INFLUENCING POLITICIANS AND POLICY - It's not JUST about Aldi bags full of money!
Have linked a few articles on lobbying & how our Politicians and indeed we 'THE PEOPLE' - can be influenced to vote against our own best interests by powerful interest groups. Those whose ONLY concerns are to prevent their own loss of INFLUENCE in our society and/or to continue to maximise their PROFITS at our own and future generations' expense.
Lobbying of our politicians (and us!) has increased by a huge amount both in the USA & Australia in the last 20 years but especially so in the past decade. In the excerpt from the attached article, the ways in which Politicians and we are 'influenced' are discussed:
"In order to lobby politicians and regulators, lobbyists use campaign donations, letter writing campaigns, and try to build personal relationships. Lobbyists can also rely on morally dubious quid-pro-quo arrangements, such as jobs for friendly politicians at retirement.
This can lead to potential conflicts of interest. In the US, around 50% of ex-legislators become lobbyists. Although not to the same extent, this also occurs in Australia.
Alternatively, lobbying the public relies on advertisements, op-ed pieces, commissioned research, protests, and press releases to try and shift public opinion on a given issue."
These days even our TV news seems to have jumped on the 'paid for comment' band-wagon so when we see 'research' being discussed - it is wise to check who PAID for the research BEFORE we accept it as FACT!
If we wonder why our country doesn't have a huge sovereign fund to pay for OUR health, social welfare & education programs like Qatar & Norway - we need only to look at the paid advertisements in 2010 who convinced us using a multi-million dollar marketing & fear campaign (likely used as a tax deduction!) that our mining industry SHOULDN'T have to pay a fair price for OUR resources to Federal & other Govts.
As a consequence of their successful campaign - so we continue to GIVE AWAY our children's inheritance for a pittance (like our gas) to multi-national companies to export - who have NO loyalty to us - when many other countries haven't.
Other articles to ponder:
So while a National Integrity Commission and a Code of Ethics WOULD make it MUCH easier to follow the paper-trail of politicians - we need to be mindful of how easily WE- the voting public - can be unwittingly influenced and manipulated by those who seek to DIVIDE us as a society - who DON'T have the Australian PEOPLE'S best interests at heart.