Without forgetting that some structural inequities have a long history and continue to this day, our 2019 senate candidate Greg Parker recounts some of the Australian institutions that are being whittled away. Now retired, Greg's professional experience includes working in Indigenous Housing and in the Job Network.

Photo: Greg Parker
Image: supplied

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Who remembers a time when the elderly were respected and looked after?

Who remembers a time when essential resources were not stolen and exploited for profit by our leaders, their friends and, supporters and families?

Who remembers a time when the Commonwealth Bank actually helped people manage their money and build a future?

Who remembers a time when workers were paid a fair and legal recompense for a fair days work?

Who remembers a time when we had decent, affordable and accessible essential services?

Who remembers a time when we looked after the less fortunate, the disabled, the unemployed, the homeless?

Who remembers a time when our leaders did not exploit their positions to obtain benefits for family members?

Deregulation of services, resource management and industrial relations has made greed a worthwhile and viable objective.

But concurrent with that deregulation has been a steady flow of new laws criminalizing whistle-blowing and reporting on government malfeasance under cover of "National Security", along with:

• the blurring of any distinction between church and state;
• the stripping back of human rights;
• new powers for law enforcement and spy agencies which go far beyond what is safe for the stability and peace of any democracy; and
• the neutering of any viable opposition party.

We need not wonder what a Fascist State looks like, all we have to do is look around us.

I may or may not be standing at the next election, but the Science Party will again be putting forward a great line-up of candidates as well as a raft of evidence-based policies and solutions. If you are sick of the major parties and looking for an alternative that doesn't include racists, misogynists, extremists, populists or economic coprophiliacs, please look for us.

We can have both prosperity as a nation and sustainability.  Do not believe the Hobson's choice being offered by the LNP.

We can have a society that restores trust, not just in politics but in our neighbor; a society that offers not just hope, but enthusiasm for the future.

Let the real nostalgia not be for what once was, but for what can be.

The next election cannot come quickly enough.