"have a democratic political system where the local congressman (our MHR) actually represents their constituency,"

Absolutely correct!

The democratic system in Australia is an illusion. It is clear that the people who are elected do not actually, represent the people who elected them.

To hold up as an example of good governance the US with its gerrymandered constituency boundaries and the subordination of the democratic process to powerful lobby groups is risible.

The two go hand in hand. It would not be possible for the finance, oil and healthcare industries to own US congressmen if their constituencies were not gerrymandered to ensure that the incumbent is almost always re-elected.

Here's what REALLY needs to happen.

Most democratic politics boils down to selecting the LEAST-WORST CANDIDATE. This fact needs to be recognised. Instead of voting for the least-worst let's just vote for the worst.

And that brings me to the:

BIG BROTHER HOUSE OPTION

Here's how it works.

All candidates for a constituency are sequestered in a big brother house. We the voters get to watch them 24 / 7. We also get to send in questions they have to answer.

Every week we vote for the WORST candidate. Whoever gets the raspberry of the week gets kicked out.

The survivor becomes our MHR. He is by definition the candidate the voters consider the least-worst.

An interesting read Greg.

I think you are right. But I’d go a big step further and suggest that our system is a shadowy wisp of democracy very largely because of the extraordinarily cosy deal between government and big business.

This phenomenon has arguably led to Labor and Liberal developing essentially the same philosophies and policies, both absolutely pandering to the wishes of the all-powerful big business lobby. The arrangement is kept ensconced by the incredibly blatant favour-buying regime that we have via political donations.

This relationship is at least as important as the nitty gritty of our political structure.

In fact, for as long as this problem remains, no amount of ‘Americanisation’ of our system nor the implementation of a Swiss-style CIR are going to help very much. Afterall, the USA suffers from the same thing and Switzerland suffers from inconsistent and multidirectional policies, such as the recent vote to ban new minarets while allowing existing ones to remain and new mosques to continue to be built.

I’m inclined to think that our thinly disguised virtual autocracy would work very well for us if we could just get past our insane worship of continuous growth.

With the likes of Kevin Andrews, Labor MP Kelvin Thompson, ex NSW Premier Bob Carr and scientists such as Prof Tim Flannery and Prof Ian Lowe, and a lot of people in the general community, expressing a deep concern about our record-high population growth rate, I would hope that it is just a matter of time before some of big companies grasp the nettle and start expressing the same concerns. They'd do this on the basis that the need to protect our quality of life and coherence of society is more important than their constantly increasing short-term profits, and that if our society starts to badly fracture, they would suffer enormously, many to the point of collapse.

continued

This could well be the key. When the business sector embraces the need to stop expanding all things human in Australia and to head directly towards a stable population and a regime of sustainability, then maybe we can expect Rudd or his successor to backflip on their current mania and follow suit.

When this happens, a governmental system that is strongly autocratic as opposed to Swiss-style democratic, will be able to forge ahead in the right direction much more effectively.

Our terribly undemocratic system is currently holding us back from progressing towards the essential sustainability paradigm and keeping us in the dinosaur era.

But once the corner is turned, it could well be more effective than a strongly democratic system in getting us to where we need to go.

"Is Australia an autocracy dressing itself up as a democracy?"

Yes! That is, Australia is governed by an autocratic conservative hegemon: a narrow-minded, ignorant parochialism holds permanent sway. Left/conservationist/humanitarian thought has virtually no leverage in society at large. Indeed, the left should be grateful that the great conservative centre, that dominates our democracy (intellectually analagous to Australia's parched interior), doesn't have the rag-tag loony leftists rounded up and exterminated. This is true of Western democracy in general; that's why the right-thing seldom gets done, other than as a token gesture to the despised left who, by being appeased, only make the monolithic centre stronger.
Our politicians, so-called-left and right, accurately reflect popular consciousness.

I note the practice of “crossing the floor” is alive and well in Australia, according to the author.

I note the punishment for crossing the floor is possibly to lose pre-selection – or a ministerial position in either the government or the opposition shadow government.

I note no one is executed, imprisoned or otherwise restrained or punished as a consequence to “crossing the floor”.

Re “With thanks to Kevin Andrews whose outrageous hypocrisy sparked this missive.”

Imho there is no point in criticising a politician (Kevin Andrews in this case) for doing what many politicians have done before him

and lets face it, if we should be getting upset over anything, it should be the incumbent portfolio minister and prime minister for relaxing the rules which have encouraged people smugglers who have thus, contributed, through their incompetence, to the influx of illegal migrants to these shores.

As to squeers perception of some shadowy secret society….
“Yes! That is, Australia is governed by an autocratic conservative hegemon: a narrow-minded, ignorant parochialism holds permanent sway.”

Hmmmm – maybe it is the Free Masons back to take command….

(It will not be the Trotskyites.. they are heavily entrenched in perverting the environmental movement (although if the Copenhagen incident is any guide, they would appear to have bungled that attempt at imposing an authoritarian “world government“ - again)

I know, it is all a conspiracy between the Rotarians and the Lions

to get us all to buy extra Christmas cakes….