“Despite the portrayal of our two-party system as being reasonably well balanced and genuinely representative, this is no longer the case.”

This is certainly true although, perhaps, not for the reasons the author gives. And, obviously, in modern, “me, me me” society, the best economic managers and providers of goodies (already paid for by the electorate) has a greater chance of election.

The ALP has picked up on this, and Australia could exist comfortably under either of the two parties capable of forming a government without noticing very much difference in day-to-day life. How stale and boring!

What Australians need is a real choice. The ALP could give up the game, and the Coalition – no longer entitled to call itself conservative – could take its place, leaving room for a no-nonsense, honestly conservative party prepared to make the tough decisions.

Sure is volatile - the latest

Snivelling Grug - Abbott

Health minister Abbott had his own words thrown back in his face when he was called a "Snivelling grub" by his Health opposition spokesperson, Ms Gillard.

Mr Abbott had used "Snivelling grub" to describe a Frontbencher during question and answer time in parliament, earlier in the week.

Mr Abbott was called to apologise for his slur. Mr Abbott then reacquainted himself with the microphone during a live telecast of the sitting, and said, "that if he had offended "Grubs" he apologised".

The Speaker of the House asked Ms Gillard to retract her comments about calling Tony Abbott a "Snivelling Grub".

She restated Tony Abbots exact reply with a request for an apology by saying, " if she had offended "Grubs" she apologised".

Ms Gillard was thrown out of parliament for 24 hours for defying the Chair.

Todays episode in parliament had Ms Gillard call him an Idiot.

Tony Abbott had accused the opposition of blocking the camera shot of John Howard while he was giving answers.

Ms Gillard was thrown out of parliament for a second day for calling Tony Abbott an "IDIOT".

Today Ms Gillard accused the speaker David Hawker of having double standards.

It seems that the opposition Labor party are getting more than a taste of what it is like to be the minority decision maker within our parliament with so many of Australian futures at stake with a Liberal government that is intent of forging ahead on matters of National interest without the consent of the trustees, being the Australian citizen.

We know another redhead that challenged these exact issues and was set upon by our political hoons. She pointed out the double standards too.

I wonder what Pauline Hanson would have thought about Ms Gillard descriptive words of a political identity that just keeps repeating itself, like indigestion.

"Quick-Eze"?"RU-486"?

Yes.. the political climate.

But the too and fro of the chamber is indeed what its all about.. the continual struggle for dominance, supremacy and to be king pin decision maker.

It could also be said that the current state of the nation is one of "White Supremacy"..... yep.. it sure could. More accuate though, would be 'Anglo/Celt/Scottish/Irish/Northern European' supremacy.

Does this equate with White or Anglo "superiority" ? hmmm ok.. yes in the sense of 'numbers', i.e. a quantitative measure, but definitely NOT in the qualitative dimension.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I would have to describe myself as a 'White Anglo Supremacist'...in the sense stated above. Numerically and culturally we rule. It's a plain fact of Australian life.

Does this mean that another ethno cultural group can never 'rule' in Australia in the same manner ? Only in so far as those of us of this background lack vigilance in the legislative, migration and cultural arena's to prevent it.

Does it actually matter ? Ok.. I guess I prefer to speak English, shake hands when I meet someone, (rather than say rub noses or bow)
I don't exactly mind the sight of Bikini's at the beach, I still support the 'underdog' if he is getting the stuffing beaten out of him by the 'big dog'... but like the Lebanese Muslim on the day of Cronulla who, in the face of a few thousand Anglo Aussies stepped out of his car and said "come on....I'll take yoo's on" errr he quickly got what he stupidly asked for. No sympathy there.

If I goto Malaysia, I am in fact a 'Malay supremacist' in the sense that I recognize that they have a cultural and numerical right to hold sway in things political. I certainly don't agree with the deliberate populating of the vast majority of public service jobs with ethnic Malays, but I do recognize that unless one group has effective dominance, society is like browns cows on steroids, and it will be much more of a free-4-all with the real possibility of ethnic stife occuring.

I do not think the ,"me!me!me!' society is any different to any other time. Or do we all have to be Martyrs?
I only know my own family circumstances, ordinary Australians all. Working ,playing, fighting for this country, bringing up a family often in difficult situations, saving, spending. Giving.
Typical ,boring Aussies,getting on with that which has to done. Not worth writing about because we all look out for us.And others when we can.

Peter

A sound commentary - esp re the vacuum now existing on what used to be called the left (more properly these days, advocacy of social justice, small-L liberal social policies eg, civil liberties, and govt intervention against the excesses of the god Market).

The Greens really do need to capitalise on this, but as U say they have to sharpen up their fuzzy-edged policies, formulate them in concrete terms, and dump the New Age (newage - rhymes with sewage) aura that still surrounds them. That is, they need to get down into real politics (as distinct from realpolitik).

If Labor loses the next election (almost certain, unless the economy goes sour or there's some massive scandal or the tories commit hara-kiri) I wd not be surprised if it begins to fragment. This wd be the opportunity for a re-ordering of left-of-centre political forces in Australia. We certainly need it.

[Deleted for being completely irrelevant. Poster suspended.]

There is a notion here that "volatile" implies there is some continuity with the past in Australian politics. How Naive!

The truth is we are facing a hiatus with our political past and its only going to be perceived as volatile if you are NOT an international investor. There is an ongoing, programmed privatisation of every aspect of our lives: Howard puts 100,000-plus-immigrants into a city like Sydney every year. It is busting at the seams and being run by lying-contrarians-still-star-dusted-by-Olympic-games-glory. Howard shifts blame in depraved indifference as he ramps up the immigration. Howard knows most of the 140,000 Immigrants will go to Sydney and he hopes this will bust Labor who he keeps on a short-fiscal-leash. Labor hopes the extra numbers will boost their power base if they can de-individualise voters by overcrowding. This has lead to a stasis in Australian politics where Australians think they can get a better deal by playing Federal Conservatives against State Labor politics. In the end they lose their Democracy and their individuality. At the end of the day nothing changes. Voting is a waste of time and the only purpose of state government is how to suppress citizen's rights in order to fit the NEW people into Sydney without a sprawling brawl. They find the best way to do it is to LIE to us. It works and we end up with the-RTA, lazy-Workcover, Keystone-Cops, Tollways-to-nowhere and dead-end-Hospitals.!

The same pattern will emerge in the other states if it has not already. The ONLY winners in the end will be global investors as Australian citiens morph into sheep for the shearing and our political institutions get conned out of their beloved power and in essence become PRIVATISED.

The saddest part is that people like Howard are so caught up in their lust for power, glory, progress and wealth that they don't see what's coming. True democracies are grown slowly like crystals in a Petri dish. Howard's "Too-much-too-soon" version will lead to the chaos wiser heads have always warned us about. The chaos we already KNOW-with-worse-to-come.

CANADA Yesterday.

17 Muslims arrested for bomb plot with 3 times the explosive power of the Oklahoma bombing.

ENGLAND Day b4 yesterday

1 arrested, 1 shot in raid on home of Muslims plotting chemical attack.

MELBOURNE Recently
A number of Muslims arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate PM and carry out other bombing attacks.

SYDNEY recently.
A number of Muslims arrested for allegedly plotting bomb attacks on Australian soil.

1/ Selective Immigration. (Positive discrimination) cultural, social and political compatability being foremost in mind.

2/ Promotion of Australian Identity based on demographics and history.

3/ UN Conventions: Withdraw from, or add exemptions/proviso's to our signatory status of UN conventions on 'no discrimination' to the effect that National Security interest overides any other consideration.

LOCAL TOPIC

Peter said:

[But our two-party preferential system makes the swinging vote decisive. When they do not have definite structural interests, voters tend to vote for their own immediate self interest.]

The above mentioned factors will also influence the ‘influential’ swinging voters. I’m one of them. Personally, I would have preferred the budget surplus to go into health first, and education second.
It would be a sad day for Australia, if none of us could see the global picture (as related above) and were so selfish and insular that we could be simply ‘bought’ by a mess of pottage for which we sell our economic and cultural birthrights.

Esau, in the book of Genesis sold his birthright to Jacob for a some tucker..... and later regretted.

1/ If the swinging voters make or break the elections, and
2/ If they vote out of short term self interest..
3/ Labor and Liberal voters also vote out of structural self interest.

swingers are winners and grinners.

Therefore, our political status quo is founded on ‘me me me’.
The greater our ethnic diversity, the more competitive will be our politics. (* @@ looks over at East Timor*)
Should it be surprising when ‘loony Christians’ call for national repentance and renewal ?
Come back to our constitution pre-amble “Humbly relying on the guidance of Almighty God”

Your article rings true as a member of the ALP. Howard has backed us into a corner to play the "conservative card" guised as a Labor policy. For example the 30% rebate for private health insurance under a Labor should be abolished to free up much needed funds for an underfunded PUBLIC health system BUT how would voters feel if there health insurance premiums went up 30%.

Radical ideas such as lower tutition or free tertiary education and TAFE are seen as unfeasible in current Labor policy. As well as the platform for a training levy as under a Keating government. This might be not seen as a good form of economic management by voters.

We should be doing what we think is right for Australians and trying to win them over with "inspiring" ideas with courage and convinction. Rather than second guessing what they might like and therefore watering down our policies.

In the end, the ALP needs more people within the party to shift its current status from the OTHER major party to THE Party with something to vote for. In April 2007, we come together to debate policy and in the end if we don't have enough numbers to pass policy such as re introducing a Federal dental scheme, it won't be in the ALP's platform leading to the next Federal election.

This article is spot on in terms of its analysis of politics in Australia. The two party system of government is an anachronism and is long past its use by date. What we really need in Australia is a European style electoral system which allows a wide diversity of views to be represented in Parliament and some constructive debate on very complex and often contradictary issues.

A vibrant Green Party is essential to the future of democracy in Australia as it represents a viewpoint that is frequently ignored in our media and public debate.

What the Greens need to do is be positive and send out the message that we can create a better society. Change will only happen when people believe it is possible.

A positive and constructive Green Party? Now I've heard everything.

A positive and constructive Green Party? Now I've heard everything.
....

Yeah Right - that is on a par with the benevolence of the liberals under Howard and Costello ..... soon to be the comedy team of Abort and Castrellato

But it does outrank the intelligence of Beasly the Blob and his tribe of misfits

Unfortunately we have developed into a vast mob of sycophantic morons who believe the biggest lies - we have no Statesmen - never had!!

Only a breed of politicians who sole objective is power and suppression!

Message to Citizen Mulligan and his Cross City Fiasco investors,

New South Wales is PEOPLE and we don't like your kind of cake.

I hope and trust that all voters in NSW find your complaints about being bullied as risible as I do.

It would be great to have an Australian leader who leads Australia.
We may as well be given the right to vote in the US elections and save the expense of having our own elections.
We would have to retain our paper voting system so that there is a better chance of our votes being counted.

Maybe we could use a bit of the Howard "mutual obligation" system with the federal politicians. The behaviour seen in parliament would be tolerated for about 60 seconds in the average workplace and yet they keep on getting paid without a murmer from most of us.

There is no economic equity in absence of civic equity: “mutual obligations” and its further more recent development into “welfare to work”, that is factually the forced pressing of skilled professionals not being employed in Australia for biological reasons only into a work at low paid slavery-style unprofessional positions at businesses running by mates participating in “a program” – is it Australian political climate as usual?