LETTER: A vote of confidence for ordinary people in politics

DEAR News Of The Area,

I WISH to make some observations made by correspondent Peter Williams (Pauline wants a unified, safe and peaceful society, NOTA, 24/07/26).

Australia’s cost of living is actually 16th in the world, according to the World Population Review website.

Mr Williams’ assertion that this is the cause of Hanson’s increased popularity, therefore, is not based on fact.

It is true that the modern Australian parliament consists of mostly previous white-collar workers – predominantly lawyers and administrators.

I also would like to see more ‘ordinary’ people in their ranks. Let us not forget that one of our greatest PMs, Ben Chifley, was a locomotive driver.

Nothing against Ms Hanson’s background as a small business owner, but, really, does that necessarily give her more insight into the broader, more complex picture of national and world affairs ?

Conviction and consistency have also been the hallmarks of the most destructive figures in human history – Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot and Donald Trump, to name a few.

Those qualities mean nothing if not informed by compassion and far-sightedness.

What Mr Williams describes as Ms Hanson’s aims are the usual list of all politicians, including and perhaps especially  Labor.

After all, they were formed specifically to further the rights of the worker and for no other reason.

As for ‘waste and useless government spending’ – Ms Hanson has been unable to articulate any – except those which will drastically cut back help to our neediest.

After all, “The true measure of a society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” – Mahatma Ghandi.

I agree that what I believe to be the ephemerally increased popularity of Ms Hanson is in democratic tradition, but in those famous words – “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.

Regards,

Bill Robinson.