interactive,

Oh jeez! What a circus. The joke's on us isn't it? The voters get the politicians they deserve.That said, it's a far more challenging time now than the Menzies era.

"...throw out political parties", or a least threaten to throw them out by voting for independents.

mac,

Yes, I think the corruption of political parties now goes right through the system.

Christopher Pyne has been ejected from Parliament 43 times, and in 2010 Christopher Pyne was ejected from Parliament for calling the then Prime Minister "hopeless".

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/questions-for-greater-minds-than-these-20100930-15zcw.html

But now, Christopher Pyne is allowed to yell out "scum" and "grub", and he is not ejected.

The political system has deteriorated completely, and there is no use continuing to vote for the major political parties, or any political party for that matter.

Something other than political parties has to be tried.

Mac, interactive: Suggest you vote independent and always put the incumbent last on the ballot paper.

If the disillusioned and the hopeless did just that much rather than voting informal or refusing to get off their tired lazy backsides for a few minutes every three or four years and vote, we'd compel change!

The two party status quo changes nought! As does doing what you've always done! Or doing nothing/wasting the only power we the mugs out there in mugsville have, our vote and the ballot box!
Alan B.

It's amusing that some people are really scathing of the article, to the point of abuse, yet advocate the same solution that the author does.

Seriously folks, what happened to civilised conversation?

Alan B,

Yes, I suppose the Brexit vote is an example of that approach to politics. Voters who felt that they were being ignored by their pro-EU political elites, effectively gave them the finger.

They certainly 'compelled change'. So whatever the outcome of Brexit, the plebs will be treated with more respect in the future.

Alan B

Yes, the question could be "What independents are you voting for"?

Rather than "What political party are you voting for"?

Independents seem to be much better behaved than members of political parties, and I don't think an independent has been ejected out of Parliament for some time, compared to members of the Labor party who were ejected over 400 times last government, and I think one was ejected over 50 times (breaking Christopher Pyne's previous record of 43 ejections).

I favor a system whereby the public votes directly for the Prime Minister and votes directly for the Ministers, which makes political parties completely redundant.

One thing is certain, independents are easy to vote in and easy to vote out.

As compared to someone such as Christopher Pyne, who is protected by his political party and has been in Parliament since 1993.

Christopher Pyne is totally disruptive and a very bad influence in Parliament, but if Christopher Pyne was an independent he would have been voted out many years ago, and not allowed to have his face in the trough for over 20 years.