Australia's Westminster system - transformational change

 WESTMINSTER SYSTEM – NO CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

There is a slowly growing awareness that our present political system is unable to address the increasingly urgent issues of climate change in a timely manner.

One of the reasons civilisations collapse is that the elite leaders lose touch with reality. This is compounded when everyday people maintain their faith in the elite leaders for far too long.

We may be heading into this pattern now.

The appearance of ‘success’ of the Westminster system has long been unwritten by the ability to turn a blind eye to its shortcomings and real costs.

The suffering of Australia’s First Peoples over the last two centuries is one example of its failing and of the real costs.  The well-being of people and country has been subject to a massive shock as a result of the form of colonisation by a European power.

Reforming the means by which life is presently governed in Australia is a difficult challenge. Getting Constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Peoples as First Peoples is in the “too hard” basket.

So too is the much simpler (from a cross-cultural perspective) challenge of gaining Constitutional recognition of local government, let alone reform of local government to genuinely empower and engage with people in community.

Sartre’s ‘practico-inert’ holds sway at every level  - amongst bureaucrats, mainstream politicians, suburban households, media commentators.  Resistance to intelligent and timely change is empowered by the established status-quo.

A simple change of government within the present political process – or even PM Rudd’s ideas on reforming the Australian Labor Party – will not provide us with the means we require to seriously address pressing social and ecological problems.

A CALL FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Within the general ‘business as normal’ clamor, however, a call for transformational change can be detected.

There may be, too, a growing sense of unease at a less conscious level. Life sends its messages irrespective of what mainstream politicians and the mainstream media say.

It is not a matter of making hay while the sun shines, but of ensuring that those paddocks of drying grass do not burn up in an overheating world, nor the precious topsoil washed away with another global warming deluge.

But it does seem that it will take an increased crisis – reaching some threshold - before there is real movement towards genuinely transformational change. 

One of the roles of conceptual craftspeople during this period is to explore options for such transformation. These may help guide change as it unfolds - by seeing opportunities where others see threats.

The line i investigate is one which draws its inspiration from the Ways of Australia’s First Peoples. Such a project has been delayed for over 200 years.

Modern Western understanding is, i believe, blind to these Ways.  In the same way, modern Western understanding is blind to present and past non-agrarian Ways of life.

Just as our modern understanding prevents us from a proper evaluation of that part of our heritage wrongly categorised as “Palaeolithic” - so too our modern understanding prevents us from a proper evaluation of the Ways of contemporary First Peoples (who are a long way from our imaginary ‘Palaeolithic’).

We can no longer rely on modern European masters alone for the task of reconnecting our collective decision-making process to our true surroundings. Modern life has become ‘unearthed’.

Fashioning new eyes is a task which – while making full use of the best of a European tradition – now needs to be carried out in acts of cultural partnership with First Peoples.

A key lesson in this process is the need to prevent a concentration of power which is part of the Westminster system (as presently constituted).

The Westminster system results in one-sided forms of representation., and lurches from crisis to crisis. Is has become a straight jacket, overly constructing - with its one size fits all approach to who we are and where we fit into life. 

Well-governed life requires systems which have two-sided forms of representation, and produce stability and balance. We need to take off our European over-selves and learn more about these forms of reason. We will not learn from Europe/

Life’s masters of two-sided forms of representation are the senior law people of Australia’s First Peoples.

But their voices have been - and remain - systematically excluded from Anglo-Australian Parliaments for far too long. They are the last to be heard. We need new ears as well as new eyes.

Changing the Constitution of the Australian Parliament not only requires a critical mass for a peoples movement - it requires some real understanding of why Australian life will benefit from incorporating some of wisdom which has informed First Peoples Ways 'since the beginning'.

Therein lies our true Australian genesis.