[LINK] Why Electronic Voting?

[Alan L Tyree]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 10:23:29 +1100
Howard Lowndes <lannet at lannet.com.au> wrote:

> 
> 
> Alan L Tyree wrote:
> > On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:00:14 +1100
> > Howard Lowndes <lannet at lannet.com.au> wrote:
> > 
> >>
> >> Kim Holburn wrote:
> >>> I always preferred the idea of an elected president for Australia
> >>> and so I think did a lot of Australians but I think to work, it
> >>> would require major changes in our constitution and parliamentary
> >>> customs (which seem to be as important in some ways as the
> >>> constitution).  And yes we would probably get the odd public
> >>> figure (Arnie anyone?) but I don't know, isn't the idea of a
> >>> democracy that people elect who they want within the limited
> >>> choice they are given.  Don't we have to trust them in that? What
> >>> choice do we have after all?
> >>>
> >>> As long as we get to change the government regularly I'm not sure
> >>> it really matters.  They all seem to get just as corrupt when
> >>> they've been in office a while.
> >> I think the idea of any form of president is pointless.  It is a
> >> purely ceremonial appointment except for the situation of a
> >> constitutional crisis ala Kerr in '75.  In such a case I would
> >> prefer that the determination should be made by the Chief Justice
> >> of the High Court, then at least you might arrive at a reasoned
> >> judgement rather than one made my a drunken sot.
> > 
> > The Chief Justice of the High Court at the time would have made the
> > same decision. In fact, Kerr took advice from him.
> 
> Which exactly proves the point that the GG, or a presidential 
> equivalent, is irrelevant.  Someone else made the comment that any 
> person making such a decision to dissolve parliament should also be 
> automatically executing their own "death" sentence once a new
> parliament is in place.  That sounds like a good safeguard to me.

The dismissal was interesting to watch from a distance. I lived in NZ
at the time and the general view there was that it showed a system
working rather well. There was a paralysed government, generally viewed
from abroad as incompetent, and the constitutional structure permitted
the situation to be resolved without bloodshed.

I came to Australia in 1978 and was surprised to find a quite different
view.

I'm not commenting on the politics of the situation, only noting that
outsiders (at least the ones that I knew) had a quite different view of
the events of the day.


> 
> -- 
> Howard.
> LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people
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> Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian
> states.
> 
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-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
Tel: +61 2 4782 2670            Mobile: +61 427 486 206
Fax: +61 2 4782 7092            FWD: 615662