29-04-2019, 03:41 PM
21
Re: Who Votes?
Originally Posted by weedeek
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You seem to have provoked the ire of the usual on here, must be doing something right then! Little Englanders don’t seem to like more democratic systems out of their little isolationist bubble.We have a semi-proportional system for the Scottish Parliament, which is not perfect but better than pure first by the post (the system even helped the Tories up here!) . They also don’t like the idea of compulsory voting, perhaps because it might relegate extremists to the margins where they belong!Gan oan yersel mate!
30-04-2019, 01:32 AM
22
Re: Who Votes?
Originally Posted by Mondays child
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Does that mean that with compulsory voting you get less chance of the hard left and hard right gaining control or does it mean that you end up with a parliament with lots of small parties scrabbling around to build up their voting potential?
Certainly in the lower house a party usually gets a majority to govern in its own right, even the current government which has a minority government gets its legislation through with the aid of the crossbench.
No party has had a majority in the senate for decades (with one exception) and the government has to negotiate to get contentious legislation through the upper house depending on the make up of the crossbench (95% of legislation goes through unopposed). Remember that the minor parties/senators range from left to right so it is not an impossible task for either main parties especially with a bit of horse trading and pork barrelling.
John Howard once had a majority in the Senate which lead to the passing of Work Choices which not only resulted in a landslide against his government but also the loss of his safe seat. I think it works well because neither side of politics can get extreme legislation (like Work Choices) through. Senators are also mindful of 'mandate' and also that the senate represents the individual States making up the Commonwealth.
Originally Posted by Mondays child
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Is it easier for people to vote on a Saturday as there are far less people who have to work on that day rather than a weekday?
Having said that at the last state election 40% of the vote was cast at pre poll stations which open for two weeks before the official poll.
Personally I always vote pre poll all you have to do is tell the official that you will be interstate, pregnant, working etc on polling day to cast a vote. It is a self declaration and never queried.
Taken as a whole it is a pretty good system and the independent role of the Electoral Commission makes it work well in practice. Electorates, by legislation, must be of a similar size and redistribution this year has lead to two previously Liberal (government) seats becoming nominally Labor seats - I can't see many governments around the world allowing that if it weren't for the fact that the Commission is independent of government (Separation of Powers etc).
Three year terms are also a feature, if a government is awful you can chuck it out before it does too much damage, though you could argue that this leads to short term politics.
Sorry that is a bit long.
30-04-2019, 01:47 AM
23
Re: Who Votes?
I mentioned that electorates must be the same size. That is in population not area. For example if you look at an electoral map of the biggest state WA then it looks like two electorates! the majority of the State's MPs come from around Perth and Fremantle but the majority of the state's area is covered by just two MPs.Similarly with all states there are large areas represented by some MPs - they get a good travel allowance
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