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The people have spoken so why don’t we have a new government?
This is one of those off-message rants that marks, I guess, one of the real differences between “blogs” and “old media,” and if you’re only here for the investment strategy stuff, you can skip this post.
As someone who has never been that interested in the political processes, I was really surprised that after Saturday’s election, there is no winner just because no party managed to win at least 76 seats in parliament. In Julia Gillard’s post election speech, she quoted a former US president in saying “The people have spoken, but we are not quite sure what they said”. I disagree with her on that. Over half a million more voters have chosen the Coalition over the ALP. With only 14 million voters in total, it is quite clear what the people have said. It is only the peculiar election rules in Australia that prevents the people from getting what they asked for. Unfortunately, the key to the decision on who will govern now falls in the hands of a few independents and they will probably choose which party to support based on their own personal agendas.
The hung parliament outcome was the topic of debate in our household during our family dinner on Sunday. Isn’t the election supposed to be for the people of Australia to choose their leaders? I feel the election process is flawed if it does not allow the people’s vote to be the final deciding factor in a true democracy. Another silly rule is the mandatory voting for citizens. Why force someone who doesn’t care who governs their country to vote? If they don’t care, they probably will not have bothered to find out much about what each party stands for and may inadvertently vote for a party for the wrong reasons. In our house, we had a first time voter. My 19 year old daughter was voting for the first time and she had no idea who to vote for. Her views of the parties were formed from watching their election advertisements on TV. Luckily she had parents who could counter some of the election ads with real facts. She also thought about voting for the Greens because the name “Greens” implied “good for the environment”. Of course she does not realise that voting Greens could imply a carbon tax that would make everything cost more for her in the future because if she knew that, I don’t think she will be voting for the Greens. I hope she did make an informed decision on Aug 21.
Another silly rule is not allowing permanent residents to vote. Permanent residents who work and pay their taxes in Australia should have a right to have a say on how their taxes gets spent. It frustrates me that permanent residents like myself who do care about who gets into power are not allowed to vote. Government policies have a big impact on our lives as well, not just the lives of the citizens. Sure you could say if you care so much, why don’t you become a citizen? Kingsley and I have discussed many times about whether or not I should change my citizenship. We are currently living in Australia because Kingsley made a decision to come back to Australia to help to look after his aging parents. I have aging parents in Malaysia and he has a daughter there as well so we are hesitant to make any decision that could prevent us from living there for an extended period of time if needed. We have decided to keep our options open by having me hang on to my Malaysian citizenship, at least for now. I would not be surprised if there are a lot of immigrants who are in a similar position as us. I wish I could vote and I wonder how the elections would have turned out if all the permanent residents were allowed to vote.
Anyway, that’s my rant for today – thanks for reading. Feel free to drop a comment with your thoughts, however, I would appreciate if we can keep the debate friendly and avoid personal attacks on anyone.
“Of course , there is a place for judgment, and sometimes there is a place for furious denunciation, but I think Australians would be better off without the feral quality which so often contaminates our public lives.” Tony Abbott, Aug 2010.
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Christina,
1. Just because your preferred party brand (i.e., the Coalition) didn’t win doesn’t make the rules stupid. As far as I am concerned, the party system on all sides has become totally corrupt. Either way, the big end of town will use the party system to rip off the little people (that’s you and me).
2. You are being most unkind to the independents in question. What I’ve heard most of them saying since Saturday gives me great confidence that their decisions will be more likely in the interests of Australia rather than the electoral interests of some part or another. Let’s wait see if they keep their word, then pass judgement or not.
3. I’m sure your daughter wouldn’t like your implication she is not capable of making an ‘informed’ decision. If she’s not capable of voting sensibly, says something about her upbringing, no doubt. I’m in two minds about compulsory voting, but on the balance of it, I’d prefer to keep it in place. Look at other countries, and then tell me we’re poorly governed by comparison. Hmm…Malaysia ain’t no paradise or honest governance, is it?
4. If you want to vote, become a citizen. It’s that simple. If it’s not in your plans, stop complaining or go home.
Jon,
From your comments, I am afraid you have missed the main point I was trying to make in the post. My main criticism is of the current election process, not of any specific parties or individuals. My view of democracy is quite simple and I will use a simple analogy to illustrate. Let’s say there is a class of 30 kids who have to decide on where they go for a school outing. The three choices available are 1) A trip to the zoo 2) A trip to the movies or 3) a trip to the library. Each kid has one vote. Those who don’t mind any of the 3 options do not have to vote as they are happy with any outcome. Those who don’t like any of the options don’t have to vote either or they can vote for the option that they deem “least bad”. The class then holds the election. The option that receives the most votes is automatically the winner and the whole class will have to go along with that option.
I used to think that the Australian elections worked pretty much in the same way. 14 million people get to vote for their preferred party. If more people vote a particular party, that party wins but after Sunday’s result, I found out that this is not the case at all. 14 million people vote for 150 people who then decide for them, which to me is not so truly democratic at all.
I am just offering my opinion from a fresh pair of eyes. Just because you always do things a certain way, does not mean it is necessary best way. The current way has cost over $200 million of taxpayer funds and we still have no clear outcome. As the Good News Week chap puts it quite hilariously – we went from one PM to another PM to a caretaker PM to no PM! The main objective of a democratic election is to allow the people to choose but the fate of the nation now rests in the hands of a handful of individuals. All I am asking is – isn’t there a better way?
What I have proposed is called First-Past-The-Post Voting, or more correctly known as Simple Majority voting, which is the most popular voting system employed throughout the democratic world. The current system of preferential voting is relatively exclusive to the Australian political system. If you don’t believe me, check out
http://australianpolitics.com/elections/features/first-past-the-post.shtml
http://australianpolitics.com/elections/features/preferential.shtml
I have been waiting for some years to see some indication of intelligence and integrity from the both parties, but it has been in vain. All I can see is stupidity and possibility corruption. The consistent insistence of Wayne Swan and the team to continue with this low top personal tax and low corporate tax has been destroying the economy for the last forty or so years, and was shown by the dive into the “recession we had to have” with Paul Keating about 1985. It has been followed by recessions by John Howard and Peter Costello in the ’90′s etc, and by Wayne Swan several times since his term as treasurer. Both the parties – Liberal and Labor have been quick to claim “Global economy” for their incompetence, inability to even recognise what and where the problem is, even though Wayne has been told several times. The Global warming issue, is another instance where even if it is actual, I cannot see where the tax intended to be applied, is going to affect any improvement at all, maybe one of your “intelligent” gang can advise me and the rest of Australia. Admittedly, the Liberal party seems to be equally ignorant of the necessities to return Australia to an economical success. We can no longer live in this hopeless tangle of stupidity, and have to look forward for a party with intelligence and integrity, and allegiance to Australia and our people. The obsession of both parties in the export of our non-renewable, non-value added resources with the reciprocal imports of all the goods we used to manufacture in Australia, clothing, tools, cars, even trains, shows that these incompetents are wholly determined in destroying the economy and whatever else still exists in our country. As you might get from this message, I and most likely many more will not be voting any more for either the Labor or the Liberal parties in future elections. I have to wonder how a gang of so called professionals can be so stupid or is it corrupt, maybe it is something they are eating or drinking, but they had better get off it quick, it might be fatal the way it is affecting them. The obvious moron remarks that both parties have in their fanatics, shows there is not much hope in either.