SF> Well what are your thoughts on Cheryl Kernots performance to date?

RS> Completely hopeless. Dont get even out of single digit percentage of
RS> the vote, claim that you have the right to decide almost everything.

PE> They don't actually.

They do actually, think they have the right to decide on all the fine
detail of particular legislation, even tho hardly anyone votes for them.

PE> The Labor party gets to decide half the time,
PE> and the Liberals get to decide the other half.

Fraid not, not in the Senate. It dont work like that there.

PE> All the Democrats get to do is choose one or the other.

They actually decide what they think about particular legislation
and either support it or not. In the situations where the Libs and
Labor have opposing views on a particular piece of legislation, that
means that a party of fools who dont even get into double digits votes
percent wise gets power FAR out of whack with the number of people who
voted for them. Totally bonkers. Its even worse with the loony greens.

PE> And since 50% of Australians support Labor, and 50% support Liberal,

They dont, even you should have noticed that in
the recent election the numbers were around 42/58.

PE> or at least that's what it normally is, every single election,

Fraid not, hardly ever.

PE> it sounds pretty fair to me.

Soorree, getting single digit percentages of the votes
doesnt give you the right to decide what will become law.

RS> Soorree, the voters have spoken and the Coalition got
RS> the nod. In the biggest avalanche seen since the war.

PE> The Liberals only had about 50% of the vote, not an avalanche.

Soorree, they got around 58%, an avalanche. The preferential voting
system in the lower house is DESIGNED to amplify the swings in the
voting percentages into bigger swings in seats. Primarily to allow
reasonably stable government which a chance to get something done
in the term its elected for, instead of the loony system that PR
produces, the sort of instability that you get in Italy etc.

RS> There is something fundamentally wrong with an electoral
RS> system which produces a avalanche in the lower house
RS> and doesnt even deliver a majority in the Senate.

PE> There is something fundamentally wrong with an electoral system
PE> which gives a party 70% of the seats with 50% of the vote.

Crap, its DESIGNED to do that. If you cant grasp the problem with hung
parliaments which cant do what the voters have just elected them to do...

PE> And in either case, the government is welcome
PE> to call a double dissolution or hold a referendum,

Soorree, thats a pathetically inadequate way to run a country.

What makes sense is a voting system which allows the party which convinced
the voters that they could do it better to be able to pass legislation thru
both houses of parliament. Personally I would just bin the Senate, I cant
see the slightest justification for the situation where a Tas voter has a
hell of a lot more power than a NSW voter coz both states elect the same
number of Senators. But if the Senate is retained, it would be a fine idea
to bin proportional representation for that house. Its not as if its always
been elected on that basis anyway.

No way does it make the slightest sense to have totally
unrepresentative swill like the Democrats and Greens with the
balance of power when they get such a tiny percentage of the vote.

PE> and let the voters decide for themselves whether
PE> they agree with what the Democrats are doing.

Soorree, we just GAVE them the opportunity to vote. We have better
things to do with our time and money than to have another now.

PE> And with 70% of Australians not wanting to sell
PE> Telstra, I can't see them doing that any time soon.

Soorree, you cant run a country like that. It wont work.

And lets not try to play silly buggers and claim that the Democrats
are just ensuring that the wishes of the people are carried out,
the vast bulk of the voters want big changes on the IR front and
the Democrats plan to oppose that too. They want to just decide
what they will and will not accept, even if they only got single
digit percentage of the vote. Soorree, thats totally stuffed.

PE> BTW, just for the record, I'm in the 30%.

It really doesnt matter a stuff where you are personally.

PE> Any government-run enterprise is socialism at work, which
PE> should be stamped out to the most practical extent possible.

And thats another area where your opinion probably wouldnt even get
above 1% support with the voters on all government run stuff like
roads, schools, etc etc etc. So its not done the way you want.
@EOT:

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