In contrast to all the journos moaning about how sick they are of the election, I’m feeling left out, like it’s not even begun. And it never will — not for me. I live in a “safe” electorate.
What does that mean? Essentially that my vote doesn’t matter. Indeed, in my inner-city suburb, the only sign that we are in caretaker mode and that the nation will have a new government — or the return of the old — in less than three weeks are a few desultory signs on fences or balconies with the name and face of the one candidate I know (the incumbent) or the plethora of those I don’t (the rest of the field).
This is exasperating and infuriating, especially when I see how voters who matter are treated, which I do every Saturday morning as I walk in and out of the market two suburbs north that is “in play”.
There I’m given more reusable shopping bags than you can shake a stick at, as well as how-to-vote cards and shiny pamphlets. And bright-toothed smiles from clean-shaven young men who fervently hope that I’ll have a nice day. None of which would be coming my way if they knew the truth: that I don’t even live in that electorate and so my vote doesn’t matter.
At least I’m not alone. ABC election analyst Antony Green says a generous estimate puts just 34 seats up for grabs in this election. Assuming an average enrolment of 114,000 people in each seat, the votes of about 13,300,000 Australians don’t matter. Or to put this figure in reverse, the votes of only 3.9 million Australians do.
This is not how democracy should work. Especially when the cost to my neighbourhood of being ignored over successive election cycles shows up in the shoddy shape of the local schools and playgrounds, and being one of the last places in Australia where you can witness the effect of level crossings on pedestrian safety and convenience in real time.
It’s like being the kid who isn’t asked what they want for Christmas and gets a rock.
But the problems caused by marginal seat campaigning runs deeper than this. It disconnects me and another 13.3 million Australians whose votes are taken for granted not just from the campaign, but politics altogether.
This is because whatever party forms government will rightly spend the next three years delivering on the commitments it made to voters in marginal electorates and developing policies to serve voters in the electorates expected to be marginal next time.
This isn’t how you serve the public interest. It’s how you fracture it into a million pieces. And given the central role a unified public serves in democratic theories of governance, to question the project of Australian democracy itself.
As the former commander in grief, the great destroyer of democracy himself, might put it: sad!
Agree! We need multi-member electorates and party lists like they have in NZ and some European countries. That way my vote will be represented in parliament. We have the absurd situation of the Nationals having multiple member in the lower house with less of the vote share than the Greens who have one.
Hear hear!
The effective disenfranchisement of the majority of voters is an inherent feature of our ramshackle system and it is time that it was changed changed to one that eliminates the nonsense of marginal electorate pork barrelling.
Beaten to it by the above. We have a movement.
However there is the House of the living dead holding its dead hand over our elected Government. Many of the so called representative lower houses have been maimed or destroyed by it.
I am scared the LNP will loose the representative part of the election but destroy our future in concert with the nutter parties in the Senate. The LNP and the minors have form for this type of activity.
Most European countries would glady ditch the list system which serves only to reward the Party apparatchik – upset The Leader and you’re demoted to an unwinnable position on the list (see Senator Conchita), but also removes the constituency link where a Member has to actually live and spend time in their electorate. The first serious boost to Brexit in the UK was John Major’s decision that Members of the European Parliament should be elected on a Regional List, breaking the Constituency link and making MEPs unknown to most voters – unknown = irrelevant. Interestingly we’re in the midst of a campaign here in the UK to democratise our elections by introducing your electoral system.
The euroid countries using a List also have local constituencies. In Germany it is known as “two votes”.
It is yet another way of safeguarding the status quo in case the electorate gets it wrong with that silly idea of voting for their preferred candidate.
Nationals 4.5%, 10 seats. The Greens 10.40%, 1 seat. In WA now, Lib have about 8% of the seats after getting 23% of the vote. We need proportional representation.
I think the new Upper House voting bill that entire state is one area and that all 37 representatives will be voted as such.
absolutely – the two party preferred system is fundamentally undemocratic. It would be great if the minor parties and teals (if elected) force the major parties to hold a referendum on electoral reform like was done in NZ in the mid-90s. If Australia moved to a mixed member proportional representation we may have a chance at good policy finally…..
The NZ referendum was the result of the Labour PM accidentally announcing it as policy and National following suit to wedge the government against the Labour Council. Hilarious stuff
Just about the only thing worse than the Australian tranferable vote is FPTP, so all suggestions in this thread are likely improvements. But the root of the evil is having any sort of elections for representatives. Elections inevitably give rise to parties, and parties exist for themselves. They sell their services to anybody who will fund their election costs and provide them benefits such as post-retirement directorships. The successful parties attract the most money (though they usually charge pitifully low compared to the astounding profits reaped by their paymasters). The most wealthy paymasters get the best service, and that is the reason this form of government persists. It serves the powerful and wealthy.
A properly functional parliament of representatives who are capable of acting in the public interest is only possible if all of them are chosen randomly from the population like a jury. It would not be perfect of course, but it would be huge leap forward.
You omitted only ‘one term’ from your desiderata.
Or you could look much closer to home – PR is in operation and effective in the ACT and Tasmania. Not only does the parliament more closely reflect the wishes of the electorate, there is opportunity to keep your vote within the same group and replace under-performing politicians.
Yep, live in a safe seat. Sad to see that almost half the electorate (both state and federal) haven’t been represented for decades!
I live in the ACT, which has the unusual distinctionof having all 3 Reps sets not marginal (Labor has them well won), but is a marginal electorate in the Senate. We get two senators. Katy Gallaher is a lock-in for the ALP, but the Liberals man , the far-right Zed Seselskja is way out of line with most Canberrans and struggles to get a quota. This year we have two strong independents and the Greens all fielding strong candidates, and if they and the voters play it smart one of them will get up on the others’ preferences ahead of Zed.
Democracy… One man/woman ( let’s just say one citizen) = one vote.
Whoever gets the most votes gets to chose the King, all seats handed out as a proportion of the total tally? Chosen local reps chosen from most votes in area somehow adjusted to meet the percentage of overall tally. I dunno someone call Socrates for help.
What I really am writing for is to enquire who you are referring to as the former Commander in Grief, who destroyed democracy,?
It’s been a slow death but in all deaths the end comes quickly, I have s few choice candidates in mind, but prey tell whom is your choice?
I’m guessing it maybe Morro himself, but you could be going back to Howard or even the usurper who committed treason by calling on the Gov gen, back in the day when social justice still had a chance, alas until that fateful day. The end of democracy indeed
Commander in Grief = Trump
Your concept of how elections work is on par with your other witterings.