An Open Letter to GetUp.

Why write a letter like this? Because I’ve been asked to. I’m constantly bombarded by requests for cash donations from GetUp which in the current political climate full of fear, denial of basic rights, and moral bankruptcy is not within my means .. much as I wish it was. I’m concerned that GetUp itself, is becoming just another self-interested organisation chasing the fast buck. Another neoliberal excuse maker. I’ve supported GetUp through the last few years but – and they have asked me for my opinion, so here it is – I don’t believe that they are either going about things the right way or concentrating on the right issues. Fear of Law is no excuse for compliance to bad laws. Bad laws should be challenged.

What Is To Be Done?

Firstly, nothing is going to change while the current LibNat government is in office. They are not going to permit any sort of a referendum on any issues of importance to an Australia concerned in a broader, more inclusive or more far-sighted vision of the future.

So what point GetUp? Well, and I want to keeps this short …

Australia needs a new Constitution – the old one is archaic and full of protections for the Party that rules; it was made by a Conservative Elite in another age. However, before we make a new Constitution we must make a Bill of Rights. The Constitution must be based on this Bill of Rights; it must reflect those most basic and inclusive human rights and it must have a conscience, social compassion – the UN Declaration of Human Rights is a good starting point.

Since the neoLibNats will do everything possible to prevent this in defence of their position as rulers, organisations such as GetUp must concentrate on hammering this into those who will be Australia’s future – the youth and our kids.

This, of course, will be called divisive, socialist, irresponsible, against the law etc etc etc. The government will say such things as ‘the Economy must come before Social Conscience and Humanitarian Compassion’, they will say, that ‘the country can’t afford it’. This is patently fallacious and just another way to spread fear through the community and turn us inwards in the interest of the ruling elite and their status quo – in themselves these government justifications are divisive.

So, what do we do? We reform the representational process. We do not so much need to be bothered with the system, as how We Manage Our Democracy – from the grass roots. The system will change as we change it.

We advocate and disseminate the Fitzgerald Principles, a simple, a moral (for all creeds colours and cultures of Australians) and a pure common sense contract between our representatives and the people they purport to serve. What Aussie wouldn’t agree that adherence to these principles is exactly how we would wish our chosen representatives to act?

We should not allow any Party – Right or Left – to impose a representative from outside of the community that they desire to represent – its that easy. This requires no bandying about, no breaking of laws and no parliamentary obstruction or obfuscation because as they now say, it is not in our interests. This means, that should any Party want to maintain their privileged position within a Democratic Australia, they will have to sell themselves to the individual community and the representative chosen by that community. This is not the way it happens now. The Fitzgerald Principles will solve much of the current corruption issues inherent in our parliament, as it will effectively be a contract between the representative and the community they serve, and not a contract between this representative and either a Party or, a an invalid and exclusive Constitution.

There is no such thing as Too Hard and there is no such thing as Too Expensive … these things are way past due and the cost NOT to do them is a cost to the future; ours, our kids and our planet. There is such a thing as Too Late! History may have given mankind one more chance in the past, but mankind didn’t have the destructive capabilities then, both to his fellow man and to our shared planet, as it does now.

GetUp is on the ground and running .. what better thing for an organisation such as this to get involved in?

These two simple things – home grown representation and the Fitzgerald Principles will solve so many of the little problems that this government uses to divide us Australians, and will go a long way in giving us a Bill of Rights and an inclusive Constitution.

Mitchell John Warren Graves Hill July 2019.