[EM] Australia: MP says donation row highlights voting problems

[David Catchpole]

On Sat, 2 Dec 2000, Rob Lanphier wrote:

> On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Bart Ingles wrote:
> > The grass is always greener...
>
> Yup.  I found a more detailed story here:
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/politics/2000/12/item20001202100144_1.htm
>
> It seems a contribution was made to the Australian Democrats by the Labor
> Party MP, presumably to influence the Australian Democrats' how-to-vote
> slip.  Not knowing Australian politics all that well, it's entirely
> possible that I've got it wrong, so read the article and get your own
> conclusions.
>
> I'd like to hear from the Australian contingent on this list on the
> subject (especially where I've botched the facts).  Is such nonsense about
> reverting to first-past-the-post being taken seriously, or is this widely
> seen as partisan opportunism?  Also, from my understanding, the Liberal

Just a loony Independent. People generally understand and endorse
preferential. It's fair, it's inclusive, FPP's not.

> Party and the Labor Party are the major parties on opposite ends of the
> spectrum in Australia, with some farmers' party substituting for the
> Liberals in rural areas.  Is this correct?

Yes. The Democrats are a smaller party of the centre that has no lower
house seats but has the present "balance of power" in the Senate.

> I'd also like to know what are the best outlets for getting mainstream
> Australian news over the Internet (ala ABC).  I stumbled into this news

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) is the way to go.
www.abc.net.au

NineMSN (An affiliate of MSNBC and Australia's Nine TV Network) is pretty
good.
www.ninemsn.com.au

NewsCorp Australia's web site is at-
www.news.com.au

The Fairfax Group's web site is at-
www.fairfax.com.au

> story just trying to find out what mainstream Australian opinions are of
> preference voting.  I'm not looking for the best journalism so much as the
> most representative of what Australians see on TV, read in the daily
> paper, etc...though it'd be nice to know what's highly regarded and what's
> seen as tripe.
>
> This will also be a problem with Condorcet-based systems, presumably.  The
> only possible difference would be that since there'd quite likely be more
> parties, there'd be more parties to fill the void when one party's ethics
> are called into question.  That would possibly be counterbalanced by the
> fact that rankings beyond #1 mean much more in Condorcet, and thus there
> would be greater temptation to influence rankings on party-generated voter
> cheatsheats with raw cash.
>
> It's definitely a problem that needs addressing, but it's one that I'd
> much rather have than the one we have in the U.S. today.
>
> Rob
>
> > Rob Lanphier wrote:
> > >
> > > An Australian MP is claiming that it may be time to rethink preference
> > > voting, adopting a first-past-the-post system instead, because how-to-vote
> > > tickets improperly influence voting behavior:
> > >
> > > http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-29nov2000-26.htm
> > >
> > > Ugh.
> > >
> > > Rob Lanphier
> > > robla at eskimo.com
> > > http://www.eskimo.com/~robla
> >
>
> Rob Lanphier
> robla at eskimo.com
> http://www.eskimo.com/~robla
>
>

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