Australia is now under new management! In mid-May, a majority of Australian citizens voted into federal government the Australian Labor Party, having decisively ousted the reigning Liberal-National Coalition. With a touch of sarcasm, I say, “Here we go again!” Constituents were dazzled and enticed through the presentation of attractive sounding policies that promised “new hope”. And so, new and old faces have been installed and empowered to perform and deliver on their promises. The fate of their tenure now hangs in the balance. Will they do well? Did we make right choices? Time will tell.

Friends, during my life-time in Australia I have seen many politicians come and go. Some have performed well, and others not so well. Regardless of which party wins the right to govern, a number of inexperienced, insincere and arrogant politicians gain office through the making of promises of which they have little or no control over! A successful government is one that is able to manage both known and unknown circumstances within its sphere of responsibility, during its term of office. While voters understand that election promises come with a “no guarantee” tag, transparent honesty is expected.

Four years ago, soon after receiving permission to govern Australia, the Liberal-National Coalition was dealt an unkind hand of “extremely hard-to-play” cards:  With little notice, devastation struck the nation through wide-spread fires and floods, the magnitude of which had never been seen before. If that wasn’t enough to test the government’s management ability, Covid-19 pandemic raised its ugly head on the global scene, taking many lives and severely disrupting global harmony. Citizens of the world demanded from their governments, expedient recovery solutions.

As Australians love winners, Prime Minister Morrison and his party had dropped the ball too many times in the game and had to go. His party failed to deliver on several promises it had made and failed to manage several “heavy duty” challenges that highlighted their inadequacy to continue in their governance. I’m not surprised in the slightest with this outcome. Human forms of government are made-up of faulty people, of finite ability… positioned in office by faulty voters to manage circumstances of life that far exceed their management capacity. Really, it’s not their fault… it’s ours! We know that politicians don’t know everything. We know they can’t control everything! Yet, at every election we set them up to fail “Deliver or Doom” is our silent mantra!

Now, I ask you: If no human agent or agency is capable of governing its citizens well enough, delivering on every good promise made of known circumstances, what chance do they have in managing unknown and unforeseeable circumstance? The answer? None! The sad truth is this: we are not smart at learning from past mistakes. We continue to expect from human instruments more than we should. No nation on earth is competent enough to self-govern.

We urgently need to identify someone with proven ability to help us track in the right direction… keeping us head and shoulders above every circumstance of life on our highly complex, volatile and inhospitable planet. We don’t need “new” management… We need “right” management!

(Continuing Part 2 next week)

Best wishes
Bill