Control of the senate

Question Time limits 'a sign of arrogance'. :

"The Federal Opposition says moves to limit the number of questions Labor and the minor parties can ask during Question Time in the Senate is the first sign the Government is using its majority to stifle debate."

The Liberal party took control of the senate today. Not a unique event but a rare one, and it'll be the test of John Howard as a leader and our democracy. If voices are excluded from debate, we are no longer a democracy. If people are gagged, we shall not be a democracy. If the government makes its own decisions and rules outside the panels and systems we have designed to offer us all a voice, we shall no longer be a democracy. If we negotiate things through our counsels and commissions and the findings are ignored, well, yes, we are no longer a democracy.

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

Quotations


People are talking as though the Liberals taking control of the senate is a dead end and a big deal. We'll see. It's not the end of the world:it may be the end of our democracy...but you get what you are prepared to accept. Maybe we shall have to be more creative in our approach to dealing with the senate imbalance and maybe we need to decide whether it's worth having parties if one can dictate the terms of us all. Why not just declare ourselves autocratic?
The alternative is to look at ways of approach this without looking at it as th end of the road. I think we need to get a bit inventive and look upon it as a challenge!