What is at the core of our political instability?

[Scary_Foot_9]

With another PM looking in serious strife surely its time we asked this question....


Obsession with Polls?


Is it politicians who are ruthless careerists who will go down every available avenue not to get voted out?


A political media that lusts over the prospect of someone getting knifed or rolled?


The nonsense proportional/quota system of our senate which means its very rare that anyone has any real control of both houses and thus can't actually enact their policy promises?


All of the above?


None of the above?


I honestly don't know but fundamentally we need a politically engaged and informed population to make sensible choices so we're not all **cked every which way. So this constant mistrust and unease that the majority of Australians already feel towards their own political system is a cancer on our country and something we need to figure out and amend quickly before something heinous occurs.

 

[Patrick Bullet]

The rot started when Tony Abbott became the Liberal opposition leader. First major event to get the wheels moving was Rudd and Gillard squibbing the ETS double dissolution opportunity.

 

[Patrick Bullet]

I doubt the instability will stop until Abbott, Turnbull, and perhaps Shorten (who still carries baggage from the Rudd Gillard Rudd era) all leave parliament. Possibly Dutton now too.

 

[Bradesmaen]

The 24h news cycle isn't helping, but neither is this giant chasm and divide that was last seen around the cold war era where you have politicians trying to split people so adamantly into left and right, rather than just getting on with the job. Trump does it all the time, Dutton and Abbott do it. SHY does it. These days if someone suggests a policy that is slightly humanitarian or related to the environment they are slammed as far left communists. When someone introduces a bill to deregulate some minor restrictions on business it's slammed as far right. I mean all you have to do is read this forum, reddit or comment sections on news websites to see how down hill it has gone. Never have I seen so much use of the word marxism and nazi as I have these days. Honestly it's so ****ed up.

 

[Scary_Foot_9]

The rot started when Tony Abbott became the Liberal opposition leader. First major event to get the wheels moving was Rudd and Gillard squibbing the ETS double dissolution opportunity.

Nelson (whoa remember him? Literally feels like a different universe) and Turnbull were two leaders in two years before him so I think it actually started before then in some respects.

 

[Admiral Byng]

Climate Change.

 

[Patrick Bullet]

Nelson (whoa remember him? Literally feels like a different universe) and Turnbull were two leaders in two years before him so I think it actually started before then in some respects.

Haha, yeah I remember him only now that you mention him! I think though that Abbott was cut from a different cloth altogether. Abbott was a masterful opposition leader who could very effectively sow seeds of doubt, destroy ideas, and strike irrational fear among people within and external to the Labor Party. The trouble is, his only talent seems to be destruction; he had no clue what to do when he was PM. Nelson and Turnbull v1 were not really all that memorable. Perhaps Rudd is at fault for all of this; in hindsight, destroying Turnbull v1 after the Gretch business was perhaps a mistake!

 

[Dry Rot]

Not at the core, but having mostly ****wits on both sides of parliament who have never had a proper job does not help matters.

 

[Scary_Foot_9]

Climate Change.

Yeah tripping over it has probably caused strife for at least 4 of the Prime Ministerships now, but what causes the tripping? There have been immensely contentious policy decisions (such as GST, privatising national services, introduction of medicare) in the past that Prime Ministers have been able to ride out and ultimately come out the other side of. Certainly for whatever reason PM's of the past seemed to for the most part lead their caucus, not have their caucus lead them so much.

 

[Patrick Bullet]

Maybe another factor is the disproportionate representation of minority views in the media. Someone (AM maybe?) posted elsewhere that the whack jobs in parliament only really got 6% of the vote and yet their wacky views seem to get way more than 6% 'airtime' in the media. That might cause some politicians to panic when all is well.

 

[Admiral Byng]

Yeah tripping over it has probably caused strife for at least 4 of the Prime Ministerships now, but what causes the tripping? Their have been immensely contentious policy decisions (such as GST, privatising national services, introduction of medicare) in the past that Prime Ministers have been able to ride out and ultimately come out the other side of.

It has been Abbott's issue specifically, basic idea that you can overcome the laws of physics through steadfastness of disbelief and PR spin. He has used the NEG just like he used the ETS to destabilise the leadership.

Rudd's issue was vanity and haste - policy on the run, wanting to make great reforms without thinking anything through. s**t bloke, s**t person to work with. Then hell bent on personal revenge when he got dumped.

I see Gillard and Turnbull as victims of the other two. With some faults of their own of course.

 

[DaRick]

The political instability within both parties over the past decade has been caused for a variety of reasons, with one constant being poll-driven politics in a manner which would have quite possibly seen John Howard removed more than once during his 11 year tenure.

In the Rudd/Gillard era, it was caused by personal contempt for Rudd by many of his colleagues, panicking when the polls headed south prior to Rudd's ouster in 2010 and a desire to save some furniture in 2013.

In the Abbott/Turnbull era, it was caused by the realisation that Abbott's personal lack of popularity would seriously undermine the LNP's attempt to regain government, causing the LNP to place Turnbull in the big chair in a (successful) bid to win government come 2016. Recently, it appears to be caused by the LNP's continued unpopularity in the polls, alongside ideological conflicts between the 'wets' (Turnbull) and the 'drys' (Dutton/Abbott).

 

[Total_Juddshanks]

There are a bunch of reasons, but fundamentally it comes down to this- politicians and their staffers are paid far too much.

Once upon a time if you went into politics you were either a successful person in your own right so you didn't care about the money, or had such a desire to make a difference that you were willing to take time out from your regular career knowing it was a limited proposition.

Now there is this whole class of shitty career politicians who are intent on -in the memorable words of an unnamed liberal backbencher yesterday- staying in parliament to pay their mortgages and kids' school fees. These mediocre, useless failures at regular life are advised and enabled by an even more mediocre class of staffers, straight from uni and student politics.

The result is their decisions constantly veer between their stupid prejudices and ideological hobby horses and short term people pleasing fixes driven by the abject fear that the electorate, as it always eventually does, will realize what trash they are and kick them off the gravy train. They don't know why the electorate doesn't like them and don't know how to fix it, so the result is panicky leadership spills like that will somehow solve the underlying disconnect between public and politicians.

That underlying disconnect and the public dissatisfaction with instability means no party can create or maintain a decisive majority for an extended period of time, which in turn creates more instability, chaos and short term thinking.

Both sides are as bad as each other and have more in common than they like to admit.

I don't know what the solution is but as a starting point politics can't be something people set out to do with their life- if you can't independently succeed in regular Australian life you shouldn't possibly expect to play a role in its government.

 

[Pessimistic]

Rudd’s rules will mean shorten will stay in power until he resigns himself or loses a general election

 

[Thegibbsgamble]

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Two words

John Howard

This is his legacy

He took Aus Politics to the right and we ended up here

 

[QuietB]

Climate policy is the thing Australia cannot come to terms with

 

[NSWCROW]

abbott

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Weak leadership

Abbott started it, there had traditionally been a level of bipartisanship on big economic policy, which Turnbull was going along with when he was working with Rudd on the CPRS. The Liberals for some reason rolled him on that and it's been ****ed since. It was the right - climate change is just too scientific and not religious enough for them.

Rudd and his mates (incl Gillard) were weak as piss and folded on it.

 

[Gough]

I think the internet and Facebook have introduced people to politics who may not have engaged in the past which has in turn changed the tenor of the debate.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Climate Change.

The Deniers,Murdoch and the mining industry V the morally correct thing to do
Exponential growth on a finite planet V limits to growth

 

[Bomberboyokay]

More of a supplementary issue, but the media was caught off guard in 2010. So they're obsessed with always seeing it coming now.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Two words

John Howard

This is his legacy

He took Aus Politics to the right and we ended up here

It has nothing to do with his politics. The Howard years were a period of great stability compared to what has come after.

But you can lay some of the blame for the instability down to him. If he had smoothly passed on the baton to Peter Costello there would have probably been another two or three terms of Liberal government. Instead we got the disaster that was Kevin Rudd. He was so bad that his colleagues stabbed him in the back. This started a precedence where factional groups from both major parties think it's ok to seek to replace a sitting Prime Minister. It’s undermined the public faith in government. There’s too many people in frontline politics and behind the scenes who haven’t done anything else. They are careerists rather than wanting to do the right thing for the country.

 

[kickazz]

So many good answers.

I think globalisation and it's creation of a two speed economy is pushing people to fringes.

I also think the fact that we haven't faced major hardships (world war or recession) had made a lot of left leaning types wealthy and given them the luxury of leaving trade unions and voting green.

 

[Coolangatta]

Political parties.

Everyone should run as an independent.

You can't blindly follow a team if there's no team to support.