The political system Australians take for granted to be a democracy capable of safeguarding their interests is hardly a democracy at all.
Most Australians are not familiar with our Constitution. In fact a recent survey has shown that 50% of us don’t even think we have one. We do, of course, but it is not one that enables the making of laws capable of safely securing the social and ecological systems we depend on for continuance of humans as a sustainable species or as peaceful societies.
In the main, Australia’s Constitution does little more than say which level of government can make what types of laws. It defines the matters that each level of government may make laws for but provides no guidance on what would constitute a good or bad law for a democratic society. In effect this means that as long as each level of government uses its power to make laws for things it may rightly make laws for, it doesn’t matter whether those laws are in the public interest. And it doesn’t matter if those laws are abusive of universal human rights or destructive of a liveable planet.
olddogthoughts 