Politics in Australia has gone down a number of unexpected roads.
Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra. PICTURE: Michael/Unsplash
People who have strong opinions about minority issues have spent a lot of money engaging lobbyists to turn their sideline concerns into mainstream, win-or-lose-election issues.
Meanwhile, no-one employs lobbyists to promote the big issues that actually affect most of us because when it’s everyone’s problem, it’s assumed someone will do something about it, which often means no-one does.
The result it that often all the noise and heat in our political debate are about issues that are just window dressing and the huge issues fall off the agenda.
Is our government putting its greatest minds on infrastructure or political popularity? Are our best brains thinking about economic innovation or consumer novelty?
Perhaps it’s time we paid some lobbyists to lobby for the end of lobbyists.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
