While Senator Ralph Babet sometimes says things that bring to mind the phrase ‘mad as a cut snake’, he is right in saying that “Instead of democracy, we have autocracy”, in his article about the 32 pieces of legislation rushed through the Senate “without even so much as a debate on them”.

We don't have an autocracy of course - power by a single dictator - we have a bunch of tinpot dictators, all seemingly sharing the one brain among them.

So, although we don't technically have an autocracy, we have been gradually getting something pretty damn close to it, result-wise: with our lockstep leftist major parties, and a political class that is more remote from, and out of step with Australians than ever before.

If the slippery bills were not debated, as Babet says, the Senate should not have passed them.

Senator Babet, not a career politician, believes that our parliamentary system “needs serious reform”. Hear hear!

A couple of his suggestions are:

. Ministers should not be Senators. How, he asks, can the Senate review legislation with any integrity when executive members of the government responsible for the legislation are part of the review?

. Parties should not be on how-to-vote cards, replaced with just the names a local representative who voters think will best serve them.

Good ideas from a politician, not just trying to keep his job, like most of them. He wants “ ….. Senators free to assess legislation on its merits rather than according to party allegiances”.

The Senate was supposed to be the states’ House.

(Source: ‘Spectator Australia’)

You think they're actually going to let the people decide anything?
- The apples become too rotten, the whole entire western political class do not represent their constituents.
We don't just need new ideas we need a full western overhaul.

Keir Starmer - Call for General Election petition now at 3 million signatures.
http://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700143

Nigel Farage's Reform UK is gaining support.

3 million people calling for another election is just like calling for another referendum when the Brexit vote went the way they didn't want.

No sympathy for the Brits: they voted against the Tories for going too far Left by voting for a mob that is even further to the Left, and getting more that way.

They are stuck with Stasi Starmer for 5 years. Serve them right.

Meanwhile, let's concentrate on our own problems. Albanese has had 4 big knock backs, and he hasn't got a clue how he is going to police the ridiculous under 16 ban from social media. And Dutton wants face scanning. What a mess Australia is in. I think they are both more interested in collecting the massive fines from the social media companies than they are in 'having anyone's back', helping out parents, or "protecting" children: as well as increasing their despotic control, of course.

Hi ttbn,
I'm not sure if you saw the discussion Paul and I had, he said that Labour would be in for quite some time after the Tories were booted.
- I told him don't be too sure, this won't last very long.

I'm not sure what the plan for social media is either tbh.
I can't see the social media companies themselves enforcing Digital ID on every global user.
Not unless a critical mass of countries demand it.

The browser I use most of the time is Mozilla Firefox.
It has a built in VPN, why couldn't these kids just spoof their location to New Zealand for instance, and create a new account bypassing Australian rules?

Tech savvy kids will find a way around it, post a tik tok video on how to do it, and the government will have blown another truck load of money for absolutely nothing.

But at least it 'looked like' he did something.
The bloke reminds me of Elmer Fudd.

It feels to me like the government is trying to build a database of voice and facial recognition on every citizen in the country, so that ultimately you can't go anywhere without being instantly identified by AI, and you can't speak to anyone on the phone without being instantly identified by AI, even if it's not your phone.

They just need to find or create reasons to tell us they need to collect this data, i.e. 'for the kids safety'
- And it's hard to argue against it when they say 'kids are committing suicide because of social media, and we have an obligation to do something'.

Maybe that's just my paranoid conspiracy inclined mind at work;
But in this day and age, it probably shouldn't be entirely discounted.

On the yearning of both our left wing parties to censor us, the current push is on social media. The M.A.D bullet has missed us, so for now it's only kids under 16 who will affected - if the Commissars can actually come up with a way to police the legislation.

Unless Online Opinion is classed as social media, I don't use the thing that the politicians fear so much. If we didn't have such things as Facebook, X, and the others I've probably not heard of, would it make any difference?

Not that long ago, there was nothing but newspapers, radio and TV. We all managed to pick the good from the bad (politicians), recognise their lies and bullsh.t, and go out and voter to punish or reward them for their service, or lack of service by deciding which mob we wanted.

Life was fine then. Politicians were not the downright scum they are now. Do we really need all the online yapping?

The hounds are off and running with no fox in sight. 34 pieces of legislation and no debate in sight.
What was there to debate, there was 34 questions.
Meat will not be put on the bones until next year.
Rampant mind running, seeing things that may never happen, blind inuendo m&d is alive and well, reform the senate skiddish headline, blame Albo for what the senate does, most people have two eyes, think before you hit the keyboard, change nappy twice a day.

How do we even know whether the real plan for social media has nothing to do with kids at all?
The plan to block kids may in fact be a plan to force all others to provide identification.
And given what's going on in the UK, well none of it looks good.

It's not just the Senate that needs reform: the whole of government in Australia needs to be pulled into line. I like the this from the Page Research Centre:

“Government is a necessary institution especially in its primary roles of national security, the administration of justice and the rule of law” …. But, “... the scope of government should be limited and accountable, and not liable to infringe on the rights of citizens”.

An IPA survey in October 2024 on the M.A.D Bill showed that Australians were even more opposed to it than they were to the Voice.

60 percent against the Voice, but 68% of Australians were ‘concerned’ that the laws (M.A.D Bill) would be used by government officials for political purposes, such as limiting public debate and censoring certain opinions.

What percentage of Australians want welcome to country/acknowledgment of country?

Until Senators like Faruqi & Thorpe are still allowed in Parliament any talk about reform is pointless & a waste of funding !

Politicians were not the downright scum they are now
ttbn,
Add to the the average dope addicted Tom Dick & Harry !

Democrats join 2024’s graveyard of incumbents - November 7 2024
http://www.ft.com/content/e8ac09ea-c300-4249-af7d-109003afb893

"Every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share, the first time this has ever happened."

- Is it fair to say that by and large, governments worldwide are now no longer capable of keeping their citizens happy?
Looks like my democracy-downward-spiral argument is looking pretty good.
Anyone want to tell me why this is so?

.

Dear ttbn,

.

You wrote :

« Senator Babet, not a career politician, believes that our parliamentary system “needs serious reform” ».

As I’m sure you are aware, Queensland is the only state to have a unicameral parliament. We don’t have a senate.

The Queensland Parliament is unique among Australian states in that it was the only colonial Parliament (pre-1901) to commence with two chambers and is now the only state parliament to have just one chamber, following the abolition of the Legislative Council in 1922.

Following the 2015 election, four additional seats were added to the Legislative Assembly (to a new total of 93), the voting system changed from optional preferential voting to full-preferential voting, and unfixed three-year terms were replaced with fixed four-year terms.

All that seems to be for the better, both economically and politically.

Perhaps the feral parliament should give it serious consideration as well.

.

Indy,

"like Faruqi & Thorpe are still allowed in Parliament" Shows this old bloke wants authoritarian government, he's not in favour of democracy where all views are tolerated, he simply favours a far right regime which imposes "law" that an extremist such as himself believes in. This bloke is boarder line Nazi, calls a person with aboriginal heritage a "concrete jungle bunny", wants young people militarised through "national service", what do those beliefs tell you?

democracy where all views are tolerated
Paul1405,
What views do those two tolerate ? Democracy means majority not minority ! Personally, I believe Democracy as being one of the worst forms of Dictatorship !
Re Faruqi & Thorpe, their views aren't views at all, they're just spitting racism ! I'm sure they'd call black chocolate or a black phone cover racist. Stupidity was never tolerated until the advent of the Left when it became a prerequisite for Uni BA students to graduate !

calls a person with aboriginal heritage a "concrete jungle bunny",
Paul1405,
That's a straight-out deliberate lie but then again, what else could we expect from the likes of you.
Btw. how's your snout, getting a bit sore from having it in the Govt funding trough all the time ?