Comments on: How I Recommend You Vote In The Coming Federal Election

By: Juerg Nydegger

Juerg Nydegger — Fri, 10 May 2019 11:16:10 +0000

I agree with your comments Steve…especially the ” appreciate what you got ” part.
However…sorry this is going to be quite lengthy and i will probably bore people!
I think it too important not to bore you!
Matter of fact…the lying ,promises and deceit that is currently going on encouraged me to write this!
I came to this unbelievably beautiful country in 1982 as a 22 year old. I was born in Switzerland.
I had about $ 4000 to my name. I have worked hard and now have a few assets to my name.
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to achieve what i have. (Had i known Steve and his excellent education i could have done a whole lot better!) Australia has been good to me.
Yes Switzerland is, like so many places in the world, beautiful as well. But, it simply does not compare to OZ!
Those of you who have travelled around OZ know what i am talking about.
As i grew up i did not think much about politics…it was not such a in your face part of life…not at that age and stage anyhow. Things simply seemed to function and argy bargy a la Australian Politics was almost unheard of. When i got here i firstly had other issues to deal with and politics were somewhat under control…more or less.
The ruling party usually had a workable majority. Things did not stay that way. The last twelve years have been a bit of a disaster for Australia politically. It has made me aware as to what is wrong with the system.
I remembered how the Swiss System works. It is not perfect…but…what we have experienced lately could never happen to the Swiss.
Matter of fact, if companies were structured along the Westminster System, they would be broke in no time.
If parents operated like our major parties are forced to ( because of the flawed set up…dysfunctional and opposing) they end up with “unbalanced kids”. We as taxpayers and ultimately the employers of the pollies get a miserable return. Australia could be on top of the World in every aspect. It is the Westminster System that lets us down! Look at Great Britain…similar problems. The US, yes a little different but also not that well governed. There are plenty of others.
Tasmania is one and a half times larger than Switzerland. Yet in Switzerland there are 26 Kantons ( States). They have Councils, State Governments with Upper and Lower House, Federal Government with Upper House and Lower House. With other words, lots of politicians and politics
There is one major difference. Instead of one party or a coalition ruling the country it is the Bundesrat that governs the country. It is like a Board of Directors. Hence my comment earlier re companies.
The members of the Bundesrat get elected by the Lower House nominating people that the party put up for selection. The parties put up candidates proportional to the votes they received during the election.
The result is that the SEVEN positions are from varied parties. Some parties might have two positions. Put generally there are four or more parties represented as a whole. Each member looks after two to three portfolios.
The members are forced to work together, they take votes and because of the SEVEN positions there is always a result. Decisions get made! The country is governed! BHP, Wesfarmers and every public company has a board of directors that basically operates the same way.
This system has been developed for for over 700 years and has been in its current form since around 1850.
I know that it is the basis for Switzerlands success, peace and progress.
The buying of votes with borrowed money, kowtowing to minorities, unions, and the crazy election circus simply do not eventuate. Lobbying is difficult because a majority of members would need to be approached.
Below is a link to a project that took 17 years to build and some areas are still being expanded and worked on.
This is merely one of many projects of similar scale.
It is akin to the Snowy Project. Can you imagine something like that being undertaken today?
My point is this, yes we have a better system than many countries in the world.
One simple change would make it almost perfect.
A lot of the uncertainty would disappear.
Our political capital would create much much better returns!
Greetings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel

By: bruce wharrie

bruce wharrie — Fri, 10 May 2019 05:15:13 +0000

Nice thinking of this process. Worthy of use in other decision making events.

By: Maven

Maven — Fri, 10 May 2019 01:33:55 +0000

good link quite eye opening thanks for sharing a different perspective.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 08 May 2019 11:16:49 +0000

Well said mate !

By: Jason Staggers

Jason Staggers — Wed, 08 May 2019 05:40:53 +0000

Check out http://voteflux.org. Elected Flux MPs and Senators give up their autonomy and use their votes in line with whatever people vote through their app on the specific issues that matter most to them.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 08 May 2019 04:45:52 +0000

We were discussing that idea the other day. There should be a list of their policies under each party (more paperwork I know ugh). A referendum of sorts, I suppose.
Step 1. Select your candidate/party
Step 2. Select which of their policies you are voting for.
At least then, when you are an idealist (even partially), you would be voting without compromising your principles.

By: Nyomie

Nyomie — Wed, 08 May 2019 04:05:40 +0000

i think SmartVote has big flaws. It doesn’t and can’t drill down to policy level or party intentions, just entrenches loyalist tendencies by enabling people to label themselves or camp into a type of voter.. I don’t think it’s an effective tool at all.

By: Richard Hulme

Richard Hulme — Wed, 08 May 2019 03:02:10 +0000

I think that is a great idea. getting closer to the issues that are important to the population. Just a matter of figuring out the practicalities of how it would work. Any way, well done for thinking outside the box.

By: Kev

Kev — Wed, 08 May 2019 02:40:44 +0000

It might be nice if instead of selecting a party your ballot paper was just a list of policies with check boxes you could tick for or against boxes that you could number in sequence of importance to you. Through that process, the parties that most align would get the relevant percentage of your vote. Just trying to think outside the box as the existing system is far from working efficiently.

By: Peter Coole

Peter Coole — Wed, 08 May 2019 02:36:56 +0000

Hi Steve
Another great article, I was first a little miffed that you should want to “advise” how to vote, but soon realised that you have put together a great summary on how to decide who we should vote for.

Congrats and Happy Birthday ;-)

Cheers

Pete (from Perth)