John Barron tries to explain to Americans how Australian politics works, but does it in a low-confidence tug-of-the-forelock jocular style, and worse, throws in some furphys as well. Example:

If ever an issue such as stem cell research or the "morning-after" contraceptive pill RU-486 should come before parliament, the law is determined by what's called a "conscience vote." All members of parliament are free to vote as their conscience dictates; they aren't bound by the policy of their political party. The prime minister's vote has no greater value than the most junior local member's. And there's no power of veto. Majority rules -- and because we all voted, fair enough, mate.

Heh, conscience voting is pretty much non-existent. Party discipline is absolute; and Barron is trying to pass off Australia as some liberal, deliberative, paradise. Furphy alert. A quick and obvious counter-example is the euthenasia bill in the Northern Territory which the National Parliament over-rode. Where are your conscience votes now?

Australian democracy is strong, there is no need to mis-represent it. Australian Parliament is less deliberative and has less conscience voting than the US Congress does. That is a fact.

Barron's description of the "Great and Powerful Friends" Doctrine [GAPF] is equally as low confidence:

Also, ever since a bloke named MacArthur skipped out of Manila and set up shop in the Northern Australian city of Brisbane to fight the Japanese from a more discreet distance, we've had a foreign policy remarkably similar to yours. We're much obliged to you for saving our skins when Mother England abandoned us to the advancing Japanese army in 1942. And we've shown our thanks by loyally standing alongside American GIs in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Overall we're pretty happy with the deal. It's a form of insurance; like helping your older brother do his chores, knowing that in return he'll stick up for you in the schoolyard. Should Japan get an army again and a taste for kangaroo meat, we know we can count on you to step in, if for no other reason than to protect some of those intelligence facilities we let you set up here. But here's the thing: If we're going to keep taking out the trash for you in Tikrit and trimming the lawn in Kabul, let's see, in honor of the deep and abiding friendship between our great nations, what we can do to improve your electoral system. I think it's fair to say that if, after two years of campaigning and about a billion dollars in spending, the majority of Americans still decide to stay home on Election Day, then something ain't working.

The GAPF has been a consistent policy since 1919, just in 1942 we swapped the UK for the US. Further, England didn't abandon Australia, it was known before the war that the Royal Navy could not fight a war in the Pacific and Atlantic concurrently. Australian and British military advisors knew this. Australia did nothing to alleviate this weakness except for Curtin to say, "without any pangs" that "we look to the US".

Barron calls it insurance, but the GAPF is wider and includes economic subservience as well. Fortunately Australian embrace of economic liberalism (not economic conservatism as Barron writes) has meant that Australia is far more independent economically than ever.

Australia does have a superior electoral system to the US. Our use of technologies like proportional voting, preference systems, multi-member districts and the Robson Rotation have ensured Australia has a vital and dynamic democracy. However, Australia has an inferior Constitutional system to the US. The American states are far more innovative constitutionally than Australia, the Australian States or Australian Local Government are.

Unfortunately, Barron's Crocodile Hunter reading of Australian political and policy mythos doesn't impart the true strength of Australian democracy.

According to the final blurb Barron is writing a book on the US Presidential system. Hopefully his book writing is better than his op-ed writing. This is a poor effort of explaining a complex democratic system to Americans.

Update: I wish Australians would stop passing themselves off as cultural curiosities. Yes it works as a marketing schtick, ie Mick Dundee and Crocodile Hunter, though both of them traded in on the larrikin (loki) myth, however, Australia is a powerful and complex nation. We are a serious people with a history of achievement. There is no need to put forward a low self-confidence style in the ocker vernacular.

Australia is a strong enough culture that it shines through when being serious as well. This site has an obvious Australian bent and is a very serious one considering its choice of subject - ie constitutional theory and political philosophy.

The Australian Diaspora works, competes and walks the world's stage with confidence. They manage to do it without tugging the forelock like this op-ed does.

Update II: When I moved to Arizona I made a deliberate decision not to have a television, nor to subscribe to the local newspaper (The Arizona Republic). My guess was that I would be better informed that way; by using the internet alone for information. I am in Virginia this week and the Washington Post is still delivered to my house here. My decision to eschew MSM seems wise(r) now.