Few people need to be taught what empathy is. But, after recent comments by our Prime Minister maybe he can use a few lessons.
Our Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently attacked Labor’s suggestion to
increase unemployment benefits claiming it as “unfunded Newstart empathy”.[i]
Then there is his government's uncaring, perhaps soon to be judged illegal, and
dehumanising Robodebt scheme.[ii] The results of which have seen people
actually taken their lives because of being hit by a computer-generated letter
that tells them that they are in debt to the government and must pay it back
now.
If anyone wanted a picture of what a lack of empathy looks like, they
need look no further than the Robodebt scheme operating under this Liberal
Government.
When it comes down to understanding each other and sorting out issues, a
conservation is the best method to achieve this and not a letter of demand from
an artificial intelligence system that has been poorly set up and poorly
managed.
Companies
that have policies that show an affinity, association, or a relationship to
their customer's needs do much better than companies that have little empathy
for customer requirements. “How this traditionally soft skill yields hard,
bottom-line results for organizations big and small”.[iii]
Empathy is
an innate, and a learned skill. However, for political expediency and trying to
destroy the opposition because that is the way a government dominates political
discourse, when a government shows no empathy, then they are failing the
majority of the population and lacking a basic human quality.
Empathy
killers are,
·
Jargon
·
Poor
education
·
Intolerance
·
Haste
·
Looking
the other way
·
Criticising
others without putting yourself in other people’s shoes
· Judging people
Another
strong reason for everyone to learn and show empathy is it is good for the
health of our nation and for the health of our citizens. Just imagine having an
unempathetic doctor or nurse? What if Scott Morrison went to a public doctor
and not his private personnel doctor who is paid for by the public purse and
the doctor said, sorry, you haven’t funded us properly, I can’t treat you. I
wonder what he’d think about unfunded empathy then?
The decline
in compassion and understanding shown by certain politicians in Australia,
especially when it comes to Aboriginal people, refugees and the unemployed, all
the people who have had their voices taken away, has had a serious effect on
their health. In turn, the health of our nation in the eyes of the world is
seen as poor and failing, which it is.
Empathy has
limits on what it can achieve. And, that’s why we need more than empathy. The
Australian people need to be able to vote directly on policies that affect the
health of our nation in our eyes, and in the eyes of the world.
A direct
democracy where people get to decide on policy initiatives would save us the
time to teach politicians empathy, which they should have learned through their
life but clearly have not. You and I getting to vote on primary legislation
that directly affects us would mean that we get policies that are aligned to
what we want and not what a select few in government want to maintain their
ideology and power over us.
If we want
to improve our political system, we have the power to insist on direct
democracy by writing to your local member, or by forming a new party.
[i]ttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/29/unfunded-empathy-scott-morrison-pushes-back-on-growing-calls-to-lift-newstart-rate
[ii]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-18/hundreds-have-already-beaten-centrelinks-robodebt/11523278
[iii]
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322302
