MASSIVE electoral swings in Queensland and Victoria, plus leadership instability in Canberra, suggest democracy isn’t working right now. It’s time we temporarily suspended the democratic process and installed a benign dictatorship to make tough but necessary decisions.

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once observed: “…democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

By this he meant that for all their flaws, regular elections in which governments are elected by a majority of voters generally result in functional and stable societies. Countries like the UK, USA, Canada, most of Western Europe and New Zealand are popular choices for immigrants because their respective democratic systems allow people to get on with their lives.

For similar reasons, Australia is also a great place to inhabit. Yet our democracy is failing. As voters we’ve developed short attention spans and high expectations. Consequently our political masters are beholden to opinion polls.

They tell us what we want to hear rather than that which is necessary for the country’s long-term good.

In short, our prosperity will soon nosedive unless we make some difficult decisions.

Ballooning government debt is just manageable now but will eventually become a burden once interest rates rise from record lows. Already we are borrowing billions from overseas to fund recurrent expenditure, a situation that can’t go on forever. Yet our conservative federal government charged with fixing the fiscal mess it inherited from Labor is instead mired in a leadership struggle sadly reminiscent of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.

Up in Queensland, reformist premier Campbell Newman has been kicked out after a single term. Apart from his abrasive style, Mr Newman’s sin was proposing a series of asset privatisations to reduce state debt. Jeff Kennett performed a similar act here in Victoria during the 1990s yet lived (for a while) to tell the tale. In 21st century Queensland, however, short-term voters appear to prefer Labor’s Anna Palaszczuk. She may be a very pleasant person. But the task she faces as premier is immense. The sunshine state’s debt per capita rivals that of European basket case Greece.

And while Athens’s problems currently occupy the best economic minds in the EU, what practical experience does Ms Palaszczuk bring to Queensland’s problems?

Almost none. Her entire working life has revolved around politics and policy advice.

The banana-benders need tough policies like those Kennett once enacted here. Instead they’ll receive the do nothing “she’ll be right” type administration for which state Labor governments are famous.

In Victoria the situation isn’t much better. While our debt is under control, we have a rapidly increasing population, a struggling transport system, roads jammed with traffic and a flailing manufacturing industry. Without wanting to recontest last November’s election, our state needs its freeways joined up, AND a train to the airport, AND a cross-city rail service AND more schools … this list is long.

Instead we now have a bunfight over hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for a massive tunnel project that won’t be built.

Actually, I believe the East-West Link will eventually receive the green light — but not for at least a decade, and at twice today’s cost.

Because we fear tough decisions, we inevitably end up with leaders who just tell us what we want to hear.

One day we’ll wake up in a real mess, and realise we only have ourselves to blame.

There is a solution. Let’s agree on a set of truly important problems — mounting debt, population growth, lack of jobs, rising health care expenditure, inefficient welfare and an inadequate defence force — and appoint a committee of eminent and competent Australians to sort it out.

A benign dictatorship if you will.

This committee would consist of experts in their fields without political axes to grind. It’d need at least five years to complete its tasks during which time elected governments could administrate, but take no major decisions.

At the end of five years the committee members would stand down and be objectively assessed on their performance. Good results might mean a substantial pension for life and maybe an Australian Knighthood if such an award still exists. Bad performance implies half a decade wasted — but could this be any worse than what will occur if short-term poll-driven politicians remain in charge?

History provides some precedents for such a drastic idea. Between 1935 and ’45, for example, the UK put elections aside while a series of national governments — consisting of representatives from all major parties — grappled with the Great Depression, the League of Nations’ collapse and World War II. A democratic poll was held only after Nazi Germany had been defeated.

In Canberra right now the all-important task of running our great nation has been put to one side. Instead, fearful government backbenchers are calling, texting and emailing each other furiously over Tony Abbott’s future or lack thereof.

We’ve seen before the way this story ends and it isn’t pretty. Our normally robust democracy isn’t working at the moment. Let’s give a group of tough-minded professionals a one-off chance to clean up the fiscal and economic mess into which Australia is rapidly sliding.

What have we to lose?

TOM ELLIOTT IS 3AW’S DRIVE TIME HOST

TELLIOTT@3AW.COM.AU