STATE OF THE NATION 2014

“Don’t vote – it only encourages them” is the typically irreverent and slightly anarchic joke about politicians. People are often heard to say, “I have no interest in politics.” The problem is, politics has an interest in them, and that attitude makes the relationship entirely asymmetrical.

Asymmetrical relationships involving power – where one partner has all the power – tend to become abusive. Parliaments that have massive imbalances between government and opposition become abusive, and ultimately corrupt. Corporate or private donations to political parties always come with strings attached, which is another asymmetrical relationship. In Australia in 2014, we have imbalanced parliaments, with powerful governments heavily influenced by corporate donors. In NSW for instance, it appears the Liberal government is not so very different to their much maligned Labor predecessors, with almost as many members being questioned by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Follow the money trail.

Australia’s natural environment (you know the one – it underpins our entire social and economic structure) is under attack as never before. We’ve had the odd battle before, but in 2014, in every state we are seeing unprecedented threats to, and actual damage or destruction of forests and farmland, aquifers and water catchments. The CSG industry, for instance, under the guise of ensuring supply to the domestic market, is sinking fracking wells by the thousands, when in reality the vast majority of the gas will be exported. Why? Because the export price is higher than the domestic price. Follow the money. This is why leading sustainability designers are nowadays specifying all electric buildings wherever possible, avoiding “natural” gas like the leprosy it has become.

CSG in NSW, QLD and WA is all but out of control, and coal mining is not far behind. The gigantic Canning gas basin, south-east of the Kimberley, is earmarked for extraction by the Barnett Government, adding a significant fraction of 1° atmospheric warming when burned. In NSW, election promises have been blatantly broken by the O’Farrell government over drilling and mining in water catchments, and several tributaries to Sydney’s catchment have disappeared already, thanks to the long-wall coal mining beneath the river bed. In and around the age-old cypress pine forest of the sprawling Pilliga Scrub in north-west NSW, AGL and Santos, with support from the NSW Police, have been forcibly removing (and arresting) farmers and other locals who have attempted to protect their property and the forest. What future cypress pine, one of the world’s truly amazing timbers? What future the Breeza and Liverpool Plains, with their extraordinarily productive black soils and delicate aquifers?

The Federal Government is as actively involved as the states in this wanton destruction. Thirty years of struggle to protect Tasmania’s World Heritage listed old growth forests (Lord of the Rings should have been filmed there) is under threat from Tony Abbott, who intends unilaterally destroy the agreement, delist those parts so recently agreed, all against the wishes of the greenies, the loggers, and the Tasmanian Government. Why on earth would he do that? It may be purely ideological, because he simply cannot stand to see agreement between his political and ideological enemies. Or maybe we should just follow the money trail again.

This is corruption, Australian style. We are not so unsophisticated as to take to unmarked envelopes under the counter. Well, we used to do it that way, and bent cops here and there might still. But at the highest levels we have evolved. Corruption is now a far more subtle and insidious beast. It is corruption of due process, and of principle. Planning processes are subverted or treated nominally. Rights of appeal removed. Right to legal representation during arbitration denied to landholders but not to coal miners.

Julia Gillard was crucified for appearing to break one promise, yet the current PM and most Premiers have broken many, without being nailed up for their actions. A curious state of affairs which Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt have yet to explain satisfactorily.

The moral of the story is that politicians are only ever likely to remain uncorrupted when they know enough people are watching them closely enough to curtail their run on power at any moment. And, we must fill our parliaments with intelligent and transparent women and men. Not buffoons, mining magnates, or their puppets.