Ethics in politics
By Greg Spearritt
Politics, it is said, is the art of compromise. It’s a balancing act, though: when do you stick to your principles – assuming you have some – and when do you sacrifice them to achieve results?
A more fundamental question applies, however. Are there in fact any discernable worthy principles at play? Not being a historian, I can’t speak to the situation in the past, but current Australian politics appears to be anything but ethical. An end-justifies-the-means attitude prevails, with some very dirty machinations going on within as well as between political groups.
Tony Fitzgerald wrote eloquently in 2017 about the ills of our party-dominated system. The looming federal election is bringing some of those concerns into sharp focus.
One difference this time around is the rise of the new community-minded independent candidates. Is this a partial answer to the moribund and, frankly, corrupt, state of our democracy? Are there other solutions?
Disclaimer: views represented in SOFiA blog posts are entirely the view of the respective authors and in no way represent an official SOFiA position. They are intended to stimulate thought, rather than present a final word on any topic.
Photo: Public domain
