Purple. You can be both red and blue in today’s politics but not many people realise it.
One of the greatest problems with politics currently is the mixture of centralist ideology with peripheral partisan policy. Each election cycle, we are entrusted with the choice of one or the other and unfortunately for the constituency, this becomes the lesser of two evils choice rather than a clear definitive decision based on being able to know that the person chosen to “represent” us will do that.
I have seen this problem over a number of years. If I am supportive of action on climate change, there is one side of politics which supports this more than the other, so I have to lean that way. At the same time, there may be a policy on support for strong economic policy and fiscal responsibility which I may trust the other side of the political spectrum to deliver. The black and white ying and yang is now just a fuzzy grey blob.
We are all asked to entrust our local member of parliament with representing us, but they can not, generally speaking, as whilst they can be strong advocates on specific issues, they themselves are part of the partisan political machine where the faceless men make decisions based on lobbying and populism in order to control power and influence. To what end?
I believe many of our politicians do indeed have the best interests of the community at heart and many do great work in their communities as representatives; but where the power lies, red or blue, determines the impact of this influence, particularly in such an evenly balanced centrist political system such as the one we have in Australia.
There has not been a solution to this partisan issue until very recently.
A new political party is gaining traction with the electorate by providing not a set of partisan ideologies but a single one of creating a platform for democratic engagement where the decisions in parliament can be made by the individuals within the electorate. Issue Based Direct Democracy or IBDD is an emerging force in Australian and indeed international politics through the new Flux Party (www.voteflux.org).
The party provides a mechanism whereby the elected members of the party will vote upon issues in parliament in accordance with the will of the people rather than partisan political policies. This IBDD system, offers everyone the chance to be heard on every issue and to have their views represented within the corridors of power no matter which side of politics is putting the idea forward, or indeed which side is in power.
It is likely that the influence of the Flux Party and IBDD will start slowly as we are used to only being able to be red or blue. We are used to having to choose the lesser of two evils and inevitably we end up voting for whichever is able to convince is that their polarising issue of the day is more important than the opposing side or that their tunnel is bigger and better. It’s mostly grey — a smokescreen for politicians to hide behind and occasionally poke their heads out, but there will be issues where in our finely balanced parliaments where the constituency should have the opportunity to have direct input. That is where the power of the IBDD system will be seen and recognised.
If of course there is only 1 elected Flux member, majority will always rule, however where there are say 5 members represented and the electorate is split 80/20 on an issue, the IBDD system would vote 4/1. This ensures that everyone is heard and everyone is represented.
The challenge now is whether the constituency will see this as an opportunity to break the political stalemate and start having the influence that indeed is their inalienable right in a democracy, to have their vote and to have their voice heard, loud and strong in those very distant corridors and to be purple.
Andrew Heath is the Victorian state party secretary for The Flux Party Victoria and an advocate of Issue Based Direct Democracy (IBDD).
