Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly and the statue Ethos (Tom Bass, 1961) Photo taken by Adz, 11 August 2005
If elections bore you, you can change that. An election is one of the few times we get to interact with our democracy and are allowed to have a say in it. Elections should encourage us, but they don’t.
Why? Because we get the same thing every time from the major
parties. Promises, promises, promises that mean nothing; unless you are
gullible enough to fall for them.
The title of this article does not carry the same weight as Veni, Vidi, Vici. This is the Latin phrase attributed to Julius Caesar that boastfully states, I Came, I Saw, I Conquered. Imagine that today, a politician saying what they meant and did. With most politics today, there’s no weight to it, just promises.
So, what’s a voter to do? If you are unhappy with politics as usual, and you don’t like any of the major parties, you can either start a party of your own or look to a minor party.
In the coming A.C.T. election, many minor parties are running. The minor parties know they are going to struggle to get your vote because it’s hard for them to get noticed. They don’t have the budgets of the major two parties. But, the minor parties can make a major difference in how this territory is run. The minor parties can hold the government accountable, and they can better represent Canberrans and their concerns.
As a member of the Canberra Progressives, I’ve seen firsthand how this party operates. They don’t have social or political ideologies as Liberal and Labour do; they have values. Their principles are ethics over influence, evidence over opinion, and collaboration over collusion.
If you are sick and tired of complaining at the news every time you hear a new government decision that you don’t agree with or see some ex-party member getting a cushy “job for the boys”, then in the coming election you have a chance to do something about that. You can change these things, but you have to vote for a minor party. Hoping that a major party is going to change their ways and do what you think is right is not going to happen. Major parties are for the party and not for the people.
A minor party could hold the balance of power in the A.C.T. assembly. For members who sit on the crossbench, a deciding vote can come down to them. They can put forward policies. They can give you a voice inside the government and not just at election time.
The Canberra Progressives have 7 candidates in 3 electorates: Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi. If you put them first on the ballot paper this election, you will see the difference that a minor party can make for you.
So, instead of being bored by elections, get involved, get
interested because it’s your future that is going to be decided by elections. It’s
your money governments will be spending. Governments get to have a large say
over your life and they can make it better or worse. What do you want?
