IOA Part 3 — An Independent Revolution
Is it possible, are the Australian people capable, of coming together in action (not apathy) to take back our future and reset the course of the future of democracy?
Do the Australian people desire international respect for being the kind of people who called bullsh**t and turned the crazy train of #auspol around? Or are we content to be the kind of people who did a whole lot of nothing to prevent blatant corruption and incompetence impede the potential of our country?
Is a big question.
Let’s look at Iceland for a minute. Iceland is an impressive but unassuming country. A few years back they became sick of their politicians and lost confidence in their pollies ability (and desire) to improve the situation, so the people of Iceland crowdsourced a new constitution. The document — the result of four months of consultation — was approved by a two-thirds majority in a national referendum but was ultimately rejected by the government of the time. Not to be defeated, the Icelandic Pirate Party made passing the constitution in parliament a priority, and a pre-election agreement between five parties to make that happen within two years suggests a strong commitment on almost every side.
I look at Iceland and I think Australians are as gritty, as determined and as pissed off at the fact that we are being taken for a ride by entitled, smug white men in suits. I say game on.
So what next?
If we can accept the following assumptions, that;
- Elected Independents will significantly improve the quality of democracy in Australia; and
- Independents are currently significantly disadvantaged in terms of funding, support, and resources;
then it appeared (past tense, have since developed my position) a sensible conclusion to establish a political party designed to offer independent candidates the support and resources they sacrifice for their independence.
I have chosen to write and explore the potential of this option publicly because I believe that radical transparency in this process if it were to gain enough support and momentum, is critical. And since this article has generated recent attention, I thought it best to update my latest conclusions after spending the last year or two exploring this topic in my post-graduate studies.
I also realise that as soon as Independents centralise any part of their platform or campaign they run the risk of derailing their own independence. So herein is the challenge, not to suffer the consequences of competing for a seat when the system is designed to benefit parties, but not lose integrity and independence when attempting to overcome the broken system in order to improve it.
Reforms to Australia’s political system can only work if enough Australians get behind it, and get involved. Such reforms to the systems and processes to get Australians elected should never be just one person's idea, we must all input and develop ideas, to improve community access to the way decisions are made and who gets to be in the room when legislation is passed.
If any new-age party were to emerge, one that enabled independents to remain exactly that, a constitution would need to be crowdsourced.
