Greatest betrayal of the forgotten Aussie

THE first duty of government, we are told ad nauseam, is to protect its citizens.

But has anyone ever bothered to ask from what? And would our so-called parliamentary representatives even know the answer? Probably not.

The greatest threat to citizens of western democracies doesn’t come from foreign powers nor from immoral weather patterns nor natural disasters.

The biggest and most immediate threat comes from an unchecked public service. And the first, second and third order duty of democratically elected governments must be to protect the freedoms of its electors from the over-reach of an officious public sector.

PERSECUTED

While it’s unclear why the public service despises the public so much, there’s certainly no shortage of evidence demonstrating that it does.

Almost every interaction between the bureaucracy and the public is framed as a threat. “Don’t do that. By Order…”. “Don’t do this. Under Threat of Penalty.”

Only the public service would source and run TV advertising with the threat: “Stop it … or Cop it”. As NSW did recently (see below). If a commercial business tried that stunt, they’d cop it right back – in spades, just before going broke.

Public servants come after you at every turn. If you remove a dangerous tree from your own land, you will be bankrupted. If you speak at a forum they disagree with, you will be registered as a foreign operative. And God help the persecuted farmers simply trying to make a living by managing their own properties.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. There is no doubt Australia would continue to function without an elected parliament. The public sector would continue collecting your rubbish, building your roads, taxing your earnings – and bullying you.

So what’s the point of sending our 150 representatives to Canberra? They are there to look after our best interests and to push back against an over-bearing, left-leaning bureaucracy.

It’s something a Labor government never does. It’s not in its DNA. Labor governments are renowned for taking departmental policy advice and waving it through without so much as reading it – let alone understanding it. That’s why Labor governments always run a budget deficit. They can’t say no to the public sector no matter how scatter-brained, expensive and wasteful the proposal.

Liberal/National governments are a little better. But they are still hit and miss. PM Howard and PM Abbott pushed back and made enemies of the public sector. PM Turnbull rarely pushed back and made an enemy of his conservative base.

The current NSW parliament is among the most prolific public sector appeasers in living memory – and its parliamentarians had better wake up if they wish to properly represent voters.PC