Harold Holt drowned at Cheviot Beach in 1967. That was a wake-up call to Australians. Security was suddenly an issue for the first time. In 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked by the Governor-General. That was shocking at the time. “Well may we say God save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General” became embedded in our psyche.

We woke one morning to watch and listen with horror as Bob Hawke spoke of the massacre of hundreds of students in Tiananmen Square, tears rolling down his face. It was 1989. Paul Keating gave us a sense of pride and vision with his famous landmark speech in Redfern Park Sydney where he spoke of Aboriginal reconciliation. It was 1992. John Howard, in 2001, when speaking of refugees said: “We will decide who comes to this country and how they come...”    

In those years we trusted in our politicians, we assumed they were doing the right thing by our country – and therefore by us – and by and large they were seen to do just that. Today, we are offered the slow-pulse mantra of “jobsngrowth”.  That hardly lifts up the soul and shakes it.

What has happened to our politicians today? I am sure the majority are there to do the best they can for their constituents and for Australia. I believe the majority are doing the right thing.

Today, however, politicians are under more scrutiny than ever before. They are followed via any number of media sources and it is possible to observe that a cohort of them is actively abusing the trust we place in them.

I have only to mention the likes of Bronwyn Bishop (Choppergate), Tony Burke (family holidays), the trilogy of ministers at the AFL Grand Final, Julie Bishop and polo weekends, Mathias Cormann and $23,000 worth of weekend jaunts to Broome, and now Sussan Ley purchasing an $850,000 home on the Gold Coast while attending to “government business” to have the distinct feeling that politicians are freely availing themselves of public largesse without any regard for the cost to the taxpayer.

What has made these discoveries so scandalous is they come at a time when the most vulnerable in our community are receiving demanding repayment letters from Centrelink, some of which  have no basis in truth and are extremely distressing and threatening to the poorest among us.

This group are the least able to fight the system and prove their innocence. They have neither the means nor the support systems available to assist them.

How did two such conflicting situations converge at exactly the same time?

It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious for those involved, on both sides of the fence.

How did this happen? There seems today to be an absence of principle and imagination, of the importance, indeed the necessity, to do the “right thing” from some politicians today.

Instead we have a vision of “snouts in the trough”, of an uncaring and non-compassionate body politic which is there more for their own glory than for the good of our country. We are suffering from a moral and intellectual vacuum.

Only a fresh appraisal of our parliamentary system will bring this to an end. We can but hope this year brings honest and open answers to this scandalous situation. Where are our visionary leaders today?

ANNIE YOUNG