polite_gandalf wrote on Jun 17
th, 2016 at 9:51am:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-17/cassidy-pork-barrelling-and-the-hoax-of-'e...80% of votes won't matter in this election, and consequently 80% of voters will be ignored by the politicians. Basically the current state of play is that if someone is in a safe seat and they are pissed off with the local member and/or their party, they are never going to switch to the other major party. So the seat remains safe forever, and the local member can sit back and continue ignoring his/her electorate.
until...
a popular independent comes along and gives the disenfranchised voter an option that doesn't involve switching to the other party. This happened in spectacular fashion in the state seat of Shepparton during the last election - the nats assumed they would win as they had always done, but suddenly 4 weeks before the election, an independent popped up out of nowhere, basically told the electorate they didn't have to put up with this crap, and she won the seat. Similar deal with Indi. For the sake of our democracy, lets hope it happens a lot more in future elections.
It is instructive to study the history of the Federal Parliament since 1975.
The 1975 Federal election was the nadir for the "Others" vote at 4.1% of the primary vote in the House. It was after the demise of the DLP and before the formation of the Australian Democrats. It was the last Federal election at which the party - or a coalition - won the election with a primary vote of 50% or more. 1975 was also the election when independent Brian Harradine was first elected to the Senate in Tasmania.
Since this trough in 1975, the share of the primary vote apportioned to "others" has climbed steadily. Much of this has gone to a prominent third party; Australian Democrats before 2000, the Greens thereafter. But other parties and independents have also increased their share of the vote.
1987 was the last Federal election when there were no crossbenchers returned in the House. Then along came Ted Mack, a popular independent who took North Sydney from a sitting Liberal member.
Since Mack showed us the way, every election has returned at least one MP on the crossbenches in the House, many of them independent. Some of these independents were elected as MPs for a major party then resigned from the party to sit as independents, such as Katter. Others were members of a major party but resigned from the party before contesting as an independent. Others have always been independent.
One thing is true though. Independents are a viable option. And increasingly, people are choosing them over anyone affiliated with a party. It is a sign of the malaise in Australian politics that electors are increasingly turning away from the major parties. This is something that the major parties need to take seriously. Why is this happening? This is a question that the major parties need to ask, before they are no longer in a position to ask.
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Expect more independents in the future (Read 796 times)
