The Preferential Voting System which is supposed to be a fairer method of obtaining a public consensus on who should be running local, state and federal Government's is simply not working.

'How To Vote Cards' have given the major parties unheard of control over the minor parties which must now toe the line or be relegated last on these hand outs. This flaw has developed because many voters are not familiar with all the political parties and their candidates or they simply can't be bothered numbering all of them. Remember that many people only vote to avoid a fine.

We should return to the one vote only system and do away with this unfair system which has twisted the electoral process. An example of how the major parties can use this system to their advantage and destroy the political hopes of any major threat to their dominance can be seen with the demise of Pauline Hanson. She actually won more primary votes than anyone else but lost because of preferences.

It's easy for critics of Pauline to say that this turn of events was wonderful but the bottom line is that the majority of voters in Queensland had their preferred nomination defeated by back room dealing. Clearly the system is extremely biased in favour of the Coalition and Labour. It's no surprise they love it so much.

How will anyone ever beat the two major parties while this undemocratic system remains in place? In short they won't.

I’m a bit confused Wayne. I presume you are talking about the compulsory preferential voting system, which is indeed one of the worst things in our democratic system.

It is simply antidemocratic, because your vote can very easily end up counting where you have no intention of it counting.

The optional preferential system on the other hand is democratic.

You write; “We should return to the one vote only system….”

Well, with the optional preferential system you have the choice of only marking one box or declaring preferences (consecutively numbering as many boxes/candidates as you wish). So I think this is better than just the one-vote system.

the word politics comes from POLY meaning many and TICKS meaning bloody sucking parasites and as the famous Bgrade Actor turned President Ronald Reagan stated:
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblence to the first.

Voting is unfair because voters want the best wo/man in the job but dont want to do homework to find out who that should be. The lazy way to vote is tick one box. This is not the best way to vote and the donkey vote is just as unfair. I am becoming complacent with the way Australia is being led and I am just as guilty for allowing it to happen. I remember fighting for causes that were to do with work place safety, wages and standards when younger. Now my 19y/o daughter works 6 days a week while studying because she knows that she doesnt have a choice. This is regular for over 10 of her friends who all work 6 days a week without choice. We are the first to stand up and say so they should. What were most of us doing on the weekend when we were 19? I was down at Byron not studying but chilling out and bitching the system, saying everything that was wrong with it,the kids today are silent clones with the hope of fighting bred out of them.. Why dont we want a little of our fight in them. Doesnt that make part of who we are as Australians?

Perhaps the ancient greeks had the right idea when they only allowed informed scholars to vote. Forcing people with no interest to vote is a counter-productive exercise. Many of them simply scrawl 'Mickey Mouse' draw a box next to it and tick that. Such is the resentment towards Politicians in general. Ofcourse it's a futile gesture. Mickey Mouse is never going to win any Australian election. The votes are simply discounted.

Another option would be to only allow military personelle to vote. Anyone who has volunteered to fight for their country and risk death has earned the right to have a say in who their leader is. Ofcourse that will never fly either but I like the idea of it. Has a noble quality to it.

I think simplicity is always best. One man one vote.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!)

It is not possible to have a democracy if you have political parties, and a government that is separate from parliament. Parliament must be the government.
The only true democracy is where each vote counts once, and in a parliament of say, 100 seats, if Party A gets 5% of the votes; they get five seats and so on.
A party with more than half the seats destroys debate and ultimately democracy, because party whips prohibit independence, honesty, truth, facts and useful discourse.
In a parliament without a block-voting majority, parliamentary sittings would enjoy real debate using facts, figures and truth, and thus assist in ensuring the best outcome for the country, not the interests of the party.
The best option is to ban political parties entirely. Only independents may stand for office, and they may campaign only in their own electorate.
In Queensland, only three people are campaigning… the premier and the two coalition leaders. Every other parliamentarian is kept away from the TV cameras. I have no idea who the local hopefuls are in my electorate. We have a presidential style dictatorship, not a democracy, and the only way to change it is to deface electoral papers with a demand for proportional representation.

Now I’m even more confused.

Wayne, is it your intention to only discuss compulsory vs voluntary voting on this thread, or are you concerned about compulsory pereferential vs optional preferential voting, or both, or what exactly.

Could you please clarify.

Thanks