Most of the ills of our governance are due to the 2-Party-Preferred (2PP)electoral system. The winner takes all. Adversarial, no matter the issue. Being an MP is now a career, not a vocation to do good for society. No real expertise is demanded, just loyal tribal indoctrination beforehand.

All the tinkering around four or two years amounts to window dressing when the 2PP polity is corrupt and beyond redemption. (In 2019 the Greens got 10% of the votes, but not even 1% of the seats in the Lower House.)

Proportional Representation (PR) would give our polity a new life.

It would cure most of the ills.

PR was discussed over 14 pages in the final Report by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters tendered in Nov 2023. But PR was not recommended to the government for consideration - on feeble grounds.

No surprise though. The chair is a young rising Labor star. Labor stands to lose most under PR.

Hopefully, Albo would lose his majority in 2025, and the Teals and the Greens would insist on PR as a condition of their support for a minority government.

Just imagine. More MPs of the standards set by the Teals; more "consensual" policy adoptions like Albo's rejigged Stage 3 tax cuts that preserved our tax progressivity! It would have been better if Stage 3 was simply abandoned. But the 2PP system would have created an opera with unending gladiatorial shows, instead of a collaborative deliberation on what is needed for our society. PR, given that one in three voters do not vote for the two old Parties, would sooner or later get the diverse MPs to focus on their job and not their careers and tribal-endowed privileges

Wow Thats a new experience.
I agree with ttbn.

What Chek says.
Alan B.

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I think we should start preparing for our future republic consisting not only of a democratically elected parliament but also of a democratically elected president.

Our state parliaments are currently elected for four-year terms which seems to me to be a strict minimum. In my opinion, our future federal parliament term should also be at least four years.

The work of a member of parliament requires a certain number of skills and experience. It is not something that can be taken lightly and improvised in an offhand, makeshift fashion. It is a profession unlike any other that has to be learned and exercised for several months before being effectively acquired. The pitfalls are numerous and the competition is ferocious.

Our current three-year parliamentary term doesn’t leave much time for newcomers to the profession to make any major contributions to the system even if they have specific electoral promises to honour and the will to do so. Their initial apprenticeship accomplished, they only have a short time to operate effectively before re-election creeps into their minds and becomes their chief preoccupation.

As for our future democratically elected president, it seems to me that a five-year term of office, renewable once, would be appropriate. Elected by universal suffrage, the president should ensure political stability and trace the future direction of the nation over the long term.

And, as I indicated elsewhere on this Forum, I suggest we reserve the date of creation of our future republic as the date for the celebration of our national Australia Day.

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Dear Banjo,

The Teals and the likes of David Pocock are the exemplars we should aspire to for our Members of Parliament. Intelligence, Integrity, and a notable career outside the political nurseries.

The two mafia-doms mainly recruit street fighters or "teenagers with attitude"

So war-mongering has become what being in politics is about.

Thank god we have PR, though far from perfect, in the Senate. That is how Popcock and Lambie have been able to inject unprecedented sense, utility, and integrity into the current IR bills.

Your brave new world will be a long time coming.

But PR could become a reality if Albo should lose his majority in 2025, and the Teals and the Greens insist on PR. PR only requires simple legislation to become a reality

It would herald a new dawn. More MPs with the standard set by the Teals; no more gladiatorial shows on the floor of the Parliament; no more lies or opium for the populace already wholely massaged by the dollar-focussed invisible hand of the market; no more Ministers with little education and moderate intelligence camouflaged by a good pedigree,stage-acting the lines from the Party song sheet tweaked by their highly paid advisers.

The burial of the 2PP tradition would be like winding up the monarchy, the remains of the days of the warrior king.

And war makes monsters of ordinary people. Think of that self-declared "junkyard dog", a pedigree from the top Jesuit school in the land.

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Dear Chek,

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The introduction of Preferential Representation in the Federal House of Representatives would be a case of sand in the oyster; a little producing a pearl (enhanced democracy) and too much killing the animal (parliamentary paralysis).

Perhaps a partial introduction, creating a mixed PR and majoritarian system, might be worth considering, composed of say 25% PR and 75% majority.

In my mind, priority has to be given to political stability.

Maybe it could be tested in one or two states.

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