Australians are being very poorly served by our politicians at present. They are consumed by combat and we are being spiflicated by spin.
In the midst of the greatest economic crisis in 60 years and an impending climate disaster, there is no spirit of bipartisanship or even a modicum of reluctant co-operation. There is no intelligent debate on any issue.
Alan Kohler, writing in Crikey today, says he can’t:
remember a time, apart from 1975, when the issues were more important and the political discussion emptier. Both sides of politics are as bad as each other. No-one, it seems, can make a speech without the main point of it being an attack the other side; no politician seems capable of assessing any idea on its merits except as an opportunity to gain short-term political advantage.
And everything, everywhere and always is about spin, he says. Frankness and substance no longer exist. The media are so cowed by the relentless pressure from political advisers and from cost cutting, and business leaders are so worried about retribution, that the politicians are not being held to account.
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