Will Aussie Communists, Greens Push for Proportional Representation?
The Communist Party of Australia backed the Greens in the recent election. The Greens increased their vote but gained no seats.
From an editorial in the Communist Party of Australia's latest Guardian
Overall votes for The Greens increased. They won over one million first preference votes in the House of Representatives but did not win a single seat. This again raises the need to change the voting system to one of proportional representation if Parliament is to be reflective of the political opinions of major sections of the community and bring an end to the discrimination against smaller parties.
Although a system of proportional representation remains the policy of the ALP as well as The Greens, the Communist Party and others, it remains to be seen whether the ALP will change the voting laws in this respect without a major popular campaign in the future.
In New Zealand the retrograde shift to proportional representation (MMP) was driven by the Greens and the pro-Soviet, Socialist Unity Party.
Look for a similar campaign from the Australian Greens, the Communist Party of Australia and the left wing unions in the near future.
From an editorial in the Communist Party of Australia's latest Guardian
Overall votes for The Greens increased. They won over one million first preference votes in the House of Representatives but did not win a single seat. This again raises the need to change the voting system to one of proportional representation if Parliament is to be reflective of the political opinions of major sections of the community and bring an end to the discrimination against smaller parties.
Although a system of proportional representation remains the policy of the ALP as well as The Greens, the Communist Party and others, it remains to be seen whether the ALP will change the voting laws in this respect without a major popular campaign in the future.
In New Zealand the retrograde shift to proportional representation (MMP) was driven by the Greens and the pro-Soviet, Socialist Unity Party.
Look for a similar campaign from the Australian Greens, the Communist Party of Australia and the left wing unions in the near future.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
12/13/2007 06:17:00 AM
6 Comments:
Labor has no real reason to pursue MMP. MMP would greatly strengthen the Australian National Party as well as the Greens. It would actually decrease the likelihood and position of a Labor government.
That damn proportional representation, why the hell should those million voters expect to have their voices heard?
Thanks anon 1-you are probably right but that will not stop the CPA, Greens and the left unions putting huge pressure on the ALP over the issue.
PR simply gives extremists/nutters more leverage-which is why extremists promote it.
I don't want one million extremists/nutters to have any more power over others than they already have thanks.
"That damn proportional representation, why the hell should those million voters expect to have their voices heard?"
Australia doesn't have First Past The Post; it has preference voting. This means almost no votes are wasted; unlike in New Zealand where votes for parties which come under the 5% threshold go into the ether.
Both systems are flawed in different ways.
Australia has a convoluted system of preference voting that gives the parties the power in determining preference flows, and it has a single member system for the house of representatives, which effectively shuts out minority voices (well, the ones that can't ingratiate themselves into a major party).
It sounds to me, Trevor, that you don't like democracy. You've just said that Green voters should be permanently shut out of power.
Green voters will be shut out of power if they receive 4.6% of the vote like in the latest poll.
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