With the Queensland State and Local Government Elections
rapidly approaching, I have been doing a spot of soul-searching
in an effort to try to convince myself that my "my vote is
important!" considering the total chaos that exists across
the political spectrum.

The Local Government Council area politically is an absolute
shambles, being nothing more than a rubber stamp for State
Government policies and decrees.

Democracy itself disappeared with the implementation of Beattie`s "forced" Amalgamation process.
This once great State appears to have been now relegated to the position of being the worst and most expensive State to live in overall.

The Federal sphere of things is not much better with the
current Labor Government seemingly intent on putting the
country into hock forever, whilst wallowing in the deviseness
created across the nation with the continuation of the grand
plan, the Multicultural Nation, a failed experiment that will
ensure generations of racial tension, mass unemployment and a decaying social system.

I survey the long, long lists of Candidates vying hopefully
for a position at the taxpayers-funded trough, many without
a single thread of moral responsibility to this nation, but
bursting with an overpowering desire to please their masters
and their Party`s policies, in a frantic bid to claw their
own way up the tree to political and financial prosperity!

I flounder in the knowledge that regardless of the direction
that I may cast my vote, the system will remain, a runaway train
thundering downhill towards the inevitable derailment!

I'm thinking maybe that those who complain loudest about our dreadful politicians and political parties should put their hands up for going into politics themselves?

Maybe if we sacked all the current politicians around Australia, and just start afresh with candidates sourced from their most vocal opponents, they could show them all how it should be done :)

Nice thought, Suseonline.

>>Maybe if we sacked all the current politicians around Australia, and just start afresh...<<

Unfortunately, the process of creating a politician is entirely contained within one of the most self-obsessed "closed shop" operations anywhere in the country. Before you can replace the people, you will need to replace the system. And to replace the system...

Citoyens, aux barricades!

How about an "Aussie Spring"?

Nah. There's a footy match on the box...

It's probably an old joke, but a mate of mine reckons elections are always stacked.

No matter how you vote, it's always a politician who wins.

Not all councils are linked to party politics, with candidates owning a party.

Naturally, they are still mostly old style Nats or new style Libs with a handful of Labs and Greens in there too.

If there is a shortage of vision amongst these people, then it can all too frequently be the result of their political allegiances, behind the scenes.

It also depends on whether you live in a council with wards or not.

A vote in a ward where the councilor has a massive grip is a wasted vote if you are on your own, but in a council without wards, it might have more effect, since there would be more people feeling gyped across the coucil area.

As for state elections, again, if you live in a safe seat and do not support the incumbent, your vote is wasted in terms of a changed outcome.

However, you can vote strategically, and waste your vote a little less.

Vote against the incumbent, giving it to the major opposition person who might unseat the incumbent, and reverse that at the next election, alternately putting in one and then the other of these cloned drones.

Or, vote for an absolute outsider and then exhaust your vote (state election only). Not much strategy involved here but at least your preference does no unwanted supporting for you.

Never follow a HTV card, unless you happen to agree with it.

At the next Qld election, I think it would be fun to give the Katter crew a first preference in the hope they'd get in and make government unworkable, since the LNP is likely to take over on its own otherwise.

What a laugh to have a minority LNP relying on Katter's support!

Qld would become an agrarian socialist paradise in no time, just like it was back in Red Ted and Joh's days.

A 100 foot statue of Black Jack erected in Lang Park, and another one in St. George Square should kick off an interesting time here.

the difficulty..of the current system is
govt threat..[armed police]..and private prisons..[and a selfish media]

there is a cure
the united nations..[un]
becomes the sovereign united nation states[sun's]
[australia has at least 550..china must have thousands..[etc]

i tried to describe it a few times
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13170&page=0

it all hinges on us recognising we are all origonal
[ab-origonal]..from somewhere...everywhere it matters

and that knowing is worth knowing
credit-able..equally to all

it trains its own body politic
there only to serve the living
[not dead corperate trusts]

keep it simple
runs community via school based recources
act locally..think globally]

Crackcup and TBC have it right. I always follow TBC's election strategy, although I would make an exception if I were in Kelvin Thomson's electorate and intend to vote for the Stable Population Party for the Senate. It is obvious to most of us that the vast majority of politicians are greedy, eager to do the bidding of their corporate masters for personal advantage, and feel no special obligation towards their fellow citizens or concern for the welfare of anyone outside their own circle. That, among many other examples, is why Australia's UN diplomats recently opposed a General Assembly declaration condemning junk food advertising to children.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/public-health-policy-at-the-mercy-of-corporate-greed-20110906-1jv50.html

You can't even count on enlightened self-interest. In their case, you can forget the enlightened part. The real problem is that they are short-sighted and pig-ignorant about the biophysical basis of our prosperity and, indeed, of our survival. That is why Australia ranks near the bottom of the developed world in comparisons of environmental management

http://epi.yale.edu/epi2012/map

It is also why we have the fastest rate of population growth in the developed world, despite the lack of evidence of any per capita benefit and lots of evidence of negative impacts on our environment and quality of life. In a country with less reserves, I would say that they are setting us up for a collapse. The Greens appear to have lost their original environmental focus and become captives of the Far Left, as they emote on gay marriage and open borders for asylum seekers, and pussyfoot on population growth, the major cause of growth in domestic greenhouse gas emissions, even though they claim to be concerned about climate change.

Anyone who exercises the slightest interest in Television
Current Affairs programmes would have noticed that there
is a general trend of indignation towards Local Councils,
right across the nation, many of whom are considered to
be way out of line in their treatment of constituents and
the nefarious methods thatare being utilized by these
Councils to boost their coffers!

Many of these Councils are out of control and are treating
ratepayers as simpletons, to be milked as seen fit by these
arrogant little demi-gods who are working against the
constituents, instead of for them!

The simple and most obvious answer to this problem would
be to vote OUT all the members of a morally questionable
Council,.....unfortunately it does not quite work that way,
as sitting Councillors can apply costly media advertizing
bias and word of mouth campaigns against potential
"do gooders" and anyone nominating for one of these
positions can be faced with a costly and psychologically
challenging few weeks leading up to the actual day of the
Election.

The other and more drastic answer to this problem would
be to eliminate Local Council bodies across the country, and
leave the day to day running of these Local Government areas
to the particular State Government.

This option would only be succesful if the State and
Territory Governments were HELD responsible to the people for their
actions, ...a move that appears to be long overdue. It all
sounds frought with problems, but the nuts and bolts of this
type of administration would have to ensure that the State
and the constituents` needs would be met in a more satisfactory
method than the archaic system that is in place at the present
time!

Why do we have to fear beneficial change?

Crackcup, quoting from your opening post:

<< I flounder in the knowledge that regardless of the direction
that I may cast my vote, the system will remain, a runaway train
thundering downhill towards the inevitable derailment! >>

Yes. So don’t vote for either! They are both essentially the same in their political direction, and are both rotten.

It makes no sense to struggle over which one to vote for. The only sensible thing to do is to vote for neither, by either lodging a blank ballot or voting for a minor candidate only, so that no preferences filter down to either of the ‘liblabs’.

At least you can vote for a minor party or independent candidate in Queensland, which has the optional preferential voting system, whereas you can’t federally without your vote ending up counting for one of the two big buggers, under the disgusting compulsory preferential system.

Returning a blank ballot paper is NOT a wasted vote. Voting for one of the big dinosaur parties on the basis that you think it is ever so slightly less disgusting than the other one IS a morally corrupt vote!

Don’t do it!

hELLO crackcup. Yooohooo, are you out there?