POLITICS

Active Politics

Like so many others, I have been somewhat of a political traveller through Australian politics throughout my life. Born into a very strong willed left-leaning political family, I was brought up as a Communist, but soon evolved into a committed Social Democrat, Republican and Nationalist. However, finding a political party and movement to fit my evolving ideological beliefs has proven difficult.

I originally joined the Australian Labor Party in the early 1970s only to abandon that when Paul Keating as Federal Treasurer publicly applauded the murderous Pinochet Regime in Chile, on account of the dictator's happy accommodation of Alan Bond's business ventures in that country.

I then joined the so-called 'Rainbow Alliance' based in Victoria. It soon fell apart when it became obvious to most that it was far more elitist and non-egalitarianism than it proclaimed to be. In fact it proved nothing more than a vehicle for the pursuit of self-interest for a number of 'high flying' academics and 'political' activists from all across the spectrum.

I then joined the Australian Democrats in 1989, and was pre-selected to run against Andrew Peacock. However I had to abandon that campaign when I accepted a lectureship at the University of the South Pacific at the Suva campus in Fiji. During the following few years, along with many other 'Democrats', I watched haplessly as the Democrats slowly disintegrated into a political rabble and then into oblivion-the result of incompetent leadership, and the inability to harness together its diverse political membership base.

Upon returning to Australia, I was persuaded that while you could not transform the ALP (my original political home and allegiance) to what it once ideologically stood for from 'without', perhaps it could be transformed from within. As a consequence I rejoined the Australian Labor Party and spent many years working to get it elected. However I soon developed further misgivings over how much it was consistently moving away from its original ideological base, Once a Social Democratic Party, it had morphed over time into an elitist party championing purely union interests, despite consequences for the environment, and the concerns of true Social Democrats. I also resented its blind kowtowing to the US at the expense of true Australian interests, and how it was also being increasingly taken over by both ALP 'careerist politicians' and 'party hacks' to serve as a vehicle for selfish personal ambitions. I resented what I saw as apparent self interest driving the inner core of ALP 'apparatchiks', interested not in ideology but purely their own gain. Ultimately, however, I did run as the Federal ALP Candidate for Fairfax in 2004, a campaign which ended disastrously, see Politics 2004 & Terrorism. As a consequence I quit the ALP in disgust in 2006.

With the Liberal/Nationals certainly out of the question, since that time I joined but then quit The Greens. While supporting The Greens' nationalist and environmental agenda, I could not countenance what I perceive as its ignorance and self-applauding naive stance on people smuggling and illegal immigration. I argue that The Greens mistakenly identify self-serving economic opportunists, as genuine political refugees suffering immediate, dire persecution. I also resented the Greens apparent take over by a leadership lacking an understanding of the real world, and seemingly absorbed with absurd dogmatism and sexual politics.