Crisis of Government in absentia

The views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect the views of IntSAR or the IntSAR Admiralty. I am speaking purely as an Australian of both Aboriginal and First Fleet descent.

???Put yourself in these shoes. You are responsible for the running of a major surgical hospital. The recent discovery that one of your most trusted senior surgeons was not truly capable and in fact had paid other students to sit his university exams for him places you in a crisis situation. Or maybe, this senior surgeon has been collecting his pay but not showing up for work and letting someone else undertake his surgeries for him. What do you do?

???What if politicians did the same thing? When politicians get complacent and begin to coast, it undermines government functionality in profound ways. Effectively the nation becomes rudderless. Drifting from crisis to crisis rather than actively leading a nation. Politicians like that are no different to that surgeon not doing what they are paid for. Such is the case across the political divide whether it be here in Australia or elsewhere.

???The "old boy’s network” rampant throughout public service institutions in almost all nations in times past has been identified regularly during corruption enquiries as an impediment to good government. Yet less competent politicians amongst those of today are returning to the abdication of decision making, leaving their job to these bureaucratic creatures to declare policy and then the politician just follows along. Only after neglected issues blow up in their faces do less competent politicians react to a situation. "Closing the door after the horse has bolted" as they say.

???Why is this "old boy’s network" with its territorial nature a problem? It's a problem because national leaders these days are politicians first instead of being Statesmen. They are busy "pressing the flesh" and taking photo opportunities while abdicating policy creation to their so called advisors. So why are we paying them? Why are they even on the ballot?

???The 9/11 report into government failings that allowed the attacks of September 11 to occur, declared openly that the petty jealousies and competition for budget dollars lead to the failure to share information. They protect personal and departmental agendas ahead of the national interests. If in doubt, go ahead and read the 9/11 report yourself. In addition to that we recently saw, the exact same thing occur in relation to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the lives lost in the wake of it. Again the very same empire builder mentality lead to information not being shared and or political agenda bias, creating poor strategic decision making with catastrophic results.

???Is it any better in Australia, my own home country? Heck no. Bureaucrats make policy decisions in the negative without even providing Senators or Members of Parliament an opportunity to even see policy proposals unless they come from members of the "old boy’s network” themselves. Only those proposals paid for by hiring a lobbyist (an inherently corrupt post-staff career option), get to be recommended to a minister. We recently saw this in Australia with Morrison's government not even returning Pfizer's phone calls offering early access to vaccines many months before the disastrous urgent scramble for access to vaccines.

???What's worse is when the politicians don't even grant meetings to their own constituents but give access to large corporations who don't even have any legal right to vote.

???The new Premier of the state of New South Wales in Australia should be applauded for his drastic change of policy regarding Covid lockdowns. He simply stated to the press that policy advisors are not elected by the people. As Premier it was his job to hear the advice of those advisors but then it is his responsibility to make the decisions himself as the premier.

???We are not seeing such leadership at the federal level unfortunately. This was evidenced by the failure of Government to even reply to Pfizer's offer of early access so very long before the scandal became public knowledge. The result has been massive scaled lockdowns across Australia. I am not suggesting at all that the Government has the monopoly on failed leadership. No the opposition are just as unapproachable.

???Having listened to many an address by the leader of the opposition in his monotone drone and with his wishy washy each way bets, the opposition is no option. Not if the Australian people want leadership. No. Not at all.

???The “old boy’s network” is alive and well in government and opposition ministerial offices. A sense of petty elitism comes from advisors. Particularly those of former defence careers these days. We are seeing the "you're not from my?alma mater" mentality at work again in a society that drove that form of corruption out years ago. These are the fragile egos making policy instead of the ministers. Former senior personnel have their economic situations in post government life protected by current ministerial staffers or advisors at the expense of national interests.

???The current Australian Prime Minister espouses a deep and enduring commitment to a value system. He is more than just a politician, he claims the badge of Christianity. Yet even the "name above all names" goes unrecognized by him in failing to discharge his oath of office. Can we trust a man to lead a nation when he is so willing to disregard his sacred oath?

???In conclusion, I can only read the current political situation as a case of overconfidence on the part of both sides of politics. Both face an election next year and both parties recognize the very poor leaders of their opponents. However, neither party has woken up to their own poor leadership at the moment. Therefore, they are both coasting along in blissful ignorance. No wonder they lack direction and stand-off at a distance from the citizenry. When they abdicate their own job to advisors and ignore the citizens it's time to ensure they are not given the job in future.

???My prediction:

?Leadership spills in both sides of politics. Neither party can go to the poles in their current frame of mind. They MUST give the electorate a genuine "Statesman" to choose above the other party's abdication.

If a party leader is not going to be proactive ahead of an election, there is no way in hell they will do so after one.