The importance of political engagement in Australia

Let's talk about political participation and engagement shall we?  Earlier in the week we discovered just how ignorant Australian voters were because instead of focusing on policy they focused on criticising Prime Minuter Tony Abbott and leadership.  As you can imagine Twitter went absolutely nuts with comments from the public.

On one side you had the pro Liberals talking policy. On the other you have people criticising Abbott and his Government saying they weren't being fair.

ABC personality Leigh Sales interviewed Abbott on Monday night, if you could call it that and she wasn't interested in policy at all.  All she cared about was attacking the democratically elected Prime Minister.  Abbott tried to talk policy but she kept interrupting.  This is the exact same thing that happened last May when Treasurer Joe Hockey was delivering the budget.  Instead of hearing him and listening to him the mainstream media journalists had cotton wool in their ears and thought that the Medicare co payment would be paid by everyone.  They ignored facts.  The fact is that the truly poor will not pay.

The fact people didn't register this shows the poor level of political engagement in Australia.  It shows people don't take politics seriously.  Do people not comprehend that every single decision government makes effects us and if we don't have our say we won't be represented.

This means that policies will not help us.  Now the poor wax lyrical about how the rich don't pay enough tax but for example, 10% of $1000 is less than 10% of $100,000 so whatever way you put it the wealthy will always pay more tax.

Without political engagement we end up in a situation where the media doesn't report what's happening because nobody's interested.  If they're not reporting what's important how can we participate as citizens?

Political participation is a gift, without which we have no voice.  Some people throw that away.  That basically gives a metaphorical finger to Aboriginals and women who had to fight for the vote.  Did you know it took 18 years of campaigning before women in Australia had the right to vote?  The 600,000 NZ citizens paying taxes who live in Australia permanently don't have that right.  We can't join a party.  We can't donate and we can't have our say.  Businesses and interest groups can.  This is a contradiction. They are not citizens.  If they can pay taxes and participate why can't NZ citizens?  This goes against western democracy and human rights.

Next time you don't care about politics, spare a thought for those who can't even vote.