I agree. The Senate, especially since the Murphy reforms in the 1970s, has made a significant difference to the Federal Parliament. A return to a Queensland upper house might assist our own beloved deep north.

Ye gods, please no. The opposite is true, lets have a referendum to abolish the states/territories instead, passing most of what they do down to local government. The last thing we need is more corrupt politicians.

While I'm open to the idea of the restoration of an upper house in Queensland, I'm not completely sold. And this article has done nothing to change that. The basic suggestion is that the restoration of the upper house would enable opposition parties to gain power more easily. Does this mean that we should fork out huge sums of money to pay for another layer of government, just to make regime changes easier? I would suggest that the LNP is more likely to assume control of government if they can get it together, present a united front and find a charismatic and competent leader.

There are many reasons for the existence of an upper house, however this article has missed most of them.

I support a Senate in Queensland.
My reason is that because political party members are so totally obedient to their party bosses that they and hence Parliament become mere cyphers, lap dogs. What we have here is executive government with periodic elections just to look democratic. The situation is made worse by the so called Optional Preferential system introduced by Beattie, a system that, with it's 'just vote 1' adjunct further emphasises the power of the parties - which in their turn do as they are told from on high.

Another thing that might help would be the adoption of the Hare Clark system of voting (with Robson Rotation). That makes those awful 'How to vote cards' useless.

As things are and have been since I came to Queensland in 1970 I have endured the Bjelke Peterson era and longed for an Upper House; and nowadays watch a Parliament that is Blighs lackey and again long for a Senate or equivalent.

Anybody any idea how to bring it about?

‘Queensland is also the only Australian state to lack an upper house. It is not difficult to connect the dots.’

But Scott and Nicholas, is Queensland really significantly worse than other states?

The classic problems that indicate poor governance are pretty much uniform across the country. I refer to things like health, education, roads, police, etc that are not keeping up with the ever-increasing demand, let alone getting better over time as they are supposed to be if we are to believe that constant growth is good for us all, as our government of both persuasions keep telling us.

And I refer to the mindless absurdity of continuing to pack more and more people into regions that are suffering serious basic resource issues, especially water, which is just critically stupid but which is just what the real estate fraternity and other big business interests want.

If corruption is worse in Queensland, the end effect isn’t any worse, or so it seems.

I strongly support the restoration of the upper house in Queensland. It will have some effect, and it is ridiculous for the fundamentals of our governmental system to not be uniform across the country.

But it could just be that the net effect of a senate would be to help legitimise the cosy business–government relationship, rather than be a significant step towards severing it and improving the independence of government.

The answer is not another bunch of corrupt politicians, but REAL electoral and government, structural reform.

It does not matter whether you think Global Warming, Aboriginal poverty, Economics or whatever, is a problem. These are all symptoms, the real problem, is that our system is broken and it needs fixing. The time has come to stop treating symptoms and go for a cure, electoral and structural reform.

Abolish the states. Nobody will convince me that if you asked voters, (Would you like less politicians or more?) that they would not vote yes by a 2/3's majority in all states and territories. We also need to be involved in how the parties themselves, are run. End branch stacking, the imposition of "star candidates" from afar, as opposed to local branch members of long standing, who are well known in the local electorate.

Scott, if you or anybody else have other, similar suggestions, i am sure they would be far more popular with voters than bringing back the QLD upper house.