New voice will not affect Votergram Voices
There has been heavy publicity about the Indigenous Voice and whether it might disadvantage other Australians. I don’t think that will happen at all. Thousands of Australians have used their existing Votergram Voice for nearly 40 years to influence society outcomes and sort out personal problems. Above is a picture of the hard copy Votergrams of the 1990’s.
Long after my family had invented Votergrams as a way for “Australians to obtain a fair go at the hands of uncaring governments”, I began to understand how democracy works. I learned that it was quite different to what I had previously thought. Parliamentarians do care, but they are not psychic. They need to be told by the individual voters who want something. Votergrams, when launched were an instant success.
How democracy works
Monarchy or dictatorship gives most power and wealth to the monarch or dictator. With the exception of our recent monarchs, most monarchs have had absolute power over citizens. Dictatorships still do. Dictators and monarchs accumulate vast continuing wealth and superb properties and castles for themselves living a life of luxury with many staff to serve them.
Democracy on the other hand seeks to share wealth and pleasure around the people. Never believe the negative garbage wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill about democracy. It is a fabulous system for everyday Australians. Until very recently we in Australia were a fairly harmonious society with a few notable wealthy exceptions. Today corporate millionaires freely exploit their employees and customers to make multi-billion dollar corporate profits and pay multi-million dollar salaries to themselves, while some of their staff and customers battle to survive. Foreigners loaded with money are enticed into Australia to out-bid young Australians for homes, turning developers into billionaires and young Aussies into lifetime renters in their own country, perpetuating their long-term poverty.
Understanding and acting
So why does that happen in our democracy that promises so much? It happens because the vast majority of people living in democracies do not have any idea of the latent power they have and how much it could improve their lives. For that reasons the vast majority of Australians do not do the simple things required to change and enrich their lives. Those who come to Votergrams soon learn how to do it and they reap the just rewards. In addition, a very small group of very wealthy, aggressive and greedy people know how to make democracy work for them too. These people make it deliver them vast wealth at the expense of the rest of the population. In democracy one gets out of it pretty much what one puts in. Most people put in very little in terms of communicating with their elected parliaments and so get out very little.
Our democratic society is largely controlled by Government. Government is largely controlled by Parliament. Parliament is largely controlled by Voters. Members of Parliament are the only members of the government structure over whom voters have any direct influence. Their careers depend on voters.
But here is the secret
Voters who always vote for the same party regardless of whether or not it does what they want, lose their Voice and influence.
- Only individual voters have votes in federal or state elections. An organisation representing 10,000 voters does not get a vote and nor does it mostly influence how its members vote. 10,000 voters have huge political influence, though one may naively think otherwise.
- To exercise the power and influence of a voter they must communicate with each and every Member of Parliament. Votergrams make that simple.
- They must then politely and persistently persuade the politicians of the benefits of what they want and its full justification. At Votergrams we can help them do that.
- To leverage the power and influence that a vote gives to an individual voter, that voter may have to do something else. They may have to use their own voice to gain the support of other voters and in highly exceptional circumstances need to win the support of voters in a marginal electorate.
- In short, each voter wanting government to work for them must use their Votergram Voice to “speak quietly and carry a big stick”.
Silent majority can never be heard
But contrary to popular opinion, politicians are extremely helpful to voters with good ideas. Why not? They cannot know the needs of every community or family in the country. They need to be told and they all need to be told nicely. That is how democracy works. It is foolish in the extreme to be offensive to the very people who can solve the problem. Protest is so much last century. The silent majority are silent by choice. By definition they can never be heard. Ask and you will receive is the applicable message for those who want change, but they must ask in the right way.
Over 30 years ago I ran a Votergram Voice campaign for the Pharmacy industry which was having trouble surviving. Members of Parliament kindly responded with three-year Community Pharmacy Agreements giving the industry $1.5 billion of taxpayer support a year. So far pharmacists have received about $50 billion of taxpayer support through that voice. They seem to be currently confronting the very MPs who have been so generous to them in the past. That is the wrong use of their voices as voters. An attempt at brutal bullying of our representatives.
An effective Voice for those who want it
The voice for every Australian who wants it is the Votergram Voice and it will always be effective for those who use it as I have outlined. It does not depend on government funding so cannot be muzzled. But the voter sending a Votergram must work hard to persuade the MPs that what is sought is good and fair. Politicians are very much aware of the challenge they face in representing 17 million voters, 26 million people, many of whom have totally different views on any given topic. MPs cannot possibly please all of 17 million voters all of the time. What is good for Australia or good for a voter in need, is what wins their support. We are fortunate to have such people representing us in Parliament in what has become a largely thankless task. Next time they do what you want, think about thanking them. I wonder how many pharmacists have thanked the parliament for their $1.5 billion of annual support for the past 30 years. School children receiving air conditioning and assembly areas through their Votergram Voices certainly have.
There are plenty of peak bodies lobbying government, but those whose members speak for themselves as well by Votergram, are the ones who win most easily.
