Yet you are right – this doesn’t necessarily mean we are doing it particularly well, or as best we could. I too see this as a direct result of how individualistic our society has become.

I recall speaking with a colleague at the time of the last election and she asked me who I was going to vote for. I replied, and asked her in return – who would she vote for and why. She responded that she would vote for the incumbent government because the economy was strong, and she had a job. Her primary motivation was the economy and her continued employment.

Of course these things are important, yet I would like to see us make decisions at election time based not just on economics but on social welfare, international issues (e.g. our response to issues such as the crisis in Sudan and Zimbabwe) and addressing environmental issues to the benefit of future generations.

Yet it seems almost impossible for an election outcome to result from policy responses on any of these highly important social issues.

What do you propose could be done to address this situation?

However (prepare for socialist barrage) I am concerned that what we have seen over the past 11 years is a gradual eroding of those services. I don’t just hold our current Coalition government to account here; I include state and territory Labor governments too. Sure our government does supply services to the some of the disadvantaged in our society but as we become an increasingly individualistic and capitalistic society, increasingly our governments are throwing the marginalised and the alienated to the free market to deal with.

Our federal government is making it harder and harder to access various welfare payments (in the name of stamping out the nefarious “welfare cheats” and “blugers” – both statistical anomalies)

Thinking globally, our government in Tuesday’s budget pledged just 23c per $100 of government monies to international aid. Consistently over the past 11 years we have seen decreased spending in this incredibly important area.

I too want to acknowledge where our governments are doing the right thing but increasingly I am feeling like they are doing so by accident or because it is politically unpopular to stop doing so.

I’m starting to think that all our praise toward the government should be phrased in terms of “well done on x – if you stop doing x we’ll stop voting for you”