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MARK ALDRIDGE

Political & civils rights advocate, animal lover & state co-ordinator for the Australian Federation Party

So who decided Rann’s "use-by" date?


The fine people of South Australia believe in the most, they live in a democracy, and their representatives are chosen by way of our democratic elections, well if any dare call them democratic.

The last state election in March 2010 was far from a picture of honest democracy, with the Labor party exposed using several dodgy practices, and the electoral process itself found wanting of a fair go, with over 70,000 names missing of the roll and tens of thousands of missing or invalid ballot papers along with a host of conduct issues raised across the board.


The medias attention remained as usual based around the 2 party system, leaders, with little if any coverage of the candidates themselves, yet as we have seen on more than one occasion as of late, it is not the people that choose their political leaders.


In fact even pre-selection of the candidates is decided by the political party machine, not the people, this being the case, who makes all these decisions, and exactly what input do the South Aussie people have?


The Right faction, “Labor Unity”, which is controlled by the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), reportably delivered the message to Mr. Rann, that his time was up, rather than the caucus, begging the question, do we the people elect these union officials to represent our future?

This has to be a serious embarrassment for the state Labor party as a whole. It totally destroys the spin by senior members of the party - that union domination is a thing of the past.


This latest leadership affair shows it is well and truly alive.


The national Labor Party themselves are now supposedly in the process of examining whether union and faction domination needs reform, but the chances of them giving up huge union funding, let alone the back door funding to their lobby groups like GetUp.org, are very slim.


The SDA is a case in point. It has 20,000 members in South Australia. This gives the union one-quarter of the votes at the state Labor conference. A solid power base indeed.


Does the Union ask its 20,000 members whether they wish to fund the Labor Party or back their ideals?


It would it be a more democratic process if at least the grassroots members of the SDA were given the right of choice?


With less than 15 per cent of employees in the private sector being members of a trade union and the union movement having 50 per cent of the votes in any Labor conference, it is an easy conclusion as to who pulls the strings, and it is not electorate.


Dean Janesche himself said “What happens inside the party, including pre-selection, allocation of safe seats and who will be elevated to the ministry, is essentially decided by the unions which control the factions.”


The Rann affair clearly shows that one union virtually runs the party in South Australia, yet the people would swear it is the people who rule, such blindness to reality, is a huge benefit to those who really do run the show in SA.


When the 2010 election results were taken to the court of disputed returns, it became obvious the people play a very little if any part in the whole democratic process, with the crown solicitors on behalf of our own electoral office, arguing the people have no common law rights to vote in any event.


The case for which I was involved also confirmed that the results of a general election stand regardless of the conduct of the election, something that should be very hard for the public to swallow, but the media ensured such issues did not bother the people.


I find it unimaginable that tens of thousands of missing votes and ballot papers on top of dozens of breaches of the electoral Act, let alone deliberate dodgy practices by the political parties, is irrelevant in our supposed democratic society.


It would seem the election of some union bosses, is now more important than the election of either of the parties or their respective leaders, so is union membership free and availible to all the people, in the same way our precious vote is meant to be protected?


The states new leader in training Jay Weatherill, is at least a local, his ex girl friend Penny Wong was recently given a save seat in the senate by Labor, and now is in a same sex relationship, and about to become a mother.


Jay is a big part of labor, and has been around during all aspects of the Rann government’s first election on 2002, decisions to cut funding to country hospitals, double water prices and increase a raft of other taxes and charges including their involvement in March 2010 election debacle.


Jay has worked closely with Mike Rann, Snelling and Foley, so the new cover on the book of Labor, is simply recycled. Just recently Jay was let of lightly for hidden millions regarding the Oval development blow out, kept from the public until the result of the 2010 election was known, his accuser Kevin Foley, is now no longer expected to join Rann on the scrap heap.


The union power and the back room antics of the Labor party, are not for the eyes of the electorate, just as the funding for the Liberal party best not be known, in fact none of it is any of the voters business, as is obvious to any who sit and reflect on the whole sad affair.


Rann or Weatherill is not the question, as it is not for us to answer, democracy as it stands is not a reflection of the will of the people, but the will of those with the most power, and the whole game as they call it, is supported 100% by the mighty media machine.


The Alliance is a new grass roots peoples movement, whose primary goal is to restore democracy and demand electoral reform, to empower the peoples right to cast a free and informed vote, so spread the word and the Logo.


The Alliance Australia, will not receive tax payer dollars, union funds, big business or media support, so now it is up to us to take up where our forefathers finished, and to stand united for the right of the South Australian people.


Mark M Aldridge

Independent Candidate and proud supporter of the Alliance www.australianalliance.org www.markmaldridge.com