Turnbull Descending

Prime Minister Turnbull has an APEC high, but he is descending in the polls.

Australia faces some troubling times ahead, and the Prime Minister cannot fly high enough to get above what is coming.There also is some challenging times ahead for our young nation. The Prime Minister will, no doubt, be enjoying the high flying nature of APEC and the many mini-summits that happen around this gathering. Back at home though, the storm clouds are gathering. Turnbull faces significant challenges across a variety of fronts from internal party squabbling to the high court. His challenges though, are those of the nation and are all of our own makings.

Everything that is happening now is a product of past laziness, complacency and lack of true courage on all sides of politics. We have been witnessing the least impressive period of Australian politics and policy development in the history of the country, for over a decade now.

The crescendo of some kind of political collapse is fast approaching.

Australia has been a rudderless ship for far too long. And there are approaching rocks everywhere. It is, at this time, essential from a trading and investment perspective to distinguish between Australian domestic incompetency and just how brilliantly our neighbours and the rest of the world are doing. It will continue to be the case that the strong economic growth of our region will underpin our economy.

As Australia rushes toward political Armageddon there will be an increasing drag on financial markets. Particularly, the Australian dollar could be vulnerable to foreign investor attacks in light of deteriorating political paralysis.

We all know the story of the frog in the water that is slowly heated. There is a real risk at the moment that Australians are unaware of just how dire our own situation really is.

1. We have had no real policy initiatives, not ones that have actually become law, for a very long time.
2. Our populist Prime Minister's popularity is plummeting.
3. Support for both major parties is collapsing.
4. We now have a minority government.
5. There is great uncertainty over several more members of parliament, and the debacle of dual citizenship may well intensify.
6. By-elections are on the way up as more members on both sides are outed for the terribly un-Australian crime of having foreign-born parentage?

We didn't even have sound policy development and implementation before this. And things are only going to get worse. The real problem is that our best of the best political system of last century is ineffective in this new century of the modern global economy. Nations with clean decision-making processes are the ones succeeding.

The outdated and moribund senate system of Australia now destroys any chance of progress. It was created to represent state interests, but no longer fulfils that intention. It is simply another layer of party politic complexity that is as outdated as the horse and buggy.

Yes, we need to abolish senates and boldly reform the tax system. Something we have been advocating since 2009.

Clifford Bennett