All that is needed is to get rid of this government.

Gillard - and Rudd before her - were the most divisive, nasty people we have had as PM.

They are even worse than Paul Keating, and that's really saying something!

It never ever worked well! The states, for a start, is like a house divided against itself, or a house, [Australia,] divided!
And self serving leaders and factions with too much personal power, regrettably, can stymie progress and essential long overdue, [real,] reform.
The UN and the Russian Parliament have an electronic voting system.
[There may well be others?]
While in Russia, it may well operate like a Putin rubber stamp, the UN system works quite well, allowing a secret ballot on every issue!
Meaning, the most eloquent oratory and persuasive intelligent argument has the best chance, as opposed to, aggressive bully boys!
And wouldn't our parliaments sound and look very different and far more civilised, if only reasoned argument held sway?
We could and should wire up both chambers, and indeed, all state parliaments, so that every issue could be subject to a virtual secret ballot!
Which by the way, is the very best way, for an inclusive democracy to actually function, according to actual democratic principles.
Biometric recognition keys, thermal imaging, computer facial recognition, smart cards and encryption, would prevent any other than the member, from recording a vote!
Given the variety of views, inside caucus/party rooms, we would at long last, have truly representative inclusive govt, rather than strong man leadership, that effectively stymies debate; and indeed, the essential long overdue reforms such debate might progress, or reflect current social mores!
Were there to be such a secret and electronically recorded ballot, we could perhaps have parliamentary style debate via video link, meaning, parliament could sit for ceremonial purposes, rather than to debate and or, pass legislation.
Even Hansard could be electronically recorded and archived on DVD's?
We have moved into the 21st century, while our parliaments, all of them, remain stubbornly locked in the 18th!
Rhrosty.

Australia's boom period is almost over. We face considerable financial problems. Our political system has degraded slowly since the 70's to a point that it is now not working. The people have lost faith in it.
Unless we can fix this and soon. Australia's problems, just surviving in the world, are magnified by the problems with our political situation. Double jeopardy. We face becoming a banana republic, or are we already there?

Fortunately Deakin, Parkes and the other drafters of the Constitution were sufficiently intelligent to create a working document that has stood the test of time this past century plus. Party politics are not always pretty but I think unless you want to defer to some sort of Politburo and adopt 5 year central plans as the way to go you really need to accept that party discipline will equate to voting blocks regardless of secrecy or "conscience" voting. It's called certainty Joel. Certainty without dictatorship. Krudd and Malcolm can posture all they want on Q&A (why they allow MPs on that forum I'll never know) but they cannot escape this truth. Good luck with your studies.

How many voters give their valuable vote to the candidate who offers the biggest bribe ? Was Romney right in saying 47% ? How do we make voters vote for the policies that will be successful for Australia as a whole.
Votes are valuable and should not be of equivalent value if presented by an incompetent, for whatever reason, or a presumable highly intelligent university graduate. But everyone must have a vote - the solution is to give extra votes to everyone who is of value to Australia. Examples could be the obvious Uni Graduates, Lawyers, Accountants, Doctors, those who contribute more than the average in Tax, Employers of more than say 5 people etc etc.
This should have the effect of raising the level of debate and in time governance, considerably.
Additionally stop compulsory voting immediately. If compulsion is needed to make you vote, your vote is worthless and may actually do damage

The Westminster system is broken. It'll take women's and men's legislatures to fix this mess.

If you can’t see that an imbalance of power between women and men is the source of all the problems introduced into Australia over the past two centuries, you’re not looking. If you can’t hear that governance by agreement between women’s and men’s legislatures is the solution, you’re not listening. If you don’t think it’s possible for Australians to lead the world in cleaning up the mess made by male privilege, you’re not thinking. C’mon peoples, look, listen, think, spread the word and let’s get busy, reform the Australian Constitution to provide for a women’s legislature.