Australian Democracy
September 1st 2010 00:39
Democratic Government
With elections going on somewhere in Australia fairly frequently and the recent Federal Election being such a shambles with voters being wooed relentlessly by the leaders of the two major parties I thought it would be nice to write out a plan for a democracy that is at least close to the what I think is dictionary definition of what Democracy is.
Representation - Electorates and Electoral Boundaries.
Voting in Parliament
Campaigning - Policies
- Time limit and travel limit.
Voting by the people – Both Houses
Electorates and Electoral Boundaries.
Currently our electoral boundaries are compiled and changed by the Australian Electoral Commission according to the population of the country. The higher the population density, the smaller the electorate in area.
Because of this, the rural areas of our Nation have little representation when we get down to the nitty gritty of a working Government. Rural areas are constantly neglected in all aspects of Govt provided services.
It is unfair that these same neglected areas are where most of the nations food is grown, the most mines are located and a large part of the nation’s income is derived.
There should be a re-arrangement of these boundaries to reflect this. Enlarge some of the city/metropolitan electorates and reduce the rural ones. For instance the federal electorate of Parkes takes up almost one third of the State of NSW total area, and has a single representative.
How can one man/woman effectively cover well over 100 thousand square kilometres and provide reasonable representation for the each town and village? Under recent Govts those people did not get proper representation at all.
Voting and Debating in Parliament
It has come the notice of the people that ‘back benchers” in Parliaament, The House of Representatives, have no voice. They are merely numbers who do as the Party executive tells them, They cannot speak, they cannot propose any legislation, they cannot question the Govt Ministers. So they actually do next to nothing for those who voted them into Parlt.
It is not their fault, the ‘Party’ system used by the two major players has been twisted and bastardised to keep them ‘in line’.
Power to the Party and not the people.
The practice of demanding that all party members vote according to the demands of the executive of that party should be illegal. How can any elected member truly represent his electorate if he is forbidden to vote according to his conscience?
I do not know what goes on in the Senate because the details of its operations are as confusing as the voting paper we get when we have to elect them.
I think it is way past time that every member of the House has both a voice and a vote, and the freedom to speak out, thereby giving that person an opportunity to represent his electorate properly
Campaigning
This a period of time, so it seems to me, is where intending politicians try to bribe the electors to win votes, and the Governance of the country is completely ignored. The electorates which could go either way in an election are the ones who are offered the biggest bribes. This practice has to be stopped somehow and Govt monies, OUR monies, should be committed to where there is the greatest need, regardless of which party holds the seat. In very plain language:- Fair Go, Mate!
Whatever policies are put forward at an election should be costed by Treasury. Not only the money cost, but the real value of the policy as to how it would affect the Community and the nation. This should be done before the election campaign starts so that the people are aware of exactly what each policy means to them and their country.
Cost of all campaigning to be born by the candidate or his party, or by the People themselves. If the politicians decide to let the people pay, which they will, then the independent candidates must get the same funding as the Party members. No donations to campaign costs can then be used by anyone.
My personal thoughts are that no one gets any funding for travel outside the boundaries of their own electorate, not one cent, whether Prime Minister, Cabinet minister, or simply another of those independents.
All candidates have the same budget for advertising, printed material, travel within their electorate, posters or whatever.
Now to top it off, no election campaign should last more than four weeks. After all we are only voting for one candidate each, or two if the Senate membership is decided by electorates as well as the lower house.
Election day
The present system for the Lower House is acceptable but the Senate voting paper is absolutely ludicrous. We are expected to choose from 80 something candidates, who we do not know, enough members to fill half the Senate. And our Politicians call this a democracy.
Make the candidates for the senate should be responsible to an electorate. Even as things are now, we would still get some senators from rural areas instead of city dwellers only.
I know I am being idealistic and may be called a dreamer, but this is my country, I have lived here all my life and I have been around long enough to see changes to politics which I do not like. The ‘party’ is not all powerful, it is made up of those who are in fact servants to the people of Australia. WE, the people, employ them and pay them to Govern the country for the benefit of the country, the whole country, not the ‘Party’.
The issue of ‘Power Brokers’ in the Party system is clear evidence, to me anyway, that our ‘party system’ is as corrupt as it can be. I do not enjoy being treated like a mushroom by those ‘servants of the people’ simply because no one holds them to account.
With elections going on somewhere in Australia fairly frequently and the recent Federal Election being such a shambles with voters being wooed relentlessly by the leaders of the two major parties I thought it would be nice to write out a plan for a democracy that is at least close to the what I think is dictionary definition of what Democracy is.
Representation - Electorates and Electoral Boundaries.
Voting in Parliament
Campaigning - Policies
- Time limit and travel limit.
Voting by the people – Both Houses
Electorates and Electoral Boundaries.
Currently our electoral boundaries are compiled and changed by the Australian Electoral Commission according to the population of the country. The higher the population density, the smaller the electorate in area.
Because of this, the rural areas of our Nation have little representation when we get down to the nitty gritty of a working Government. Rural areas are constantly neglected in all aspects of Govt provided services.
It is unfair that these same neglected areas are where most of the nations food is grown, the most mines are located and a large part of the nation’s income is derived.
There should be a re-arrangement of these boundaries to reflect this. Enlarge some of the city/metropolitan electorates and reduce the rural ones. For instance the federal electorate of Parkes takes up almost one third of the State of NSW total area, and has a single representative.
How can one man/woman effectively cover well over 100 thousand square kilometres and provide reasonable representation for the each town and village? Under recent Govts those people did not get proper representation at all.
Voting and Debating in Parliament
It has come the notice of the people that ‘back benchers” in Parliaament, The House of Representatives, have no voice. They are merely numbers who do as the Party executive tells them, They cannot speak, they cannot propose any legislation, they cannot question the Govt Ministers. So they actually do next to nothing for those who voted them into Parlt.
It is not their fault, the ‘Party’ system used by the two major players has been twisted and bastardised to keep them ‘in line’.
Power to the Party and not the people.
The practice of demanding that all party members vote according to the demands of the executive of that party should be illegal. How can any elected member truly represent his electorate if he is forbidden to vote according to his conscience?
I do not know what goes on in the Senate because the details of its operations are as confusing as the voting paper we get when we have to elect them.
I think it is way past time that every member of the House has both a voice and a vote, and the freedom to speak out, thereby giving that person an opportunity to represent his electorate properly
Campaigning
This a period of time, so it seems to me, is where intending politicians try to bribe the electors to win votes, and the Governance of the country is completely ignored. The electorates which could go either way in an election are the ones who are offered the biggest bribes. This practice has to be stopped somehow and Govt monies, OUR monies, should be committed to where there is the greatest need, regardless of which party holds the seat. In very plain language:- Fair Go, Mate!
Whatever policies are put forward at an election should be costed by Treasury. Not only the money cost, but the real value of the policy as to how it would affect the Community and the nation. This should be done before the election campaign starts so that the people are aware of exactly what each policy means to them and their country.
Cost of all campaigning to be born by the candidate or his party, or by the People themselves. If the politicians decide to let the people pay, which they will, then the independent candidates must get the same funding as the Party members. No donations to campaign costs can then be used by anyone.
My personal thoughts are that no one gets any funding for travel outside the boundaries of their own electorate, not one cent, whether Prime Minister, Cabinet minister, or simply another of those independents.
All candidates have the same budget for advertising, printed material, travel within their electorate, posters or whatever.
Now to top it off, no election campaign should last more than four weeks. After all we are only voting for one candidate each, or two if the Senate membership is decided by electorates as well as the lower house.
Election day
The present system for the Lower House is acceptable but the Senate voting paper is absolutely ludicrous. We are expected to choose from 80 something candidates, who we do not know, enough members to fill half the Senate. And our Politicians call this a democracy.
Make the candidates for the senate should be responsible to an electorate. Even as things are now, we would still get some senators from rural areas instead of city dwellers only.
I know I am being idealistic and may be called a dreamer, but this is my country, I have lived here all my life and I have been around long enough to see changes to politics which I do not like. The ‘party’ is not all powerful, it is made up of those who are in fact servants to the people of Australia. WE, the people, employ them and pay them to Govern the country for the benefit of the country, the whole country, not the ‘Party’.
The issue of ‘Power Brokers’ in the Party system is clear evidence, to me anyway, that our ‘party system’ is as corrupt as it can be. I do not enjoy being treated like a mushroom by those ‘servants of the people’ simply because no one holds them to account.
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