Politicians need to serve everyone, not just their own interests

Politicians are elected to serve their community, the people and the nation. They do come into the position with personal beliefs, values, morals, and motives, but for the good of the people they represent, these at times must be put to one side. Even more important is making very difficult and unpopular decisions, many of which will not be in their own interest, and may not even be in the interest of their political party or their and their party’s political existence.

Making difficult but good decisions should be based on the bigger picture, meaning that there will be some pain for long term gain. This notion certainly applies to government welfare spending. An easy, and perhaps popular option is to spend large amounts on welfare, without doing the real hard political work of researching and analysing the best and right decisions to make. The easy and popular option is crude politics at its worst, because politicians looking to appease powerful lobby groups, or to become more popular, or to extend their political life, then look at increased payments, or an increased range of payments that they know are not justified, economically, socially, or ethically. This political timidity means that the problem keeps snowballing until it is too late, but the politician has looked after himself or herself in the meantime, and in all probability will have left, or will leave when the problem becomes insurmountable.

What we don’t want to see happening is an increased tax burden for those not on welfare, but we also do not want to see a nation where hard work, innovation, ingenuity, and independence is ambushed by a system that might encourage people to rely on others or to make choices not in the best interests of the future of Australia’s wellbeing and development, because of the easier options available through welfare, rather than through the traditional way of rolling up your sleeves and working hard.

It is time for politicians to look at our welfare system with a focus on the national interest and on the future needs of Australia, and after having had a real good hard look at what really needs to be done, and not just by doing what is best for themselves at the time.   

                                                                                       Editor in Chief