democracy – Page 8 – The Lateral Hazard

With the suggestion of the voting age being dropped to 16 I’m sure we will hear the arguments of maturity and political awareness be put to suit the whoever think they will profit or loose from its expansion.

Looking back in my life as a baby boomer I was a apprentice bat 15, a union member at the same age and yes with the education from my parents I was pretty well versed on both sides of the divide and it was up to me to decide and like many our kitchen table became great parliaments at times..

Fast forward to today how we have changed and I was part of the problem we have with todays youth.

Like all boomers we put our kids first when it come to our family priorities and Parents we secondary unlike the our parents who struggled through the war and depressions with nothing other than survival in mind. We had to share when we acquired, our parents were the most important for our survival and we knew that and respected it.

We thought we were doing the right thing changing the family priorities for the kids sake but we did them and our culture a terrible injustice. We lost that respect we gave to our parents over time and now we cry our kids have no respect, they know nothing about life, government,or they live in a technological bubble.

We boomers took our eye off the ball, handed them everything we never had, sparing our youth the experience of working and waiting, and in many cases handed over parenting to schools and our protective services.

So yes if we can use this voting age change as a catalyst to claw back self responsibility earlier, if we can encourage big picture dialogue and civic responsibility then it must be a debated, but we as the grown ups need to improve our parliamentary behaviour as that example again does nothing for the case of maturity by example.

Democracy is tough and gauging the limits of ignorance of the electorate was clearly demonstrated when that punter was shattered when they could not vote for a person that was not on the voting form and didn’t care or know the structure of the party they were so passionate to support. As the count continues that ignorance is highlighted across all electorates as the informal vote in the 3 seats contested in Ipswich is over 4301 (no it’s not a post code) but it’s people who for one reason or another distance themselves from the responsibility that people have given their lives for and others that are dying to have the right.

You can be sure those who copped out are the same who whinge that politicians are useless, the same, and the countries going backwards or just blame Joanne Miller.

The fact is that informal vote can change governments, a state or nations direction, employment and health outcomes and it’s a wonder as most of us were surprised that last Friday was Black Friday that no one contacted the QT and complained Trump was not on the voting slip.

“Don’t you Worry about That” should stick in the mind of every Queenslander when a precious politician attacks the ABC as that was the spiel that we all were expected to believe as corruption flourished in our state and exposed by 4corners Moonlight State. It’s ironic in a world where the word transparency is used as a reason to be confident of the elected, however when it is used by the ABC it becomes a reason to ban them from press conferences or cut funds so they can’t ask uncomfortable questions.

This tactic highlighted by Trump dumbs down the public intentionally and that’s where they want us. Only feed us what we need to know and feed the networks that play their game.

If the public broadcaster is the outlet that steps outside the club that’s good for the sake of transparency, but it’s quite clear investigative journalism is not a priority in the land of commercial broadcasting in Australia.

We do not want to go down the road of “he who pays the piper calls the tune” in our media culture, we don’t like the chicken pellets thanks.

The response to the 4 corners program has shocked many Ipswich residents as it has the rest of Australians.That report is a clear indication of the value of the role investigative journalism plays in our day to day lives.

Ipswich residents were oblivious to the goings on in their own backyard on this issue as we were on many other issues highlighted by the show over time, so I have to question why do mainly conservative governments consistently cut funds the public broadcaster?

I’m not going down the road of political blame but with news outlets getting skimpier on basic content, staff cuts and amalgamations, true investigative journalism has never been so important to our democracy as well as our day to day living as this example has proven.

Tag: democracy

Voter Ignorance stymies Democracy.

ABC fights Dumb Down Strategy.

ABC 4 Corners leads Aussie Media on Investigative Journalism.