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All those activists should come to the political party

Column on The Punch, 19/10/2011

Daniel Piotrowski

Once upon a time, in city streets and in branch offices across the

suburbs, people used to gather around with like-minded people

who believed in the same things they did. Back then, these groups

of people were called political parties.

Members of these parties would debate the big issues. Then

theyd pick their most convincing and articulate to be their leaders.

Their leaders would slug it out over their visions for the future with

the leaders of other political parties. In Parliament, in the press, on

the streets.

Thats all pass. In 2006, only 1.3 per cent of the adult population

were members of political parties. Political parties and political

leaders are so 20th century.

Nowadays, weve got plenty of groups of people who stand for

things. For instance, GetUp stands for progressive causes, the

Conservative Leadership Foundation and the Institute of Public

Affairs for conservatives, the Australian Conservation Foundation

for environmentalists, the Minerals Council of Australia for mining

executives.

All of them drive the national debate on the big issues, but none of

them are political parties. And none of them are led by politicians.

This isnt a good thing.

The thing with politicians and parties is that they get pulled up

when they make mistakes. When they do things that a majority of

people dont think is in the national interest they get voted out.

They can be held accountable by the press and the voters.

These political groups cant. Because unlike parties, with their

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political platforms and well-known agendas, your average voter

has no real idea whos leading these organisations and why they

want us to move in a particular direction.

We saw plenty of this in the carbon tax debate.

As the debate raged on the airwaves and in protests, we saw

groups pop up against the tax, like the Conservative Action

Network, and for the tax, like Say Yes Australia (best known for

the Carbon Cate advertisements).

Your average voter surely saw their websites or in the latter case,

their ads. But few people had any idea who was behind them and

why they were advocating what they were.

The reality is, there were some big, powerful, wealthy people

driving these groups and the debate.

For instance, The Sun-Heraldrevealed on the weekend (although

The Punch had already joined the dots months ago) that Liberal

SA Senator Cory Bernardi was behind a bunch of supposedly

grassroots anti-carbon tax websites, like the Conservative Action

Network, some Facebook groups and conservative blog Menzies

House. Hes provided the groups with resources and infrastructure

through a foundation he runs. Your average voter wouldve thought

the groups started in the community.

On the other side of things, you probably didnt know that many of

the countrys biggest green groups have been funded or provided

with extensive resources by the same two wealthy philanthropists.

Farmer Mark Wootton has provided the Australian Conservation

Foundation, the Climate Institute and the Australian Youth ClimateCoalition with extensive support. Its the same story with another

farmer, Robert Purves, and the Total Environment Centre, WWF

and the Climate Group.

These examples raise a bunch of questions. Why couldnt Bernardi

have just started his groups through the Liberal Party, which he is

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a powerful member of? Why couldnt the two farmers have just

started a political party for climate action instead of funding an

umbrella coalition of groups that can only pressure politicians to

create change?

Why do we have to create groups outside the system? Whats

wrong with the system of political parties and Parliaments that

weve already got?

At a time when were dissatisfied with the leaders of both majorparties, it wouldnt go astray to have some leaders with principles(right or wrong as they may be) out in the open, rather than behindthe scenes.