"prejudiced by whether you dna is socialist leaning or conservative leaning". ........ thats an important statement that I think requires scrutiny. political adherence to a side often seems to be occupationally related, yet there is an element of religion about politics in the same manner as with football codes (soccer is the only football,.... the rest are hand-egg -
).
"encouraging free markets, entrepreneurship and fair reward for risk". imo should be a given in that, like ordinary citizens, it would be inappropriate to constrain business activity unnecessarily. however, like people with eg drink/driving, taxation, social values etc, businesses should have a degree of constraint to ensure that adequate protections are in place for workers (who also should be paid according to risk factors, intelligence required and value produced) and consumers of product to prevent unfair exploitation, deprivation of reward for effort and ensuring adequate workplace safety etc.
corporate responsibility is also an issue with social contract or licence to operate requiring attention.... I don't know how this could be managed but I think its something that has been neglected by conservatives and over-played by socialists.
international relations certainly need a lot of work after the last 3 years. Our current pollies seem to think they are the smartest people on earth and reject the sensible moves on global warming and other issues, especially wrt China.
I agree with your concern wrt the tail wagging the dog as Windsor, Oakeshott and Greens did with Gillard. Hanson and others have done the same with the Libs over the last decade. this should be avoided imo and will be with adequate numbers of Indi pollies. and if not then its an issue that won't go away until the Parties are outnumbered imo.
I recall Abbott's whingeing about the Indi siding with Gillard, and then the nasty vilification of Gillard and the damage done to the nation as a consequence. This is think comes to the matter of parliamentary standards, not just ministers but all pollies. but this is a separate issue imo and will meet with resistance from both Parties. Both sides want total freedom to do and say as they wish as they were voted in by their electorate to Lead the nation. What a lot o'tosh. Standards are appalling and not conducive to intelligent and fair-minded debate.
cheers debono..... I hope we can continue this with greater depth, but I'm also mindful that I get excited and could dominate the conversation so I'm hopeful
@alonso has some interesting contributions to make as well as others.
