TJ Ryan Foundation Board member, Geoff Edwards, writes in The Mandarin (21.9.18) that our national governance is failing because the process for selecting political candidates and leaders is “inadequate for the role that our system of government assigns to them”.
‘We elect, fund and expect governments to solve collective problems that are too complex or large in scale to be amenable to individualist solutions. Governments are failing in this responsibility. I need mention only energy, climate, housing affordability and Indigenous disadvantage as unresolved issues to demonstrate the point.
‘Further, initiatives by one side of government nowadays are vulnerable to later destruction by the other side, regardless of their merit. I need mention only the NBN and the Gillard carbon price to demonstrate the point.
‘The failure of our governors to heed environmental advice is particularly egregious. Scientists despair at the lack of progress in even acknowledging the evidence of cascading assaults being visited upon the life-support systems of the planet, let alone progress in remedial action. Something has gone badly astray.’