First, some context for those unfamiliar with the Australian Political system:
In Australia, like the UK, we use the Westminster system. Similar to other democratic systems, we vote directly for our local representative in compulsory Federal Elections. When a party wins a certain number of seats in the Parliament that party forms the Australian Government - and the leader of the party becomes to Prime Minister. My local member is Jo Briskey, a Member of Parliament (MP) within the Labor Party Government. The leader of the Australian Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia is Anthony Albanese.
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Dear Jo Briskey MP,
My mind is in a tumble. For years I have seen the Labor Party as the more balanced option in Australian politics. Other parties often felt either too conservative, achieving only moral and social stagnation, or too idealistic, charging ahead without the strategy required to make real change. Labor, to me, has sat in the middle. A party capable of recognising moral responsibility while also being pragmatic about how progress is achieved.
Most of my friends and family think similarly. None of us vote Labor out of blind loyalty to the party itself. We vote Labor because, in our view, it has consistently represented the more balanced choice when compared with the alternatives. And we believe the greatest and most important changes in Australia have usually happened under a Labor Government.
Unfortunately, that trust has disappeared. What troubles me most is that it is no longer just the Labor Party or the Albanese Government I struggle to believe in, but the political system itself. I have disagreed with governments before, particularly under the LNP, but never with the same depth of disappointment and genuine heartache I have felt in recent months.
The consistent message from government and opposition alike has been that foreign conflicts should not be brought onto Australian soil. On that point, I agree wholeheartedly. I have heard Labor ministers say it, including Anthony Albanese himself. I have heard it from the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Greens and One Nation. Yet when it matters, within the power of government, the principle seems to disappear. At times it feels less like a shared value and more like political convenience. As now, it seems, my country, your country, is willingly engaging in foreign conflict at the whims of men who lack the necessary empathy to be considered human - Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mojtaba Khamenei, and others. Leaders who sit in the comfort of mansions and order bombs to fall on innocent civilians... apologies, I mean 'Strategic Targets'.
I could list many of the world's problems where Australia has influence, but I feel you know in your heart that what is happening is wrong, if for no other reason than it cannot be said to be right. Dictators at the head of democracies, bombs signed by Presidents tearing children limb from limb, billionaires hoarding wealth, companies loopholing fair taxation, CEOs taking pay rises while minimum wage workers lose their jobs, Governments subsidising trillion-dollar corporations with one hand and reducing funding for education and health with the other. These things are not right. They are morally corrupt. And they have been happening for far too long.
Any Australian Government cannot solely mend the problems of the world. But we can, at least, refuse to follow it into the trenches. A common phrase I hear politicians utter is "You can't please all people all of the time. You can only please some people some of the time," And sure, this is essentially true. But I ask you, and can you tell me from your heart, looking into your family's eyes, imagining them dirty, starving, mentally traumatised, mortally injured or dead, who are you pleasing?
You are in a position of power within the government of a major nation during some of the most devastating times in recent history. What are you going to do?
As my federal representative I expect that you will bring my concerns, shared by millions of your fellow citizens, into the conscious decision making of the party.
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I would highly encourage all readers around the world who live in political systems that allow for direct contact with their representatives to write - after all: they work for you!
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