The party political system in our country is an ignominy exemplified every day our parliaments sit.

MPs, or many of them, are there, foremost, not in the public’s service, which they should be, but for personal aggrandisement which they illustrate every day the archaic practice of continuing to hold Question Time reveals. It should be abolished forthwith - it is a vaudeville show that allows MPs to play actor or actress without contributing one worthwhile improvement to the nation.

Don’t let MPs (or sports stars, some political journalists and commentators, religious leaders or anybody else, for that matter) kid you that the personal humbug, lies, practices and hypocrisy they engage in each and every day is none of our damned business. As Carolyn Wills, writing to The SMH newspaper put it: “Surely Joyce must know that once you are in the public eye, nothing is private any more”.

Also in The SMH, under the letters page heading, “Joyce’s breach of own standards is indeed news”; to which Nicholas Triggs added (February 8): “I would like to know why (Joyce ) has been protected by the media until now”. Indeed! The dogs were barking Joyce’s predicament (and that of his staffer-girlfriend) three months ago, which prompts the suggestion that the effects of public exposure might have had a different result to the New England by-election had his exploits not been conveniently played down by both mainstream media and acquiescent politicians.

Of course Joyce is not the first MP to engage in such practices nor may he be the last despite PM Turnbull’s new standard of moral leadership, but that doesn’t make it right or allow an MP to escape censure or dismissal.

The column suggests that the way parliaments are run these days, particularly in Canberra, puts MPs out of their electorates for far too long. The regulations need to be changed to put them (ministers included) in their electorates where they are primarily available to their constituents.

The number of staffers, journalists and factotums employed by all parties and MPs at taxpayers’ expense needs to be cut drastically. They were never meant to be de facto MPs nor should they be.

In recent months, if federal parliament’s MPs, particularly those from the government, had been listening first hand to their constituents, they would have heard what they, economists and finance experts (especially Reserve Bank spokesmen) have been saying, which is that salaries and wages need to be lifted and middle-income tax cuts made.

The great Sir Robert Menzies never had a speech writer until the final 18 months of his near-20 years as PM; Joe Lyons, the first conservative PM to win three consecutive terms had public servants write his speeches; which brings the column again to advocate for vast improvements to be made to bolster the quality, proficiency, standards and career paths of the public service.

Finally, but possibly of the greatest significance, is to make political donations illegal in any shape or form – absolutely nil. We cannot continue to allow big business, any business for that matter including trade unions, donating to the political aspirations of would-be MPs, while they evade income and company taxes, as exposed in recent months.