[Peetwo]

Bring back the "G" for GOVERNANCE - Part II




By Grace Collier, via the Oz:

Idea of government as all-powerful God is strangling Australia

Do you really think Scott Morrison will make the affordability crisis, if there is one, any better?

• Grace Collier
  
  Columnist
  Melbourne
  @MsGraceCollier
  [img=0x0]https://i1.wp.com/pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/79cdf79f743f5639328d180099fa64ef/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
  

Collectively, Australians have a bizarre preoccupation with government, perceiving it to be the solution to every individual problem. No matter what happens — if someone offends us, if we can’t afford something, if we feel left out, left behind, unhappy with our lot or fearful about our personal prospects — we expect government to do something, or give us something, and make it all better.

This belief in government as the solution is more damaging to our nation than any extreme religious doctrine.

We don’t need a god to worship and follow; government is our man in the sky. The Lord’s Prayer should be amended to reflect Australian community expectations:

Our government in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Government watches over me and will make my life better day by day. Government will dry my tears; make me feel accepted, happy, safe and loved. Government will clear for me a path in the jungle of life.

Government will catch me when I fall, smite my enemies, feed and water me, and lead me safely to my destination. Blessed be thy three layers of government, and the power of Centrelink, for thine is the kingdom of the public servants that rule over us, and the Department of Human Services that sustains us, for ever and ever. Amen.

This staggeringly dumb national mindset, this deeply held conviction that government should and will solve every perceived problem or financial hardship, is dangerous, self-destructive and self-defeating. Our delusions undermine our development and sabotage our future. Frankly, I am embarrassed by it.

For the latest pathetic example of our infantile outlook, consider the “housing affordability crisis”. Some people in Sydney and Melbourne arrived at the opinion that the dwellings they would like to live in are too expensive for them. Or perhaps the dwellings aren’t too expensive for them but they anticipate they will be too expensive for their children in the future, or even someone else’s children.

The wailing started; politicians started talking, the media joined in, and every day now people are talking about the crisis and how it may be solved.

The complaints are deafening, the coverage relentless. Everyone is looking to government for the answer.

Is this housing affordability crisis real or manufactured? Or is it merely another symptom of our overtaxed, overregulated society?

Regardless, it is deemed the latest national problem that the federal government must solve. And like drug dealers dispensing meth, they cannot resist. A housing affordability package will be central to the upcoming budget, and everyone can’t stop talking about what may be in it.

Do you really think Scott Morrison will make the affordability crisis, if there is one, any better? Or do you take the view that any crisis has been caused by government anyway, so perhaps the best thing would be for the authorities to back off, reduce taxes and regulation, and let the market work?

When in a hole, it is best to stop digging. But, like all addicts, we are blind to the damaging consequences of our dependence. The more we complain about our problems, the more the government becomes involved — and involvement costs money. The more tax the government takes out of the economy, the more expensive life becomes. The more problems government tries to solve, the more regulation it imposes. And so each day life becomes a little more difficult and complicated.

Despite all this, our belief in government grows stronger by the day. Too few who should speak out against it, and most people in or seeking government encourage it. The more government we have, the worse things are; the more we complain, the more government we receive. How do we break the cycle?

This week, a KPMG report revealed that up to 60 per cent of Australia’s households are not net taxpayers, once their income taxes are netted against allowances and pensions. This information should have prompted a national outcry. Malcolm Turnbull should have had a lot to say about it, but he didn’t say a thing and the nation reacted with barely a shrug.

The few are carrying the many, but as the many are being carried, the many are not worried about the few, not worried at all.

We have passed the tipping point and are on the declining slope. The few will become fewer. People will leave, wind down their efforts or just give up, and join those rorting the system or being carried. Eventually, the many will have no one to carry them. A hard fall on rocky ground awaits millions of soft posteriors.

From my experience in aviation safety administration, I'd be more inclined to swap the word 'Government' for the word 'Bureaucracy' in Grace's enlightening article...

To perfectly highlight the conundrum of having an all powerful, all consuming, 'law unto themselves' aviation safety bureaucracy, that is systematically decimating the GA industry in this country, one need to go no further than today's "K" reply post to Cap'n Wannabe on 6D's thread... :

..By the campfire:

CW – “In a nutshell, they can't change the law unless the government tells them to, and it was suggested that letters to the Governor General would be more effective. So I'm wondering if a similar thing would be possible with aviation..”

Ah, CW, pull up a stump, take a load off, sit a spell. There have been countless polite, articulate, reasoned ‘letters’ written over the years, to all manner of important folk. Not one of those letters has made an iota of difference, except to the post office revenue stream. Millions have been spent on all manner of ‘inquiry’ (in whatever form) all to no avail. You need look no further than the cost of the Senate Inquiry into the Norfolk ditching; the Forsyth report which followed that and the Canadian TSB ‘peer review’. All of that cost a small fortune; result? You guessed it...

...Until the industry ‘big guns’ start to fire, letters to anyone who matters from folk who don’t speak the language are only an exercise in typing. You are correct. Things must change, starting with the removal of the minister, as soon as practicable. Without an Act which works, a minister with brains and backbone, a CASA board which is effective, a DAS who understands it all and the support of the ‘heavy-weights’; you have a better chance of stuffing a wet noodle up a tigers fundamental orifice than winning the endless battle for real reform...  

It is high time the elected started doing their job and put back the "G" in governance, while putting the "P" & "S" back into public servants to the unelected Mandarins and their minions - just saying...

 


MTF...P2