Compliant, or Complicit?

Compliant, or Complicit?

From the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:

Older people make up a considerable proportion of Australia’s population—in 2017, over 1 in 7 people were aged 65 and over.

An interesting statistic, but is it of any use when we sit silently by impersonating compliant voters. Should we not be taking our concerns to our elected members of parliament. Is this what we worked all our lives for, to be tossed aside, rendered homeless by rising property prices, fuelled by the wealthy?

Did we compliantly pay our taxes, so the government could favour balancing the budget over the care of the disabled, simply because it’s politically expedient?

How many of us actually know the identity of the Australian Tax Office whistleblower? What did he disclose, and do we as taxpayers have the right to know, again we keep our silence just like the compliant citizens we have become.

The Afghanistan whistleblower. War is a terrible thing, killing another human being is inhuman in itself, we need to fully understand the consequences of war, and trauma faced by those sent to fight it. It’s in the public interest to know these details, unsavoury as they might be, yet the man bringing it to our attention now faces the Supreme Court, charged with five offences including theft, unlawfully giving information under the Defence Act, and disclosing information under the Commonwealth Crimes Act. This case led to an Australian Federal Police raid on the ABC's headquarters in Sydney earlier this year, which is now the subject of separate Federal Court action.

Just where did we allow “Public Interest” to be replaced by “Political interest?” What laws are our Federal Departments operating under, and whose interests are they protecting?”

Our have we become so compliant, we are now ourselves complicit? 

Riots 2019

It’s a sobering thought, from Fascism to Communism, Racism to multiculturalism, Capitalism to Socialism, everyone’s a critic.

Right now, in these cities, London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, and Moscow, they’re rioting against authority, or is that Authoritarianism? In all my 69 years I cannot remember another period in history, when the world has stood against it’s governors quite so globally as today.

In London, it’s “You’re not listening to me. In Paris, “Vous n’ecoutez pas.” In Germany, “ Du horst nicht zu.” And so on. The language may change, but the meaning remains the same. Governments and our elected politicians believe they are autonomous, answerable only to themselves.

Alarmingly, here in Australia, we voted back in a government we already knew wasn’t listening to us. It seems world wide our governments are no longer answerable to us, those that voted them into office. In fact it seems it is us that answers to them. Even more alarmingly, we are dissuaded from questioning our elected politicians, news rooms raided, journalists homes raided, why? Revealing the truth. Did we, Australia, really bug the offices of the East Timorese government? If that happened, and it seems it did, do we not have the right to know? I recall a car dealer being jailed for much the same offence. Why should politicians be different?

If laws have been broken, by our Bankers, our armed forces, and yes even our elected politicians, then we have the right to know, and to make our own judgement, when choosing a bank or going to the polls.

Journalism is the corner stone of our democracy, or what remains of it. If an employee of a company behaves dishonestly he, and the company are, or should be, held to account.

We need the media to keep us informed, so we can make informed judgment. Stand up, the freedom our parents and grandparents fought for, is being eroded, by the very governments we elect. Have your say while you still can.