Gandhi once told us "You must change the wind…"

It is amazing how God put’s people in your path, here I am in an Asian slum and I cross paths with someone who works in local government in Melbourne!

He was a very learned, humble and intelligent man. We got chatting and he told me some pretty disturbing facts about government in Oz operates, here is what he told me:

The government spends 10s of millions of $ on Market Research & public opinion polls.

Also, some politicians literally walk around with calculators - if it a proposed policy costs too much then no way is it going to get a look in, regardless of it morality or necessity!

Recently, he informed me, how there was a disagreement between beaurocrats and politicians, both parties claiming they knew what the publics wants.

So a whole series of workshops were organised in Victoria, they were called "Rethinking Government".

Amongst other findings, the research showed that the politicians were spot on, and the beaurocrats had no clue about public opinions.

So this is how we are governed:

1. If a policy is too costly it gets the chop.

2. If it passes this test then the politicians usually leak it to the media and gauge public opinion.

3. Politicians spend $10s of millions a year on market research and focus groups to get the reactions. If it unfavourable it is shredded into denial.

4. If it gets through, it is then proposed (and the government will claim the bill will now be debated on its merits, when actually it has already been through the needle eye of oublic opinion).

This is how policy is fomented in our country.

This is a failure of leadership.

Public opinion shifts with the wind, how then do you lead?

Gandhi once told us that if you want to lead then "you must be able to change the wind"

Unfortunately, Governments are so scared of public opinion that, largely through our heavily invested media, they have techniques that can manipulate and manage that as well.

If we are serious about creating a better society, we need to do more than just break the wind!