What all this disinformation has in common is it relies on alienation from Australian politics and political history. Students don’t generally learn much about Australian politics in school. Big ideas about liberalism,egalitarianism and democracy are left unexplored. And millions of Australian citizens are hazy at best about the differences between the lower and upper houses,state and federal government,or general elections and referendums.
Yet that doesn’t stop us from being cynical about politics and politicians. And when that cynicism is unanchored to knowledge,it creates the perfect conditions for disinformation to thrive.
The antidote,I think,is to do a better job of educating all Australians about how our political system works. A stronger emphasis on civics from an early age is necessary in the curriculum and should continue through our children’s education. This may require a bipartisan view on what should,and should not,be taught,but this is a difficult discussion we should start.
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Education should also extend to government information campaigns. Currently,federal governments spend heavily to inform people about myriad initiatives. How about setting aside some of that budget to educate all of us about the system itself?
New politicians and political staffers must also receive compulsory training on their roles,the operation of government and the apolitical public service. It’s hard to conceive of any serious company or organisation that would require people to take on the important leadership roles we give to our elected representatives,and particularly to ministers,without at least some form of training.
More broadly,I also think we need to drop just a little of our trademark Australian cynicism. There’s nothing savvy about claiming “all pollies are crooks”. If we’re going to be critical about what we don’t like,we should also recognise what we do.