The current Governments have redefined democracy to mean - inform the people of your policy position and then act on it regardless of majority population views. The asumption is Governments know better. People are allowed to protest about their position, that is their democratic right. However the majority opinion or conscience of the people is not taken into consideration in this new democracy.

Democracy does not mean the majority of the people, it means the majority of politicians. Their style is autocratic and in the case of some like Fred Nile theocratic

You forgot to point out that the idea of elections was originally to allow the voter's to have a choice between alternative policy positions, when the Country was faced with major issues, whereas under the current system, the issues which are given to the electorate to decide are the ones that the two main parties feel comfortable dealing with through the democratic process, not the ones the population wants/needs to have a say on.

For example, does anyone here remember voting to arm police with tazers? What about sending $1B to Indonesia? About selling our UH-1's to PNG so they could be used against the rebels in Bouganville? More precisely, does anyone here remember being offered a single choice as to whether to start/continue the (a) war on terror; and/or (b) war on drugs? Or even to choose between the various alternative options?

I don't.

the current governments haven't redefined anything. The general population has never been consulted on every bit of legislation. If anything, as polling and other measurements of popular opinion have become more sophisticated and media has shifted to things like vox pop and talkback radio, the public has more input in the day to day running of things than they've ever had.

We couldn't have had such a thing as poll-driven politics without opinion polls, which are a fairly recent invention. We weren't asked whether we wanted to go to Vietnam either. Or whether we wanted no fault divorce, Medicare or the compulsory wearing of seatbelts.

If you don't like it don't vote for them. But don't complain that everyone else does.

Some ideas for practical reform:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/electoral-reform/electoral-reform.html#direct-democracy

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my goodness, ozzies noticing they don't live in a democracy! amazing!

you're probably not real ozzies, huh?

i suppose aristotle would call oz a 'plutocracy', since the election process is dependent on money, and rich people buy the ability to pick up the phone and speak with the pm through campaign contributions. or you could call it an oligarchy, since all political decisions are made by a few hundred parliamentarians. ralph nader likes 'corportion state' since the structure is similar to a corporation, and corporations dominate the political process.

democracy won't be coming to oz anytime soon, it's simply not part of the culture. sorry.

Haganah... does it surprise you that the Exclusive Brethren don't vote?

That doesn't look so silly in the light of all that is being said in this thread.

cheers