- or I hope I am. I have asked to be given the opportunity to say something - more than one thing - at a meeting.
If I am given that opportunity I will have the responsibility of saying what needs to be said in as positive and succinct a way as possible. I am not looking forward to it. I'll admit I have even lost some sleep trying to work out how to say what needs to be said in the minimum amount of words without ruffling some sensitive feathers. I am not a politician.
There is a Senator for this state who seems to feel quite differently about those things. He started out running for our state parliament. He got in on what amounted to a single issue at the time - an opposition to "pokies" or gambling machines. He made much of it and ran all sorts of odd stunts to get publicity. People thought it was a "good" thing and voted him in. We now have even more pokies than we had then. It doesn't seem to be an issue now - although, given the harm they have done, it should be.
He stayed for a while in state politics and then declared that the real power to get things done was in our federal parliament. Although he hadn't seen his term out he announced he was resigning to run for federal parliament. He managed to get a seat in the senate. At the last election he even managed to get a couple of mates in on his team. Now, with a cloud hanging over his eligibility to be there at all, he has announced he is resigning - long before his elected term is up - resigning so he can run for state parliament. This time he is angling for a seat in the lower house - and he wants twenty of his mates to join him there.
The media has said a lot about this. The media seems to think this man is fun and funny and that he gets things done. I see the situation quite differently. I see this man as someone who likes media attention - and will do anything to get it. He has breached his contract with the people more than once. You are, barring death or disability, supposed to see your term out as a politician.
Yes, he can negotiate - up to a point. Some of his policies sound good - but they are probably unrealistic. He didn't succeed with the pokies that originally made his name - and a little thought would have shown everyone that he wouldn't. The government gets too much revenue from those.
I thought of all this last night as I printed off what I want to say if I am given the chance. I've tried to be positive, put the blame on myself rather than other people because perhaps I could have done something differently, and I have about six hundred words there covering several different but related and important issues. I'd actually rather not be saying anything at all.
I was once asked to run for parliament. I said a very firm "no" (and it is as well I did because the first candidate died before he could actually be elected and the second got in - that would have been me).
I am not a politician...and I don't care for the sort of publicity that the soon to be ex-Senator seems to thrive on.
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3 comments:
But perhaps you are the sort of person needed in parliament.
Many of the current lot - in all parliaments, state, federal, local - seem to lack principles beneficial to the public and even common sense.
Why not use the sun to heat houses? Why build dwellings that must have air conditioning to make them habitable?
If I remember correctly, you grow beans to shade and cool your house. I am most impressed by that.
LMcC
I was taught when giving an interview to have just three things I wanted to get across. I don't know whether this is appropriate in your case, but I'd order your points in importance just in case you get cut off. Good luck x
The last thing I would want to be LMcC is a politician - even a completely independent one! I know far too many.
Jan, that is an excellent idea - and pretty much what I did. I was supposed to be on the agenda - and wasn't so I really had to speak up and almost demand the right to be heard. The "politics" of the group are not good at present.
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