Delivering the keynote Sir Arvi Parbo oration at the AMEC Convention in Perth this morning, Flanagan said he had been running his “own private survey” of people on the street during this election campaign.
“It’s hard to find a voter that is truly concerned about issues for the long-term benefit of the nation,” he said.
“It is telling that more people watch the soapies than the ABC evening news and the tabloid newspapers sell more copies than the serious ones.”
Flanagan said people were not stupid, but they had not made the effort to understand the threats and opportunities, which he said was a major problem in Australia.
“A lack of effort to comprehend the issues, identify the challenges, to understand the solutions and to grasp the consequences of not implementing them is resulting in the wrong demands being placed on politicians, and funds being spent in ways that are not for our greater long-term good,” he said.
But Flanagan said this was not the fault of the politicians.
“While there is ample justification for some cynicism to be shown by Australians towards politicians and the political process, this damaging disconnect is not the fault of our MPs,” he said.
“Rather, the policy vacuum reflects the refusal of many Australians to recognise and accept the need for change.
“As a collective body, we say we want the truth, but in the immortal words of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, we can’t handle the truth.
“Politics is a business and the first priority as a business is to identify what the market wants, and do your best to give them what they want.
“If you can’t, you won’t get their votes and you won’t get elected, so to suggest that politicians seek to deliver what we need as opposed to what we want is delusionary, so we tell governments what we want and they do their best to give it to us, but it’s not what we need.”
Flanagan said it was a cultural problem about accepting truth.
“The truth is that we cannot afford to continue as we are, but the culture that dictates that it is the government’s job to provide, means that we not implementing the change,” he said.
“This culture means that not only are we failing to demand that politicians make these changes, but we’re actually insisting that they don’t make the hard decisions.”
Flanagan said Australia’s political system was “saturated with the culture of entitlement” and hit out at middle-class welfare.
“The $900 cheques – is this really the best way to build our nation?” he asked.
“Where we draw the line on government obligation needs to move. We must look to government to provide less, but equally we must demand that what they do provide, they do better.
“We need to spend a bigger portion of government investment on genuine investment – investment that leaves us better off in the long run – not which just buys votes in the short-term.”
