Has anybody passed their past English exam?

The two-party system should never have been deposited on us, it has been a system for corruption and greed, and has been used to win the workers and small business into a cesspool for the use of corrupt or bad politicans and big business. If the original intent was kept, that the members of parliament where "representitives" of the electorates, it might have been OK. Unfortunately the system has been hijacked by Lawyers and their ilk, and they either have no knowledge of keeping out of trouble ie a recession, they don't care or they have some other objective - it certainly does not include prosperity for Australia. I believe that a common committee with genuine representitives and a good MC would be a vast improvement.

Lots of sweeping statements there that are quite impossible to prove but ultimately your point appears to be that somehow we need a more engaged, a more "independent" thinking parliamentary system.

I suggest you look to that barely read, let alone understood bedrock document called the Australian Constitution. Nowhere does it mention a two-party system of Government - I promise Merv09 - check it out.

Proportional representation would most likely be the final dagger in the forehead for the two-party myth but I don't expect that will happen anytime soon. Still, as Ian himself admits: "But you would never know if you only listened to what the politicians say - and ignored what they actually do.", a lot of what happens is consensus based anyway.

Ultimately, if you want to "change" the mechanics by which political parties manipulate public affairs (and you'd have to include every party in existence, as well as their aligned lobby groups etc.) you'd need either (i) constitutional reform or (ii) electoral reform. That is, if you are serious and not just having an "academic wank".

The entire Australian political system needs re-jigging.

I was once a rusted-on Labor person and even at one time, a member of the Labor Party, but they lost me over issues such GM cropping and their constant and apparent pandering to big business interests whilst totally ignoring the needs and desires of the voting public.

Howard's 'jack-boot' ways were no more palatable as he attempted to destroy Australian workers rights. I laughed like hell when the poor little sook lost his bid to represent that cricket mob. Tony Abbott, an ardent Howard supporter will give us more of the same. No wonder so many people turned to the Greens. They had nowhere else to go!

How to fix the system? A couple of thoughts on the matter......

1) Educate people to vote BELOW the line. And it's not always a matter of people being lazy either, more a case of too many boxes, too little space in those tiny booths and too little time.

2) Introduce an Internet voting system. People can do their tax securely over the Internet, so why not cast a vote the same way? This would also go a long way towards eradicating problem no.1 and get more young people involved.

3) Limit extreme political bias amongst newspapers, the likes of which the Murdock press spews out ad nauseum during elections.

4) Expose sources of political donations well before the elections. Australians have the right to know which organisations are vying to alter the course of Australian politics by effectively buying the future they want to see.

I could go on but perhaps the most important thing I'd like to see happen is for politicians to re-connect with the voting public. Let their constituents have a say which is genuinely taken into account by our elected "leaders." I've lived out in the bush for around 14 years and haven't seen a single pollie knocking on doors out here. If we can't be seen from their cars, then apparently we don't exist! They've simply got to better than this before I give them my vote!

AIME... your concerns are correct I feel, (about labor and big business) but there is a bigger danger still.

That is..if folks like you... gravitate to the communist Greens! as the only other alternative.

Please have a look at this.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13959

enlarge the image of the window.. SEE the shield between founders (bloke on right is George Bernard Shaw).. and see what animal is there and how it's dressed.

RECognize puh-lease that there are forces at work which are more diabolical than politeness would allow me to express here.

You might have a valuable perspective for this thread.
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=4024

Yes Al. A wolf in sheep's clothing. Took me awhile to get it with my aging eyes, but tell me exactly how that relates to the Greens please?

Are you sure you're not simply cranky with the Greens because their leader is gay and if they ever get the chance, they'll see gay marriage get through the parliamentary process?

The Fabian society? Really! Al, you must realise that I'm my own person. I believe the Roman Catholic hierarchy is as evil a creation that was ever devised by man. Not it's followers since they've been terribly brainwashed and know no better. I also believe that when the last particle of being drains from the human body at death, then there is no more. You don't wake up in some new form, you don't get to see your God, in fact you don't get to see ever again. We're simply over-thinking animals and like all animals, when we're dead, well, that's it baby and there ain't no more!

But this is about politics and how to make them more attractive to the common voter. Lets try and stay on track here.

Anyway Al, just for arguments sake, lets say I'm wrong and there really IS a God. What do you think will happen to me when I die?

I was dragged up kicking and screaming from the torture inflicted by nuns and "holy people." It took me decades to finally cast the superstition from my mind and the blindfold from my eyes. Oh if only I could devise a way to open the minds of religious people, but for now you'll have to excuse me. The moon is out and I'm starting to grow those funny claws again!

Darn it. Strayed off topic again!

AlGore-

"Communist Greens"?

You've been peeking under your bed again haven't you.

Then again, coming from somebody besotted with Neo-Nazi BNP extremists, that's probably not an odd remark.

Wobbles there are two forces at work in our world since the creation of man, Life John 10-10 and Death also John 10-10. Adam was warned in Gen 2-17 never to partake from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Rebellion leads to stinken thinken, leads to death. So do the Greens promote Jesus or the wolf in sheep's clothing, Nitschke and Sanger or abundant life you decide. The only answer to stinken thinken is to have a bath with the water of the word. Many people argue against the unfairness of God for sending people to hell but how does God have the choice when it is our free will so if you chose to glorify Lucifer over Gods Word, Jesus, you get to spend eternity with him and it is your choice not Gods. The battle for the heart and mind of mankind will rage until Jesus returns. Socialism fails and leads to destruction always.

From the Cambridge Catalogue website:
"Power Crisis, by former minister and Labor historian Rodney Cavalier, is the latest volume in the Australian Encounters series (jointly published by Cambridge University Press and the National Centre for Australian Studies (NCAS), Monash University). It will be launched in Sydney by Senator John Faulkner, who may well have some words about the current plight of Australian Labor, and MCed by Dr Tony Moore, commissioning editor of Australian Encounters and Director of NCAS.
“This is a forensic and penetrating analysis of the crisis facing modern Labor. Cavalier is unrivalled in his ability to identify the dilemmas of the present but locate them in historical context.”
– Paul Kelly, The Australian
“Rodney Cavalier analyses the root causes of the crisis to explain why government in NSW has become a grim game of musical chairs. He reveals a bitter conflict between an elected Labor government and the party that created it. The problem for modern Labor is the hijacking of party and government by a professional political class — operatives on big salaries with minimal life experience or connection to the broader community”
– Dr. Tony Moore, Director of NCAS
- and doesn't this also apply, minimum concern for our workers, not only for the state of NSW, but for our country of Australia, and not only the Labor Party, but also the Liberal party, also hijacked by the Lawyer assemble, and look at the industries destroyed by the reciprocal imports from our mining exports, clothing, tools, we used to make TVs, - we could have been manufacturing cars, etc in fact if there had been any integrity in our political parties 40 years ago, we could have been manufacturing far more than we buy in now, but we have been getting the wrong people into our Government – not the parties, but the wrong careers and professions.

Aime, You wrote about the newspapers bios, well back about 30 or 35 years ago, Rupert Muddock came over to gain the right to buy into TV for news presentation, Labor was in power, and refused, some time later when the Liberal party was in power, he came back with the same proposal, and the Liberals accepted his proposal. He said then, that the News Corp would assist the Liberal party, and not the Labor, so you will find bios against the Labor although there has been times lately when an editor has shown objection to decisions produced by that party.

Some people put a lot onto jesus, when he arrives. A busy boy, with the backlog of misdaminers around the world i don't know how he's going to do it all. I wonder what nationality, or colour his is. I suppose we will have to wait till next may to find that out.

579, Speak Gen 1-3

A simpler approach would be to introduce CIR and re-organize political powers to be secondary to, and actually overridden by referenda at the discretion of numerous high bodies, CIR, or even if a conscience vote were to arise.

Otherwise, re-organize our government to NOT just be a single-party takes-all arrangement- you could either demand all parliamentarians formed government, or better yet, had every ministry office a stand-alone house with a separate ballot each- so you could put a Liberal in the treasury, Greeny in the Health Ministry, Liberal in the Immigration Department etc).

i believe it should be PASSED its use by date

Oh, and when I say "at the discretion of high bodies"- I meant that any high body can INSTANTLY transfer any issue directly to the public; they will also be powerless to override a referendum.

As for the article, it's all a bit of an overstatement really. Politics in Australia is unlikely to change much at all. The people have made it abundantly clear in the past that they don't trust politicians to make changes to the constitution. Any meaningful change will in the end require a referendum and if we are honest you don't seriously expect the politicians to propose a referendum that would detract from their domination of the system.

Ritchie10, Will you leave it alone. I wonder why you bible bashers bother to use a site as such. Here it is hoped one will look at an issue and make considered and rational comment not dream about a fictional super hero and his side kick. Heven and hell are what you live right now and unfortunately most religious types seem to chose hell as they wait for their super hero to take them to nirvana.

Aime, You seem to have it pretty right with most of what you say. Problem is effecting change in this country. Al does have a crusade agains't anything that is not conservative so i have got to the point where i don't worry about it anymore. The Greens will either do well or stuff it up but there is little Al or any of us can do to change it.

Merv09, is this not the third time i have seen you use this same info. Do you have a financial interest in the Cambridge Catalogue.

Well put Niarbe.

One thing's for certain, change will happen. Nothing lasts. In 200 years time we will be governed in a totally different way. Another few hundred years, another different way. Fast forward 50,000 years and you'll see hundreds, if not thousands, of different formulas tried. And along the way there will be heaps of people who are convinced that "their" way is the only way, then that will be replaced by something else again and again and again.

We're strange animals indeed.

Sorry Aime..didn't see your question there.

//Yes Al. A wolf in sheep's clothing. Took me awhile to get it with my aging eyes, but tell me exactly how that relates to the Greens please?//

It relates to the Greens probably more than any other group.

"how"? simple.. they are globalist socialists, posturing themselves as "caring environmentally aware peaceniks"

I.e..wolves in sheeps clothing.

The Greens leadership HATE Christians and the church.. I'm not saying 'dislike'...I'm saying HATE.

There responses (or lack thereof) to 24 questions addressed to them by the Christian lobby makes it abundantly clear as does their militant anti Christian anti Church attempts to remove exemptions from the discrimination act for Church schools.

NOW..see this:

http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2010/07/06/christian-brethren-challenged/27716

WayOut claims the Christian Brethren resort owners discriminated against them because of their sexuality when they refused to accept a booking for their camp in June 2007.

The group is challenging religious exemptions included in Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act.

http://www.saltshakers.org.au/component/content/article/85-front-page-news/703-church-camp-loses-discrimination-case

the judge DISMISSED the evidence of CYC's 'expert witness' because she thought he was 'biased' toward the CYC cause!

And said that the group could have their private religious views but still had to allow this group access to the campsite - CYC was fined $5,000.
This is just the latest in an increasing incidence of discrimination cases taken against Christians...

NOWWWWWW see THIS!

PEEL HOTEL COLLINGWOOD.
http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=161522

Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal president Cate McKenzie said that allowing straight men and women into the club could defeat the intent of the club to appeal to male homosexuals. "This would undermine or destroy the atmosphere which the company wishes to create," McKenzie said.

So much for EQUALITY before the law.

Richie 10,

So when Jesus said to give somebody the shirt off your back, what he meant to say was to "sell" or "lease" it?

The only system that guarantees mutual survivability is the Family Unit, which at least in my home - is a basic socialist arrangement.

All other manifestations are based on self-interest (including and particulalry religion, incidentally).

Don't bother Wobbles- if it were so easy for others to realize that the Bible makes pinko Marx seem positively BLUE in comparison, with verses specifically endorsing paying workers the same wage for doing less work among other things (Matthew 20:1-16) the tea-party movement wouldn't even exist.