Okay, what if the upper house was party-free, that candidates had to get their own votes, no swinging votes over from one to another on a party ticket ? That each State elects twelve representatives (and territories two), okay, but the twelve (or two) with the most votes ?

And while we're at it, some more equitable distribution of representatives by the size of State (or territory) ? Not necessarily calculated on population alone, but maybe some sort of formula ? Maybe based on, say, a sliding scale - each State or territory with a population under a million getting six seats in an upper house, between one and four million, nine seats, any State with a population over four million - twelve seats ?

Hmmm ..... yes, that might give my home state, NSW, twelve seats, but it might also give Victoria twelve seats. Bugger. I'll have to work on it.

Joe

I'm with you Belly. We will never have good or successful government until the party who wins an election, gets to implement the policies it was elected on.

We need to stop the failed states, Tasmania & South Australia, from having such a strong input to national government. Surely stuffing their own state should be enough wrecking.

Hasbeen in this we are in lock step, just can not get my head around the chooks ruling over majority and yes government should be free to pass its bills

Dear Belly,

So you would have been happy to see Abbott and Hockey run riot? Fair enough, your opinion. Me? I care about the damage they were preparing to inflict with things like;

Raise the retirement age to 70.

Cap workers redundancy payments.

Introducing co-payments for bulk billing.

Taking our universities to a US model where fees were essentially unregulated making it more difficult for the less well off to contemplate a university education.

Gutting 500 million earmarked for helping the automotive industry transition after they had withdrawn support for motor vehicle manufacture in this country.

Slashing Legal Aid funding.

Bring in 'earn or learn' where unemployed people under 30 only got unemployment benefits for 6 months.

Charge pensioners for once free medications under the Pharmaceuticals Scheme.

All of these measures were directed at the less affluent in our society and I for one was bloody happy the senate pulled them up.

It seems you do not take that view.

Hasben's attitude shows exactly why SA and Tasmania need an equal senate presence to NSW and Victoria: otherwise we risk those in power deeming the states to be "failed" and trying to punish the residents for that, instead of looking at ways to help these states to succeed.

The false premise is the big two are somehow disadvantaged by the Senate voting system. At the 2016 Senate election together, the Coalition and Labor received 55% of the primary vote but hold 74% of the seats. Neither party received anywhere near majority support and the Government with 30 seats from 35% of the vote has to rely on minor parties and independents to get their Labor opposed legislation past. The fact is the majority of legislation does pass, without much problem, it is only the contentious rubbish that fails to receive majority support.

p/s Good to see the bigots of One Nation imploding once more. The forums Usual Suspects, mostly the hard right Queensland yokel brigade we have on here, they know who they are, are looking sillier than usual with the demise of the Lovely Pauline whom they so enthusiastically supported as the coming Messiah at the last election. Come on fellas, fess up, you've been had yet again, by the bimbo!