"It was, however, an election in which citizens formed opinions about candidates and voted according to how they believed those candidates would behave."

I wonder if this is true. I seriously believe that a large proportion of the electorate are just uninformed judging by the "vox pop." carried out by the media in the streets of Australia.

It seems that many have no idea of their party's manifesto and vote purely on whether they like the personality of the candidate not their policies. Some didn't even know the name of their candidate and one I heard didn't know who John Howard was.

Yes, there was a protest vote and many voted for the Greens, but I am sure they had no idea what other policies they held and only saw them with conservation and "feel good" credentials.

I think it was George Bernard Shaw that once said that "Universal suffrage is government of the people by its children"

I used to think that compulsory preferential voting was a good idea. now I am not so sure.

There is something decided wonky about the need for the independents to support either major party for the purposes of forming a government.

While they will maintain their independence, the very act of aligning themselves with a party flies in the face of the concept of independence!

And….if they are going to remain independent, then isn’t this alignment a bit meaningless and false?

Wouldn’t it be much better for the independents to just give a guarantee that they will not block supply bills and leave it at that, without requiring their support for either the Libs or Labs?

This should apply to the Greens MP as well.

It would then a be simple matter of whichever party wins the most seats getting to form government, with there only being a problem if they are tied.

The independents will immediately peeve a considerable portion of their support base if they are required back one major party of the other. So surely it is in their best interests to just not do it, if they can possibly remain neutral without us having to go to another election.

I like your comment on the supposed equity of regional communications. During the time in the shift from analogue to digital mobile service,I lived in windsors electorate of new England in NSW. What a circus that event turned into. With the flick of a switch, off went huge chunks of vital country mobile service, sacrificed to the god of advanced technology.

“But there is more”! Also during my long and at times not so illustrious sojourn in the NE/NSW I vividly remember attending a union protest meeting on the street in front of windsors office. He refused to speak to our delegation on the subject of workers rights and made it clear of his support for Howards work choices. He is Abbott to the core, make no mistake. Further, he, as an ex-member of the hill-billy and red neck band of the National party, and will, I am sure, go to his grave with that particular “mark of the beast” indellably attached

Snake,
May be the electors are awake at last and don't like being taken for mugs. Nasty old red George, wasn't he the one that came up with the National Socialists race purification solution. In life I have found very few truly clueless people, just masks for self preservation.
Children know that their parents know nothing But by the time they reach 40 it is marvelous how much their oldies have learned. Older people must all go back to school because they know so much more now.
The school of Hard Knocks.

Oh and in the coming months after Labor has disintergrated I can see the campaign slogans in Lynne, and New England A vote for Windsor/Oakeshott is a vote for Labor debacles, Labor waste and Labor debt.
Katter wouldn't risk the slogan in Mount Isa ... a vote for Katter is a vote for the Mining Tax.

While these three are trying to portray themselves as the saviours of the Australian Political system, they are still politicians, and if you don't think re-election is uppermost in their minds you are a crank.

In 1933 Von Papen thought he could control Hitler who had 37% of the popular vote, if he let him form a government. Just a casual observation. Please hide the matches LOL.

My bet is, the merry band of red necks will marry labor for a day, following which time Abbott will use the our merry band to plant his political IED's. Abbotts belief is they are worth more dead than alive.

In reality what we are witnessing is reserve grade bench sitters playing their first game in the big league: Life is great "mooing" in the sunny holding pen. But sadly, entry to the processing room is via the slaughter floor.Its all too sophisticated.

Welcome to the real world: MOOOO.or is it Baaaaa.

The independents appear to be uninformed about anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and the NBN.
Regarding policies formulated to control alleged AGW and socalled greenhouse gas emissions, and to develop renewable energy, the independents appear to be unaware that such policies are based on a false premise, namely, the hypothesis that AGW is caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Despite over 20 years of searching by the IPCC and many socalled climate scientists, the hypothesis has not been proved.
The proposition that reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions will slow down AGW, is an assertion. There is no irrefutable scientific evidence to prove that reducing such emissions would have any significant effect on AGW.

Furthermore, the costs of renewable energy relative to coal-derived are about three times for wind power and ten times for solar power, making it irrational to subsidise their development and production . Consequently, spending billions on CO2 emission reduction and renewable energy would be pointless. Both of the major political parties have erred grossly in pursuing such policies.

Regarding the independents' desire to upgrade to wideband internet in their electorates, they would be naive to think that this could best be achieved by supporting Labor's NBN proposal. Implementation of Labor's NBN proposal would be extremely wasteful, as it would entail the scrapping of the existing fixed telephone line and HFC cable networks. These network types are being used to provide wideband internet not only in Australia, but in the USA and Europe. In fact, the Telstra and Optus HFC cables can be upgraded at little cost and time to provide 100 megabits per second, the same speed as the NBN, to over half of Australian internet users at a much lower price than the NBN.
The provision of wideband internet in regional areas does not have to be restricted to the NBN technology, as more cost-effective alternative technologies would be available

Richard may overlook that the government is not the parliament and visa versa and while Julia Gillard is seeking to promote some railway the truth is that only the s.101 Inter-State commission can determine this. Oops this was discontinued since 1987 to allow pork-barrelling by the governments since!
It amazes me that with my crummy English, as a CONSTITUTIONALIST, I seem to be the only person who really understand/comprehend what is constitutionally appropriate, see my blog at http://www.scribd.com/InspectorRikati for a set out of the relevant constitutional matters regarding this issue of commissioning a person to form a government. Who will form the next government has nothing to do with the majority in the Parliament as it is a prerogative power exercised by the Governor-General and so WITHOUT the advise of the Prime Minister!
Neither Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott or for that anyone else elected for the House of Representatives are Members of Parliament until after the return of the writs when they take up a seat! There is no hung Parliament because the only members are the Senators at this time. And, back in 1901 E. Barton was commissioned to form a government without any Parliament existing and was subsequently elected. Don’t confuse the role of a government with that of the Parliament, and I for one having campaigned for long for electors to vote for INDEPENDENTS to bring about a lesson to the major political parties am satisfied they are getting their message.
On 19 July 2006 I defeated comprehensively the Commonwealth that compulsory voting is unconstitutional and while I do not oppose voting I oppose any form of compulsory voting and the Court upheld my cases! This my blog also displays. Voting is our constitutional rights but in the way we desire and not hijacked by politicians dictating how we should vote! See also my website http://www.schorel-hlavka.com. As for the Greens as a CONSTITUTIONALIST I view that some of their alleged issues are a constitutional nonsense. Do I need to say more?

Why would anyone just run off and vote for an 'Independent' for no other reason than they don't belong to a political party. The majority of 'independents' in fact belong to the 'RAVING LUNATICS PARTY' with their one issue such as "the local council wont cut my nature strip the way I want it, so vote for me in the Senate."