Brave Enough

There is no doubt that if the nation had a few courageous political leaders who would stand up and confront the big issues and who could communicate directly with the people about them - then it would stop the rot that has long infected our polity.

If the nation had such people then the rogues and the deniers - who peddle nonsense dressed up as fact - would find them exposed as the charlatans they are.

If we had a few such people in the parliament then the asylum seeker nonsense would have been neutralised long ago. A carbon trading system would be in place and our parliament would be concerning itself with the big issues facing the nation.

But we don't. Our politicians won't stand up because then we would notice them and they would be outside their comfort zone and they might even have to make some tough decisions. Much better to stay low and invisible in the lemming like crowd. After all they will still get paid and enjoy the same perks regardless of whether they believe in anything.

If we had courageous politicians then we wouldn't have been suckered into participating in two illegal wars - that killed millions of people and which have created much of the asylum seeker problem that so bothers us now.

The consequences of weak leadership are huge. And it's not just that our political processes end up focussing on trivia - it's more the lost opportunity of not dealing with big issues.

Big issues like clean energy production and distribution, water and food security, jobs and job security, the innovation that is needed to keep the place growing as our carbon based industries decline and - our place in the world.

There is an opportunity for our government to use the circus of its annual budget to deal with some of these big issues. The quality of its content will determine if they have been successful - or not.