Hasbeen,
I agree with your fringe-dweller, i.e. fence-sitter, analogy & yes Steel they aren't real people. They're bureaucrats.
In my opinion they are whiteanting our social structure & the deedledumb & deedledumber who vote them in can not see past the next football game or world champion wrestling episode.
If I had my way people would need to be at least 25 & pass an exam to become eligible to obtain a voting license.

Hasbeen - I think it's drawing a very long bow to blame Tasmania's current economic woes on its electoral system. Apart from a brief period some years ago, the Greens in Tasmania have never been in a position to directly influence Government decisions one way or the other. Take the current Gunns debacle as a case in point.

<< A prime example occured (sic) yesterday. >>

Er, that was Fundies First Senator Fielding siding with the Opposition to support purchasers of new expensive cars. Bob Brown and the Greens had nothing to do with it.

<< If only the major parties had enough sennse (sic) to preference each other, we could be rid of all this rabble. It is disgusting that these fringe dwellers can effect the lives of REAL people. "

I think that's exactly what they did in the last Tasmanian election, thus disenfranchising a significant proportion of the electorate. Do you know what 'democracy' means? [Hint: rule by the people]

Lastly, I'd submit that the 48% or so of voters in most Australian electorates who don't get the government they voted for are "REAL people". Just not the ones who get to rule under the current system - or rather, those who didn't elect the current crop of politicians whose foremost priority is getting themselves re-elected in a couple of years' time.

Do you know what 'democracy' means? [Hint: rule by the people]
CJ Morgan,
That is the core of the problem.

Yes CJ, that's the piont, of the majority, by the majority, etc. Not by the minority, where just one man, or a small groups personal opinion & biases rule the majority.

Pandering to these special interest groups has cost this country, & its majority, more than any off shore problem.

On hearing the late and unlamented Premier Iemmas comment that the sell-off of the electricity industry in NSW was 'too important for parliament to decide', I changed directions and started to drive towards our parliament to join the throng of citizens I imagined would be converging there to protest.

The fantasy passed as quickly as it had come to me, and I resumed my trip homeward, lest I felt embarrassed to be the only one there.

While CJ's multi member electorates do not fulfill DEMOS' criteria for democracy it is a step in the right direction.

48% or so of voters in most Australian electorates who don't get the government they voted for are "REAL people".
Cj Morgan,
YEP ! and more crap is being dished up because a lot of clear thinking people just give up in despair. We'll just have to repeat history & wait till Labor ruins everything & then start again with a conservative lot. As long as there are morons there will be a left. pretty simple really.