IT is hard to imagine the quietly spoken Major General Michael Jeffery in the role of stern, authoritarian military man that he played for 38 years.
IT is hard to imagine the quietly spoken Major General Michael Jeffery in the role of stern, authoritarian military man that he played for 38 years.
Speaking to Business News during a recent visit to Perth, Major General Jeffery was highly critical of where Australia was heading, both economically and socially.
His visit coincided with the first birthday of the Centre for International Strategic Analysis (CISA), which draws on the knowledge of former ambassadors, politicians and academics from around the world to improve the quality of strategic decision making in Australia.
At a political level, Major General Jeffery points the finger squarely at Australia’s adversarial political process and the high, unjustified expectations of the electorate, which result in short-term decisions that do not serve the nation’s long-term interests.
But he assigns principal blame to the short
periods in office that politicians work within.
Decisions taken on the environment, security and population should be made looking decades into the future, he said, and not be chopped and changed every time the government changes. Providing stability and certainty would help build a stronger community and economy.
This thinking also extended to promoting and supporting the nuclear family, religion and ethics, to remove the burden economically and socially defunct families place on society.
“If the family is strong, the district is strong, the community is strong, the city is strong, the State is strong, the nation is strong,” Major General Jeffery said.
“But when families are breaking up it drifts right through.”
Providing the framework for families and businesses to prosper would never occur if Australia continued to have politicians with short-term views.
“I believe that all the great issues that are going to confront us are long term. They are long term in cause, effect and solution, and the only way we are going to get proper solutions is to have a bipartisan approach,” Major General Jeffery said.
“It will continue this way, I think, while we continue to have three-year (election) cycles and whilst we do not have long-term policies.
“If we had long-term policies there would be much less reason for government interference because the policies are there and it would run far more easy and with far less government interference.
“Government might have to come in and tweak things a bit and refine things in the light of changing circumstances, but the end goal will always be there and people would know what it was and they would know where they fitted into the framework.
“Now they don’t and that’s what creates the uncertainty and that’s what creates much more regulation.”
Major General Jeffery is emphatic that the electorate also was becoming more demanding.
“I think there is a mentality in the country now that the government is responsible for absolutely every-thing,” he said.
“Well, that is absolute rubbish.
“It’s a legacy of us having lived a good life since 1946 where we have lived basically on the sheep’s back. But in the past five to 10 years … the world has changed.
“There are a number of people that have been disfranchised as a result and they blame government and look to government to get them out of trouble. It’s dangerous to expect government to do everything because they can’t and nor should they. We have to use our own innovation and energy.”
The government should always provide an environment where a free society could thrive and that was not achieved through excessive regulation, Major General Jeffery said.
Speaking to Business News during a recent visit to Perth, Major General Jeffery was highly critical of where Australia was heading, both economically and socially.
His visit coincided with the first birthday of the Centre for International Strategic Analysis (CISA), which draws on the knowledge of former ambassadors, politicians and academics from around the world to improve the quality of strategic decision making in Australia.
At a political level, Major General Jeffery points the finger squarely at Australia’s adversarial political process and the high, unjustified expectations of the electorate, which result in short-term decisions that do not serve the nation’s long-term interests.
But he assigns principal blame to the short
periods in office that politicians work within.
Decisions taken on the environment, security and population should be made looking decades into the future, he said, and not be chopped and changed every time the government changes. Providing stability and certainty would help build a stronger community and economy.
This thinking also extended to promoting and supporting the nuclear family, religion and ethics, to remove the burden economically and socially defunct families place on society.
“If the family is strong, the district is strong, the community is strong, the city is strong, the State is strong, the nation is strong,” Major General Jeffery said.
“But when families are breaking up it drifts right through.”
Providing the framework for families and businesses to prosper would never occur if Australia continued to have politicians with short-term views.
“I believe that all the great issues that are going to confront us are long term. They are long term in cause, effect and solution, and the only way we are going to get proper solutions is to have a bipartisan approach,” Major General Jeffery said.
“It will continue this way, I think, while we continue to have three-year (election) cycles and whilst we do not have long-term policies.
“If we had long-term policies there would be much less reason for government interference because the policies are there and it would run far more easy and with far less government interference.
“Government might have to come in and tweak things a bit and refine things in the light of changing circumstances, but the end goal will always be there and people would know what it was and they would know where they fitted into the framework.
“Now they don’t and that’s what creates the uncertainty and that’s what creates much more regulation.”
Major General Jeffery is emphatic that the electorate also was becoming more demanding.
“I think there is a mentality in the country now that the government is responsible for absolutely every-thing,” he said.
“Well, that is absolute rubbish.
“It’s a legacy of us having lived a good life since 1946 where we have lived basically on the sheep’s back. But in the past five to 10 years … the world has changed.
“There are a number of people that have been disfranchised as a result and they blame government and look to government to get them out of trouble. It’s dangerous to expect government to do everything because they can’t and nor should they. We have to use our own innovation and energy.”
The government should always provide an environment where a free society could thrive and that was not achieved through excessive regulation, Major General Jeffery said.
