Yeah, but.
The parliament should be a manifestation of the will and temper of the Nation, ie the people.
How many people can even name their local member if put on the spot?
I've never met a member of the two major parties, I have met a few people who are in the Greens,are Union officials and who have run as independents.
Who here has ever been invited to join a political party, or even to a meeting?

"Extensive public support" from the rank and file of the majors is shorthand for the opinions of fifty or so lifetime branch members, which their delegate may or may not respect according to his conscience.

I think the answer to the whole marriage thing whether gay or otherwise (actually I always thought all marriages were gay in the dictionary sense anyway).. Do as the French do, anyone getting married (or called it whatever you want) goes before the local mayor and has a single ceremony with the mayor. No other celebrants of any type allowed. If you want a religious blessing of any flavour or persuasion go off afterwards (or before) and do it yourselves. But the only service recognised for legal purposes is the one with the mayor.

It would of course then be interesting to see how many really want a religous service then.

Give us all a break guys. The PM did not lie.
The circumstances changed for crying out loud.
She was locked in a minority government and
compromises had to be made. If Mr Abbott had
managed to succeed in persuading the Independents
to vote for him - he would have been in exactly
the same situation. Mr Abbott lost. The PM won.
Stop with the Liberal Party mantra - "She lied,"
Nonsense!

As for the conscience vote in gay marriage - the
importance of a conscience vote is that it enables members
of the front bench to vote one way or the other and not
put their position on the front bench at risk.

Lexi,

The PM made a promise and broke it, that is by the simplest definition a lie. The reason she was able to form a minority government is because she had no scruples in scrapping her promise to the electorate to get the greens on board. So she lied to achieve power, hardly a good reason.

Now there is another solemn promise about to be broken by Juliar.

Dear Shadow Minister,

I don't care what your opinion is any more - all
you do is keep repeating your party's mantra.
Go away - I neither respect nor want to hear
anything you have to say on any subject to me.
Go talk to some-one who gives a damn about what
you think. I don't! And I'm being polite.

runner, david f, Shadow Minister:

A lie is an intentionally false statement. If Julia Gillard had been thinking "There will be a carbon tax under the government I lead when she said "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead" the statement would have been a lie. How do you know what she was thinking?