Re-Presenting Your Interests

Welcome to the 1st Edition of 2010 A Personal View.

It is certainly timely to launch A Personal View amongst the controversy of two QLD NLP politicians resigning from their party to become a 'coalition of independents'.  Mr. Messenger (Member for Burnett) and Mr. Mclindon (Member for Beaudesert) have launched themselves into a virtual unknown future through removing themselves from their party machine (National Liberal Party) on the platform of the need for our community to receive re-presentation unfetted by Party Politics and the power of the faceless party machine.

The right of our community to have an elected member to 're-present' the majority of our community is indeed the role of our re-presentatives, of course this includes all levels of re-presentation, Local, State and Federal.   Through time and money this re-presentation has been lost to the Party Machine interest, those that have the funds and resources to saturate the screens and pages of the paid media to provide an 'image' of trust, compassion and legitimacy.

Many of our community are mesmorised by party politics, including myself in the past.  The Party's offer the vision for the individual to have a say within the party machine, local branch input, the ability through state/national conferences,  to challenge the existing policies to make a difference and to feel good about the process.  However the reality is, only found out through time, that there are only two types of groups are in control of all political parties and one of those is not the individuals at the branch level. 

The first is the 20/30 year olds  who have risen straight from school to university politics then through natural osmosis to party intern, through junior then senior posts within Ministerial offices.  Following a successful period in the mainly testosterone filled environment,  they are preselected to a safe seat, of either party. 

The second are those that are parachuted into positions because of the past sporting or other community achievements and therefore are beholden to the machine for their existence and would not contemplate risking their 'comfy existence' by rocking their gravy boat.  I can count on one hand the amount of 'ordinary' folk that I have personally known who have gained pre selection for political seats and then gone on to have won their seats.  Most 'ordinary folk' whom  are preselected are done so into seats that have a real 'no show' at winning, they are encouraged, cojouled through promises of future gains or through some false party 'loyalty'.  Remembering that the 'Party Loyalty' is built up through the pyramid sales approach of riches at the end of the rainbow that all party's 'promise' their brethren.

There are those, of course in the any Party, who like Messenger, that have not followed the 'normal' political path, he is of the 'ordinary folk' and therein lies the trail to Mr. Messengers current situation.  He is not within the 'boys club', he entered the arena as an 'ordinary folk' and is not beholding to the party for packing his parachute, nor has he completed his ministerial apprenticeship or completed his 'time' in the pyramid sales of party branch politics.

So why have I used the term re-presentation throughout.  Because it is the whole basis of our democracy, it's not just representation that we should expect of our elected officials.  We should and demand of them to re-present our majority view and therefore they are re-presentatives, to ‘re-present our views’.    And this is what, love him or otherwise,  is what Mr. Messenger is doing for the the constituents of the seat of Burnett.  And perhaps there are other elected re-presentatives at a State level close by whom should also consider Mr. Messengers lead.

This is my personal view and I welcome your feedback

Mal

Mal McCullough

Email: malmccullough@gmail.com