Completely agree that MPs should not be constrained by their parties. After all we do elect each member and not the party (despite the nature of our election campaigns and the Senate, which complicates things a little with above-the-line voting).

In this case, the Liberals tend to be better at allowing their MPs to cross the floor. Mind you I said better not the best. Labor had a recent example where they suspended an MLC in NSW for voting against the ALP. Let's you know what the Labor party stands for loud and clear.

The Democrats had a huge falling out when they split on the GST, leading to party room personality disputes and their eventual, drawn-out downfall.

Guess it's now the turn of the Greens to show us how they deal with non-toeing of the party line. Although does anyone know if the Greens have ever split on a vote?

Either way, seeing how our Executive arm of Government is not fully separated from the Legislative, it makes even more sense to have a vote before any non-emergency troop deployments. As we have seen recently, the Executive can be changed by the whims of party bosses and a hung Parliament means that the Government can change at any time. Even without a hung Parliament, conditions can change if one of the major parties splits (unlikely but not impossible).

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

Why do people cling to the naive assumption that a "conscience vote" will solve all our problems- let alone really be any different from an ordinary vote?

It's almost desperation to find any quick-fix solution and hope that deep down our parliamentarians are really nice genuine people and Australian government's problems trace only back to the fact they have to obey party policy (ignoring that its policy at the discretion of the members- meaning for it to be party policy most members would have supported it). Also, whose to say the personal prejudices of, say, Tony Abbott would be better? OR, for that matter that individual parliamentarians can't be corrupted into sticking to how we do things now?

If you think most people support a remedy to the problem- demand a referendum.

How some people could be so deluded into fearing referenda but consider a 'conscience vote' as a magical panacea is beyond me.