The ties that bind

Special Minister of State is expected to annouce changes to the electoral system tonight.

The Australian has a heads up on the proposed changes to the Australian electoral system . No mention of requiring blogs to kowtow to rules that the major parties feel no need to, that is, honesty in electoral material. That's a plus.

Voters at the next election will be able to able to distribute in bloc form their own party preferences for the Senate, without having to number dozens of boxes on the ballot paper.

On the other hand, that just feels like yet another tie that binds the Senate to the party room.
Permalink, The ties that bind, Oct 2005, avocadia
cam: Politicians and Parties to Voters: Dont you worry your pretty heads and beautiful minds, we will take care of it all for you.

cam
Scrymarch: Bloc voting: Depending (crucially) on its implementation, it seems not such a crazy idea to me.  Certainly respectable non-party hacks such as Antony Green have argued against the current system.  Since most people vote above the line a lot of power gets put in the partyroom and backroom deals.  Family First were gurus at this.

Seems to me all they have to do is liberalise what can be put above the line.  Make it partial preferential (party list) voting above the line, compulsory preferential below the line.  If you need to redistribute an individual\'s vote beyond their last preference, it goes on the party list of the first preference.  Clear increase in choice, plus the ballot remains the same.

I\'m much less sanguine over the clampdown on registration requirements and the attack on compulsory voting.  These are blatant efforts to disenfranchise Labor voters.
avocadia: Bloc voting:

It\'s not that is a bad idea. When you get right down to it, the voter is quite capable of doing this already. It does seem a shame, though, that the Senate is slowly becoming the House with less authority and a funny voting system.

I don\'t think I buy the conventional wisdom that it is Labor voters who will vote less. Voluntary voting will garner less votes amongst voters who are relaxed and comfortable - you don\'t vote if there is not much burning you up. I don\'t really know who that would be at the moment; the cynic in me suggests it is people who already own their home and ride bicycles.
cam: Individuals are supposed to vote for reps: not parties. None of the ballots should have any recognition of parties as an electoral voting option. An individual with party affiliation is fine, but not a party having the place on the ballot as a voting choice.

This isnt much different to the old FPTP Senate system where people voted for a party, and the party with the most votes got all the Senate seats for that state. If we are to have preference voting it should be optional with no above the line, and a robson rotation thrown in to protect against statistical skewing with the donkey vote.

cam

Most Popular on South Sea Republic

The articles that have been viewed the most:

Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix

Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area. This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most; My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are AZ88, Postinos, Bomberos with Grazie, Humble Pie, Orange Table, The Vig, Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on phoenixeatsout.com

Most Popular Hikes in Arizona

Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak. For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in Tom's Thumb and Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.

Alternate Australian Constitutions

Between 2004 and 2009 this site, southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues. One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome: The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.

Archives For South Sea Republic

South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then; The articles are ordered by views.

Who Is Cam Riley

Cam Riley I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident. I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end. I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now. The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.

Websites Worth Reading

Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;