Here is a bit that might be of interest:
A New Australian Democracy
A Plan to Introduce Far Greater Democracy
into our Current System
of Parliamentary Representation
"In Australia we no longer have a democracy we have an elected dictatorship.
We elect a political party one day every three years and the rest of the
time, it dictates to us."
Sir Mark Oliphant
"The idea that Parliament represents the people is simply one of the
fictions of Australian public life"
Donald Horne
"In Australia members represent their parties, not their voters."
Hugh Mackay
"The parties are rife with careerists, cronyism, nepotism and the fostering
of corruption. They have become like two Mafia gangs vying for power to gain
control of the Australian treasury to distribute benefits to those who fund
them and their "mates". Elections become multi-million dollar competitions
between two advertising agencies offering false promises and election
bribes. The rigid two party system is dragging the country down, resulting
in endless scandals, corruption and personal abuse, and threatens democracy
itself."
Ted Mack
"The shift to participatory democracy by such measures as direct election of
prime ministers, premiers and mayors; the separation of executives and
legislatures; increased use of referenda and citizen initiated referenda;
electoral reform; fixed four-year terms of office and proper levels of
representation together with maximum open government and public
participation to build a consensus is the only possible way to reform."
Ted Mack
Note: In the interests of public education, and greater debate on these
issues, this document is free of copyright; and may be re-copied; and such
copies may be further distributed or sold; on the condition that the
original source is acknowledged in full.
A DISCUSSION ON DEMOCRACY
The concept of true democratic representation is where every citizen can
gather together to discuss and decide issues, to represent their own
individual interests.
In a small society, where a couple of hundred citizens can gather together,
this sort of self-representation is possible. However, in a large nation,
such a form of "direct democracy", for practical purposes, would seem to be
impossible. Thus, the next logical step is to create a system of appointing
representatives, who can represent the interests of citizens.
However, under our current Westminster system, representative democracy has
become a farce. Parliament itself has become a sham of democracy. Instead of
being composed of individuals who represent the interests of a particular
geographical sector of society, parliament is now essentially composed of
party hacks who represent the interests of a particular political party, or
even just a particular faction of such a party.
The big political parties are structured in such a way so that the power to
decide who shall be chosen as the party candidate for each electorate is
often determined by "power struggles" and "deals" between the separate
factions of the party (witness the many pre-selection faction deals).
Because of traditional voting behaviour, reinforced by media emphasis on the
big parties, and the resulting common perception that only these parties can
successfully operate in government, the major parties have a virtual
monopoly on the governing of the nation.
Thus, the major parties have become complacent in their governing of the
country. They often forget, or deliberately ignore, the wishes and concerns
of their constituents (i.e. the very people who elected them). Leaders of
the big political parties have spoken of being "elected to govern", rather
than being "elected to represent" - this change of phrase shows a big
transition in the political thinking of the leaders of the major parties,
indicating that they intend to govern according to their own wishes and the
wishes of their parties, rather than according to the wishes of the people.
Political disregard for the ordinary voters apparently changes during
election campaigns, when politicians are casting about for votes; but all
their promises can be forgotten once they're back in parliament, and the
system turns back into just another "parliamentary dictatorship" for another
few years.
This climate of "parliamentary dictatorship" can be changed by the
introduction of some simple measures which have the potential to introduce a
culture of true representative democracy to our parliamentary system. These
measures bring us a method of "direct representative democracy", which
easily surpasses the current system of "political party democracy", as the
latter has become merely a form of semi-authoritarian rule by the major
political parties.
These much needed reforms are:
1: Actual-Number Representation for both houses of parliament.
2: Multi-member electorates for both houses of parliament; at present, only
the Upper House (the Senate) has this.
3: Preferential voting for both houses of parliament; at present, only the
Lower House (the House of Representatives) has this.
4: Citizens' Initiated Referenda.
THE REFORMS
1) Actual-Number Representation (accorded to representatives elected from
Multi-Member Electorates) will mean that, in Parliament, Members will
represent the actual number of final preference votes they received, rather
than misleadingly representing all of the opposing voters as well. It also
means that most voters can be directly represented by a Member of Parliament
of their preference (whereas, at present, many voters are - in reality -
totally unrepresented, regarding their beliefs and judgements). As well as
this - an important point for democracy - every single vote counts.
2) Multi-Member Electorates will be formed by merging three existing
electorates into one, whereby any candidate who attracts over 25% of the
vote will attain a seat in parliament. This will enable representation for
about 80-90% of first preference votes, instead of the low 50-55% under the
current system.
So how would a system of "Actual-Number Representation with Multi- Member
Electorates" work? Well, first we should look at how our current system
operates: In an electorate of 100,000 voters, Candidate A may receive 49,000
(49%) final preference votes and Candidate B may receive 51,000 (51%) final
preference votes, which results in Candidate B winning the election, whereby
he represents in parliament 100,000 people - but, in fact, he will only be
representing the voting preference of 51,000 people.
Under the new system of "Actual-Number Representation in Multi- Member
Electorates", the voter's preferences are more accurately represented: For
example, in an Multi-Member Electorate of 300,000 voters (if we are to
multiply the above example by three, due to having merged three existing
electorates into one) Member A would represent 147,000 (49%) votes, and
Member B would represent 153,000 (51%) votes; thus giving true, accurate,
and fair representative democracy, whereby all of the voters - not just
51% - are adequately represented.
Such a system would also make "gerrymandering" extremely difficult to
implement (if not impossible), as well as solving the basic problem of voter
imbalances between electorates.
This pro-democracy system is likely to give rise to more candidates outside
of the two major parties winning seats in parliament. Thus, the result of an
election in an Multi-Member Electorate of 300,000 voters could be: Member A
representing 78,000 (26%) voters, Member B representing 93,000 (31%), and
Member C representing 129,000 (43%). Hopefully, this system would bring
about a rise in the number of independent Members of Parliament, eventually
gaining ascendancy over the current regime of government by the two
alternating party machines (who have lost sight of the fact that they should
represent The People, rather than ride roughshod over them).
Considering the unequal balance of voter numbers between electorates in all
of the democratic nations around the world, Australia would be the first
modern nation to introduce true "one person, one vote, one value"
representative democracy.
3) Preferential Voting for the Lower House of Parliament (the House of
Representatives) is the best form of voting, as it allows all voters to have
a say in the final choice of a parliamentary representative, and therefore
this system should remain in use for Lower House elections.
Preferential voting for the Upper House of Parliament (the Senate) would
also be possible with Actual-Number Representation. While - under the
current system - elections for the House of Representatives allow voters to
give their preferences to another candidate if their first preference
candidate is eliminated from the election count (due to lack of votes),
elections for the Senate deny this possibility, effectively disenfranchising
everyone whose first preference wasn't for one of the major parties (with
some rare Independent or Green exceptions) - thus making the procedure a
huge travesty of democratic representation.
It would also be preferable to base the Senate upon a nation-wide
electorate, rather than upon state-wide electorates, thus enabling wider
opportunity for voters to actually vote for whom they wish, rather than
limit their choices by constraints of state boundaries (state representation
is now basically outdated; although people could still vote for a
state-orientated candidate under the new system, if they so wished).
4) Citizens Initiated Referenda can be introduced (similar to the systems
currently operating in Switzerland and certain states of the U.S.A.) whereby
100,000 petitioners may demand a referendum on matters of importance, thus
imposing the "will of the people" over political inaction, and over the
semi-authoritarian style methods used by politicians and their party
machines.
A fairer and truer democracy. With Citizens Initiated Referenda enabling
more public control, and with Multi-Member Electorates and Actual-Number
Representation enabling truer representation, it is to be expected that more
independent politicians will arise to represent the people, replacing many
of the current crowd of so-called "representatives" who so often only
represent their own political party (or political faction) instead of the
people.
We look forward to a fairer and truer democracy!
You will find more on this subject at:
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/daily.html
December 1996
(HTML - February 1998)
-----Original Message-----
From: alister air <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sunday, 25 October 1998 1:46 PM
Subject: POLICY proposal - single member electorates
>
>And again, I'd like to propose:
>
>That single-member electorates are recognised by Neither as being
>inherently undemocratic, in that half of the population of that electorate
>may not have their views represented in any form of government, thereby
>making the claim of Australia being a 'representative democracy' farcical.
>
>I think this one stands on its own, for now... I'll wait for criticism and
>see what comes out.
>
>Alister
>
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