[LINK] OT: stuffed Australian politics [was - Re: Tony Abbott's NBN, Mad as Hell

[David Lochrin]

On 2013-04-23 Jan Whitaker wrote:

> About the only ones in the Parliament who we see regularly (my caveat is because there may be some unknown backbenchers who don't fit the sell-out category yet) who have stuck to their moral positions are Dr Mal Washer on medical policy issues, Judy Moylan on asylum seekers, and lastly Tony Windsor and possibly Rob Oakeshott because they aren't in a party.

Ah well, as the old joke has it, they're (mostly) like a bunch of bananas - they go in green, they come out yellow, and there's not a straight one among them.


The obvious solution is to abolish the tradition of conforming to the party line which only leads to "group thinking" and group mistakes, sometimes with disastrous consequences.  The usual justification is that party discipline is necessary for consistency in policy, but I think that argument fails on at least two grounds:

(a)     party meetings are inevitably  dominated by the party elite and, even in the government, the humble back-bencher  doesn't get much say (look at Malcolm and the Coalition's NBN, not to mention carbon trading, and he's a shadow Minister!)

(b)     the opposition is rendered almost powerless despite the fact that their elected MPs have _not_ been elected just to sit in the chamber like zombies.

In the end, the Westmimster "democratic" system results in rule by a handful of the most powerful politicians in the government.  Everyone else largely does what they're told.

The answer IMO lies in adoption of the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation.  Rather to my surprise, Wikipedia tells me:

"Hare–Clark is the name given to STV in lower house elections in two Australian states and territories, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.  The name is derived from Thomas Hare, who initially developed the system, and the Tasmanian Attorney General, Andrew Inglis Clark, who modified the counting method on introducing it to Tasmania.  Hare–Clark has been subsequently changed to use rotating ballot papers (the Robson Rotation).  The upper houses of New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, as well as the upper house of the Parliament of Australia, use a variant of STV allowing "group voting".[2]"

It's used in other jurisdictions, including "City elections in Cambridge, Massachusetts (and) Certain city elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (starting in 2009)"


> What happens if John Howard is installed as GG?

I hope he'll take up residence in London, enjoy the cricket, and not bother us.  Mind you, he might be looking for a little time in the spotlight again, and what better way than to sack a non-Coalition government?  Mind you, one can never tell - Kerr was a Labour appointee I believe.

David