The closer we are to the elections, the more I feel distant from the 2 leading parties.
How can a democracy become so polarized into two clubs where the voter have an 'either/or' choice?

I mean, is it ok for me on the 24th, that I walk into the voting with a printed copy of this comment, stapled to a cheque for the amount of the 'not voting' fine, hand them over to the poll station and walk away?

Maybe nobody have done it before, but its sure tempting!

Dare I say it :) ?... "human nature"... I don't think you can divorce any party from the interests it serves... democracy is indeed about freedom and choice..but its also about having to choose those who may not represent your own interests or.. values (In my case).

It all makes those words of Jesus sooooooooooooo refreshing to me "My kingdom is not 'of' this world"... because as soon as it becomes so... it begins to reflect the interests of the worlds in habitants which are often competing.

google 'direct democracy' and you will discover oz is something else.

considering the general level of political education, or sophistication, here in oz, you are very lucky to have a choice of two masters. serfs more commonly have to curtsy to just one, who serves for life and passes the baton to a son.

but i expect amalgamation of the factions of the political party soon. this will save the expense of the election charade, and allow you to devote all your saturday mornings to gardening. this will be handy, you will depend on you garden for survival.

“…democracy is indeed about freedom and choice..but its also about having to choose those who may not represent your own interests or.. values (In my case).”

I disagree Boazy. We should NEVER be in the position of HAVING to choose between candidates that we don’t like. If we are, then we don’t have democracy, end of story.

It is your duty, my duty, Fellow_Human’s duty, and the duty of everyone else who doesn’t strongly support either major party, to NOT vote for them…..and to not vote for any minor candidate where your preferences will filter down and count for one of the major parties….which is exactly what happens in our totally democratically perverted compulsory preferential voting system.

In the absence of optional preferential voting and a box on our ballot papers marked; ‘no candidate deserves my vote’, us three…. and a large section of the populace… are surely OBLIGATED to put in a null vote.

almost right, ludwig:

write in "democracy"!

There is, of course, a very simple solution to the problem.

Voters can give their first preference to the Greens candidate. I believe there's one running in just about every electorate in the country - including, of course, State Senate constituencies.

It won't get many Greens elected, but it certainly fixes the problem for me :)