So PARSIFAL and other Australians, out of sheer curiosity (since I don't understand Australian politics at all; I am more familiar with American National, Iowa and California State, British National, and Israeli National elections), what is your opinion in general of the current National Government of Australia and that of your home State? (New South Wales, I gather)? Any other Australian is welcome to answer as well. I'd like to learn more about that country's politics. What are the National Parties, what are the State Parties where you live, and what do you personally prefer?
Of course, since this is all new to me, you'll have to treat me as a total "Newbie", I think the slang word is. But I am honestly curious. So fire ahead!
We have had two major parties (at both state and federal levels) for the past 60 years or so; the socially conservative and economically right-wing
Liberal/
National Coalition (abbreviated LNP, for Liberal National Party) and the historically progressive but increasingly conservative in recent years
Australian Labor Party (ALP).
The drift of the ALP towards conservatism has resulted in many Labor voters jumping ship and voting for the
Australian Greens (GRN), who occupy the centre-left, socially progressive position that Labor did many years ago. They're gathering enough support in recent years that they're poised to become our third major party. The major advantage we have over the US in this regard is our preferential voting system, where candidates are ranked rather than a single one selected; this makes it very easy to preference a minor party first without throwing a vote away.
Those three parties tend to dominate Parliament both at federal and state level, especially in the lower house (the House of Representatives at federal level, and the Legislative Assembly in NSW state), where the practice of each division electing a single representative makes it difficult for minorities to get representation. However, other minor parties have an easier time getting elected to the upper house (the Senate at federal level, and the Legislative Council in NSW state) because they are elected by proportional representation for the entire state.
It's complicated to go into the details of upper house voting in Australia, not least because each state seems to have its own way of doing it (and the federal way is different from that in NSW), but the basic idea that's common to all of them is that you have a huge list of candidates that get ranked in one way or another. As candidates with the least votes are eliminated and preferences redistributed, a candidate needs a "quota" of votes to get elected. The way this works out, in theory, is that each representative gets elected by the same proportion of the state (e.g., if 21 seats are up for grabs, you need 1/21 of the votes to get elected).
In practice, what this means is that a majority of seats go to the major parties, and there are usually a few that go to the most popular minor parties (in the case of NSW state, where preferences are selected directly by voters) or a somewhat unpredictable selection of minor parties (in the case of federal parliament, where preferences are selected by group voting ticket). Because of the unpredictable nature of the federal voting system (which is
hopefully due for reform soon, among other reforms), I'll focus on the NSW Legislative Council here.
The minor parties that have enough support to always get a seat in NSW are the
Christian Democratic Party (CDP), and the
Shooters and Fishers party (S&F). The CDP's stated goal is to see "all legislation being brought into conformity with the revealed will of God in the Holy Bible" (
reference), which I think speaks for itself. Shooters and Fishers have few policies, their primary goal being to protect the rights of individuals to pursue outdoor activities (including hunting and fishing); the main value I see in their representation is as a counterpoint to the Greens' socialist-leaning approach to conservation.
At the federal level, a representative we currently have in office who I'm keeping an eye on is David Leyonhjelm of the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a right-wing, socially progressive party. His views are somewhat
too free-market-ish for me to see eye-to-eye with him on everything, but he's raising a lot of what I consider to be important issues, including marriage equality and the right to keep Australian native animals as pets. The fact is that these things wouldn't be getting talked about if he wasn't elected, which is a pity, because his election was something of a fluke and unlikely to happen again.
It might have become evident from my focus on minor parties, but I believe that keeping as many minor party candidates in office as possible is the best way to ensure progress gets made (and in the right direction). The major party candidates know their party is going to get back into power eventually when the other side fucks up, so they don't actually endeavour to serve the people, instead passing laws that simply put the country back where it was when they were last in power (a good example is the recent repeal of Labor's carbon tax by the incumbent LNP administration).
On the other hand, having minor party representation helps to stem the flow of the government's legislation, both by having more viewpoints be heard and by reducing the likelihood of the government controlling a majority of seats in both houses of parliament. At the moment, for example, the federal LNP has a majority of seats in the House of Representatives but not in the Senate, which has enabled Labor and Greens to block their education reforms (which would deregulate university tuition fees and put us into an America-like debt-for-life situation) on more than one occasion.
In short, I think our preferential voting system is what sets us apart from American politics, by enabling minorities to more easily get representation through minor party candidates without throwing a vote away. Whether the LNP or the ALP is in power at the time doesn't make much difference, particularly in recent years as Labor has become more conservative, but having additional parties helps to avoid one of them controlling parliament altogether.
I will say, though, that I think the Abbott administration is a complete joke. He may well be the worst PM we've ever had, and the only reason his government gets anything done is thanks to his ministers, not himself. He's capable of functioning as little more than a figurehead, which is immediately evident
whenever he gets asked a question. Next year's election can't come soon enough.
As for my personal preferences, I usually try to consider how to vote based on what I think will have the most positive impact on the functioning of parliament. I live in one of the safest LNP electorates in NSW, which means that my lower house vote never makes a difference, so I focus on the minor parties I agree most with in the upper house (usually,
Pirate Party,
Future Party,
Sex Party,
LDP,
Socialist Alliance and
Greens, roughly in that order).