The old political parties around the world are rapidly becoming irrelevant.
Some of them are trying to change to save themselves from oblivion but it’s probably too little too late.
New parties and movements are springing up like mushrooms, some of them with old players at the helm, including our very own Mark Latham with his Outsiders.
Who knows where all this will lead us, but what I am interested in discussing here is why lower level governments in Australia – also known as state governments – are so indifferent to the tsunami of political change that’s heading their way.
This lot look and act like not a thing has changed in the last 20 years, when in fact everything has changed and now the people demand to be heard or else.
I thought about this over the weekend after publishing the story of how our railway station car parks are full to overflowing every day.
So the equation is that we need more commuter parking.
Commuters are voters and they’re clearly not happy.
And the government is responding by building or providing more commuter parking, right?
Wrong? The NSW Government is either asleep at the wheel because of incompetence or just doesn’t care about anyone west of Burwood.
They obviously don’t realise that they risk losing power at the next election, which is less than two years away.
But they also may suffer something more serious – the permanent loss of some of their supporters.
I suspect there’s a third reason for what’s happening: no real pressure from the city media on the state government to get real in Western Sydney.
The truth is that the city media has no empathy for the needs of Western Sydney, despite some sections of it trumpeting their support in meaningless campaigns designed simply for commercial purposes.
And that’s why the state government is hammering Western Sydney, from taking away our prestige school at Hurlstone to closing down motor registries and refusing to build noise barriers along the rail line.
But it’s also why the Coalition will pay a high price for this indifference.
After all, we live in western Sydney and we vote.
