Liberal Party’s referendum hypocrisy

The Liberal Party has recently called for a referendum on the issue of the Carbon Tax (although this has been termed a plebiscite; such a vote would not be binding on the government). As a public exercise to demonstrate widespread national opposition to the unpopular tax, this may be worthwhile; however, it raises the wider issue of pubic referendums.

The Liberal Party’s call for a Carbon Tax referendum smells of rank hypocrisy. If they are so concerned with the widespread views of the Australian public on important issues, then why did they never call for a referendum on the issue of mass Third World immigration? From the start, public opposition against having massive numbers of Third World immigrants come into Australia has been immense. Yet, instead of listening to the people’s calls for this immigration to be stopped (calls which included demands for a public referendum on the issue), both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party refused to listen to the people – because both of the major parties are far more attached to their internationalist and multiculturalist agendas than they are attached to democracy in Australia.

The major parties, when in power, love to talk of governments having a “mandate” from the public to operate the way they want on certain policies, but no such mandate exists. Many people vote against one major party, rather than actually voting for the other. Many people vote on the basis of being in favour of one or more policies of a party; but this does not mean that they favour all of that party’s policies. And the politicians know this. Talking of a “mandate” for a particular policy is a political lie. The only public mandate for a policy exists when the people vote in a referendum on an issue.

In fact, if Liberal-Labor cared at all for the will of the people, if they cared at all for democracy, they would bring in a system of Citizens’ Initiated Referenda (CIR), whereby the public can demand a referendum on a major issue when politicians refuse to follow the will of the people. CIR has been successful for many years in Switzerland and in many states of the USA.

If we are to truly be a democracy, then the public will be given the chance to vote directly on issues that are important to them, whether it be on the Carbon Tax, Third World immigration, Islamic immigration, conscription for military service (as we did during World War One, voting no), the death penalty for drug pushers, or on any other issue that affects us.

If we are to truly be a democracy, then we should have CIR. The alternative is that we are stuck with a quasi-democracy, where the major parties ride roughshod over the people on many issues, operating in a system that favours the dominance of the Liberal-Labor parties. Whilst people still keep voting for them because they seem to be the only alternatives (especially since they receive such validation from the media, and are the beneficiaries of traditional voting behaviour), it is a fact that the majority of voters disagree with them on a variety of issues.

The choice is between having a true democracy or having a quasi-democracy with a touch of banana republic style politics – and we all know which one the major parties have chosen. They have no intention of sharing power with the people; they like things the way they are, and they would hate to have the people having the ability to call Swiss-style referendums. They don’t like having a real democracy and they won’t change.

Any change is up to you.


References:
Tony Abbott moves to force a referendum on Julia Gillard’s carbon tax [The Courier-Mail], Perth Now, 20 June 2011
Aussies should vote on carbon tax: Libs, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 June 2011
Australia’s Opposition Wants Referendum On Carbon, NASDAQ, 24 June 2011
Referendum, Dictionary.com
[World English Dictionary] Referendum: “submission of an issue of public importance to the direct vote of the electorate”

Comments

  1. Fred Kern says

    They are all hypocrites.

    Third World immigration will be the death of Australia. It must be stopped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Labor or Liberal – it does not matter who is in government, they all sell us out.

  2. James Mcpherson says

    Too true Fred..However, i have been ramming the concept of a CIR down everyones throats for years, on social networking sites. And i have not had 1 iota of interest from anyone, but still i persevere..It amazes me that everyone wants to bleat about ludicrous government policies, but the one and only thing that could ” keep em honest”, a CIR, has attracted next to no interest..Go figure!!. Seems to me that people are a tad doughy..

    • Warung Discussion says

      Doughy?

      apathetic. stupid, dull. tell me something new.

      We have to get someone with balls to lead us. someone who cares about Australia someone who has a great public presence.

Leave a Reply to Warung Discussion Cancel reply