelican habitat Nauru ( Devil's Island ) for incarceration and long term AFP back ground probes; work for the dole; 26 weeks of paid maternity leave; less middle class welfare spending; a return to manageable fiscal discipline and austerity.

Both incumbents are pork-barreling marginal seats, and promising million dollar infrastructure projects, which are unlikely to ever eventuate. Given, we've heard it all before from Hawke, Keating, Whithlam, et al.

Poor Gillard, for all her make-over, is dogged with a War on two fronts. Embarrassing leaks from sans Rudderless, defunct Cabinet caucus meetings, is causing her untold anguish and chagrin. Her principles and integrity have taken a bashing. On the back foot, her vehement denials and theatrical obfuscations, are a comedian's parody. Her elusive nemesis keeps getting bolder, which put's paid on how low, politicians will sink to, to achieve their goals.

As for

cont..