I have been writing a submission

for the government. I have two such submissions to write. The one I am writing at the moment goes to a body which works at the federal level. The other one will go to a body which works at the state level. They are on related topics.
I have written such submissions before. They are a waste of my time but they have to be done.
The last time I wrote a submission to the first body I also spent three and a half days being questioned by a three member 'commission'. I was asked searching questions about the research I had conducted and made to vigorously defend the conclusions I had drawn. Our discussion was recorded and transcribed. It must have cost a great deal of money. The three members appeared to be interested but nothing happened. We had a change of government instead.
The second submission I write this time will be along similar lines. Nothing has changed. Nothing is likely to change. It still has to be done.
At the same time an acquaintance of mine 'phoned yesterday. He is standing (or in his case sitting) for a seat in the local council. He wants some help with his speech. He has good ideas. He is articulate but he does not feel comfortable about speech writing. Fair enough. Many people are like that. If he does get elected he will be an active council member but he is aware that he may be able to do very little simply because local government does not work the way it is supposed to work. Local government is not about listening to people. It is about rubbish collection and meetings in the mayor's parlour.
I wonder about all this wasted effort, wasted time and wasted money. My first submission is going to an inquiry that is a repeat of the first inquiry. This time it is being done by a government of different political persuasion. The conclusions will be much the same as before because the situation has not changed. This government has not done anything. Even if it gets another term it will not do anything. There is no need to do anything. They can go on as they have been going on. The inquiry is there only so that they can appear to be doing something, so that they can appear to be 'listening to the people'.
I do wonder what would happen if they did actually listen to me.