How many times have we heard that chant?
For nearly a thousand years the evolution of our legal and regulatory system has taken place to the point where we have a finely honed system of checks and balances. The overall aim is to avoid anarchy, protect against abuses of power, ensure that corruption is minimised, prosecute the guilty whist the the innocent are protected from punishment. The result is a parliamentary democracy that is second to none in the historical record.
However, one thing we learn form history is that freedom is fragile and it can be lost far more easily than it is gained. Hundreds of years of progress can be lost in a few years of manipulation and abuse.
Tragedy is a fact of life. In western society we like to protect ourselves from tragedy and if we cannot protect ourselves then mythologise it to make it more nostalgic rather than immediate and brutal. We shield ourselves by making it into a TV drama. When it becomes confronting such as the events of Sep 11th we are shocked and surprised. tell me, how does that compare with the half a million mainly women and children killed in the allied incendiary bombings in WW 2 in Germany?
When one person dies in a drowning, or from a rare disease it seems that the whole of society mobilises to prevent that tragedy from recurring. If a few gun shots are let off in an argument in the city then parliament moves heaven and earth to enact legislation to limit freedom of association. Let us be brutally honest here. This legislation will do nothing but erode our protections and freedoms. What comes next, it is illegal to be a member of the Australian Democrats? (That might not be such a bad thing.) How will this prevent the illegal activity taking place within such organisations? In truth – it will not. The enaction of legislation to inhibit basic freedoms is either the desire of a power hungry autocracy or an admission of failure. There is a case for fine tuning legislation to make it more effective but in general we have enough laws, all that is needed is to enforce them. Often the government thinks that lack of leadership and proper management of governmental responsibilities can be compensated for by legislation. We do not need more laws but better governance.
All we ask from our government is that they do the job they were elected to do. Govern.