Well Foxy, I think if you read doog's post you will see the difficulty.
Proportional voting seems to be cursed with coalition governments that
cannot agree on anything. Holland comes to mind and does Italy have
proportional voting ?
Our senate's problems seem to be a result of proportional voting.

Your idea of government with no firm economic/political manifesto but
just going after good ideas I do not think is practical.
It would be torn apart by the factions.
The brain washing that is going on in our schools is also working against
your ideas and we are presently seeing the result of that as teenagers reach 18.
This is pushing more mature voters to the right of the political spectrum.

As tempting as your proposal is I am afraid it is doomed.

Dear Bazz,

Thank You so much for your well reasoned response.

That is exactly the type of logical argument that I
was hoping for.

I've come across an interesting link that's worth
looking at. It's a few years old but is quite
relevant to what's happening on our political front
at present. We're told that politics in Australia is
in the midst of a great transition. While the two
major parties continue to dominate we are seeing
independents and small parties emerge as voters grope
for alternatives. We're told why this is currently
happening and where the major parties are failing.
What worked in the past is not working in the 21st
century. It seems that the major parties are
struggling to articulate a meaningful program of
national development that addresses our long term
problems and rallies anything like grassroots support.

It will be interesting therefore to see where the future of
Australian electoral politics lies.

The question being asked is whether those alternatives will
cleave to the top-down model built around one person, or to
the bottom up model that emerged in Indi with the election of
Cathy McGowan?

Here is the link from which I cited:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-24/dunlop-future-of-politics/5041314

Personally Foxy I think that citizens initiative referendum is by far the most democratic form of Government. Both major parties would hate it. Labour/Greens has shown how bigoted they are by refusing people and even their own party a vote on changing the marriage act. Imagine letting the people have a say on death penalty immigration and other touchy subjects. I am sure some decisions would go against what I would like however I would feel a lot better about the people deciding after open debate than the political elite who by and large have trashed this country.

Foxy,
A lot of the problem with politics is that politicians do not
take serious notice of people who are telling them there is a problem.
The NSW coal mine proposals in some parts of NSW is an example.
The way they ignored the warnings on natural gas supply.
The warnings they were given on the way the alternative energy system was structured.
The warning they were given about the peaking of oil production.
I know, I know it didn't happen !
Well it did in 2005 and has been hidden since.
They have since not listened to the warning of how risky our petrol & diesel supply has become.
The warnings on buying diesel submarine while we import 100% of our diesel.
Pouring money into aviation when it will inevitably decline.
One politician to whom I repeated Shell Oils statement that they are
planning on how to get out of the oil industry over the next 10+ years or so.
His eyes just glazed over and did not comment, not even to say RUBBISH !
In the senate enquiry into liquid fuel reliability someone I know
made a submission on just that & was told he was in the wrong enquiry.

Is it any wonder people are getting fed up and looking elsewhere.

Foxy,

It would be more worthwhile if you could cut directly to the chase and say outright that both you and that similarly faux left columnist you are 'discovering' do not believe that the mainstream parties that are capable of forming government would ever be 'Progressive' enough for you.

That is where you would both define that 'good' policy you say you are about encouraging as 'Progressive' and is focussed on gay marriage, republic, global warming, 'Open Door' immigration and the few other hipster things that register in the coffee shops of inner 'burbs of Sydney and Melbourne. I would add, and where idiotic time-wasting parallels and predictions are made with US politics. Attentions spans that rival the flickering light of a firefly but are nowhere near as illuminating.

Challenging a line from that article you linked to, if the major parties are falling in favour because of the (hugely understandable) difficulty in planning nationally, how might the independents and minors do any better?

Internal democracy ie intra-democracy in the political parties would be of most benefit to the present and future relevance of the parties, and would greatly benefit the members and the public generally. There may be some small limitations to it, but some politicians and lobbyists over-rate the difficulty and inconveniences, while protecting their own unnecessary secrecy and their behinds. As a comment, teamwork is impossible at present and backbenchers have always been under-used and fooling around with travel and entitlements (and making silly, uninformed comments).