Martin Luther King Jr. said “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a moulder of consensus.”
With all the emphasis on swinging seats and focus groups one wonders who has their eyes on the next 20 years?
Who has their finger on the pulse and on the politics of our region? Foreign affairs have been notable by their absence in this election.
But nobody has any doubts about the big elephant in the room, China and its significance to our economy and future. Some have pointed out that our most likely future is to become an economic province to this country that is growing in in direct proportion to America’s shrinking economy. Why all the panic about the miners? The world is watching to see if we are a safe place for investment, and capital will be inclined to flee as we’ve seen, if it feels unsafe.
What about food security, with tens of thousands of acres of our most productive land being bought up by other nations, many of whom are not sympathetic to a democratic way of life? I’ve not heard a word on this topic that is so significant to our future from either of our would be Prime Ministers.
They are so focused on the marginal seats that both might get a bit shocked by significant swings in blue ribbon seats.
When Henry Ford was asked, why he didn’t consult more with the public about his vehicles, he said “In the beginning if I had asked them what they wanted they would simply have said, “A faster and safer horse.” Leadership does the hard work and research of leaving the familiar to strike out to new territory to find a way through to a preferred tomorrow.
Louis Pasteur said “Fortune favours the prepared mind.” Which of the leaders do you think is sufficiently prepared to lead us into the next 25 years? Remember a politician says “I’ll be whatever you want me to be so long as to give me power,” while the statesperson says, “This is the way to the promised land, but this is what we all have to do if we are all going to arrive safely.” It’s worth thinking about.
I’m not sure I like the sound of moulding consensus.
But the major parties certainly aren’t about leading us to a viable and preferred future. The Australia Institute found that downshifting is massive – this is a huge number of people voting with their feet and yet it simply hasn’t registered with the mainstream parties (still stuck with the eco-rat (economic rationalist) agenda c.1980.
The Greens have some notion about a preferred future. Statespeople? Thin on the ground – at least in the mainstream media. I suspect there are lots in climate action groups and the permaculture community.
Perhaps there is a problem with the media and what it considers news(?)
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