Deane Crabbe (PIRSA) wrote on Monday, 29 November 1999 6:51
<. . .>|
|The Democrats original electoral reform policy included optional
|preferential voting, but some how it was conveniently omitted from the
|current policy, even though the only time members voted on this policy,
they
|supported optional preferential voting.
<. . .>|
We well remember the (pre-1990) principles of the Democrats under which
policies were determined by members after vigorous exchange of views in
monthly national and State journals. Unfortunately, since then, there has
been collusion between certain parliamentarians and the national executive
to establish top-down control of the party and maximise the jobs and
'resources' available from the public purse.
Nowadays, the main driving 'principle' is the perceived need to obtain
electoral preferences from one or both of the major parties (which is why
we now have a GST, contrary to Democrat policy).
The Democrats' national (federal) executive manufactured ways of
circumventing the internal democracy of the membership, including ceasing
monthly publication of discussions, manipulating the process of ballots,
adopting committee-approved 'regulations' contradicting the
member-balloted constitution, and getting rid of people who refused to
cooperate with such behaviour.
It was in this context that the Democrats established a permanent
preferences policy which prevents members from participating in the
process before each election (ie, leaving all the power with a small
group). The same group is able to inhibit discussion and/or balloting of
the very sensitive question of whether optional preferential voting is
more democratic than the railroading of preferences.
More detail about these AD manipulations can be found on my website under
http://www.nettrek.com.au/~brian/e.htm
Regards
Brian Jenkins
StopMAI, Western Australia
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
YOUR FINGERTIP GUIDE TO WTO SEATTLE:
http://www.nettrek.com.au/~brian/newslink.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion.
To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe
To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe
For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm
For archives
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
