Matthew Franklin of The Australian reports a Newspoll survey commissioned by conservative think tank the Institute of Public Administration finds Australians’ views on electoral reform are the opposite of my own: 70 per cent back compulsory voting, while “more than half would prefer first-past-the-post voting to the preferential system”.
Now for some other matters I’ve been keeping on the back-burner due to post-election ennui:
• Tim Colebatch of The Age offered a litany of evidence last month on the extent of public disaffection expressed at the August 21 election, which seemed especially concentrated in areas traditionally strong for Labor. The turnout of 93.2 per cent, meaning votes cast as a percentage of enrolled voters, was the lowest since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1925. Furthermore, the informal vote rose from 4.0 per cent in 2007 to 5.6 per cent in 2010. Anecdotal evidence of large numbers of blank ballot papers have led to talk of a “Mark Latham effect”, although Peter Brent at Mumble observes it was actually 2007 that was the aberration. However, one of the reasons proffered for the lower informal vote on that occasion was a lower number of candidates (no doubt a consequence of an increased deposit, one of the few agreeable features of the Howard government’s 2006 electoral law changes). That the number was lower still this time brings the disaffection hypothesis back into play. Speaking of Latham, his column in the Australian Financial Review on September 23 argued the election amounted to a rejection of two-party politics with reference to a combined major party vote of 71.8 per cent, when measured as a percentage of enrolled voters rather than votes cast. The Australian’s Cut and Paste section then proceeded to completely miss the point in response. Brian Costar and Peter Browne at Inside Story calculate that the non-voting rate as a proportion of the adult population was 21 per cent, the main culprit being an enrolment regime that uses the power of data-matching to strike those with incorrect enrolments from the roll rather than update their details. The solution to this problem, automatic enrolment, has now been adopted at state level in New South Wales and Victoria, but is opposed at federal level by the Coalition for completely spurious reasons which are examined in another article by Peter Browne and Brian Costar.
• A fortnight ago, the Australian Electoral Commission released a report into the pre-polling irregularities that led to the exclusion from the count of 2977 votes in Bootbhy and 1306 in Flynn. The difficulties in each case related to the reform that allowed pre-poll votes to be treated as ordinary rather than declaration votes, and thus to be admitted to the count on election night. This required protocols concerning the security of ballot boxes which had not applied when each vote was contained in a declaration envelope and later subjected to individual scrutiny – in particular, a requirement that boxes not be opened during the three week pre-polling period. At the Oaklands Park pre-polling booth in Boothby, the polling official emptied the ballot boxes at the end of each day and transferred their contents to larger boxes, so as to keep “an ongoing detailed record of the number of ordinary ballot papers and the various categories of declaration votes issued”. On polling day the boxes were taken to the Boothby scrutiny centre for counting, at which point the Labor scrutineer noted the ballots inside were “stacked and flat” rather than “disordered and jumbled” in the usual fashion. There were two separate incidents in Flynn. In Blackwater, an official opened the boxes and counted the votes upon the final closure of pre-poll voting the day before the election, based on a set of instructions from the district returning officer intended to detail procedures for ordinary booths on polling day. At Emerald, the officer had opened the box on a number of occasions “to rearrange the papers and create more space”, and then applied new security seals (the officer had been provided with extra seals on request to the divisional office, which should have rung alarm bells at the time). This came to light due to procedures used to identify and record the seals. The net effect of the votes’ exclusion in Boothby was to cut Liberal member Andrew Southcott’s winning margin by 339 votes; I am not aware of the impact in Flynn, but the eventual Liberal National Party margin was 5720 votes.
• Ruminating on Labor’s malaise is very much in vogue this season, as demonstrated by the post-election review process being undertaken by party elders Steve Bracks, Bob Carr and John Faulkner, and the publication this week of Power Crisis: The Self-Destruction of a State Labor Party, by former NSW state MP Rodney Cavalier. Writing in The Australian, Cavalier calls for a secret ballots in preselection votes and a prohibition on candidates who in the past five years have been members of the “political class” (“those on the staff of ministers, ALP office and union officials who do not come from the industries the unions represent”). Lenore Taylor of the Sydney Morning Herald reports NSW Labor is planning to choose candidates in selected electorates by conducting open primaries, either through a straight vote or “a hybrid of an open-to-all-comers vote and the usual branch member system”. This follows the lead of the Nationals in the independent-held seat of Tamworth and Victorian Labor in Liberal-held Kilsyth. Disappointingly for Cavalier, the latter process turned up Vicki Setches, electorate officer to upper house MP Shaun Leane.
lizzie,
I am always happy to stand corrected – all the help I can get the better!
SK
Bless you.
It must be in the new rules that the HoR sits on Mondays from 10.00 am. It used to be 12.30 pm. Pyne has already presented a bill to inquire into the BER “debacle”, and now Hockey is smacking the government over the Henry review. Before them we had Wilkie and Ruddock, and Abbott was scheduled between Chris and Joe, but must be late again or jetlagged and didn’t show. This is the “new paradigm”, where the government is nowhere to be seen.
I wonder why Tony ditched his plan to wedge the ALP on Wild Rivers?
lizzie
I would add the imply/infer interchange and
“foul” swoop should be “fell” swoop
Triton,
How man BER inquiries are we to have? All this from a party that bleats about our massive debt?
Also, its interesting that the Greens wanted to have a debate about Afghanistan but explicitly did not want a vote.
Can anyone understand what Gillard and Keneally are fighting about? Who is right? Has Keneally reneged on a deal?
[Ms Keneally has been accused of pandering to unions and Ms Gillard urged her to ”put the national interest above purely jurisdictional considerations”.
Last night Ms Keneally said that threatening to withhold reward payments for reneging on one of 27 reforms was ”unjust, illogical and unfair”.
”We are acting in good faith as we are trying to protect workers’ safety and promote fairness in the workplace. The response of the federal government is an overreaction and heavy handed.”]
http://www.smh.com.au/national/you-broke-our-deal-gillard-tells-keneally-20101017-16p69.html?from=smh_sb
The opposition and the Greens should be given credit for wanting families in detention to be released into the community whilst awaiting their asylum assessments. Well done.
[Abbott was scheduled between Chris and Joe, but must be late again or jetlagged and didn’t show]
ABC radio news on Classic FM had wtte
“The Federal Opposition Leader has decide to postpone introduction of a bill relating to the Wild Rivers legislation … he was due to introduce it in Parliament today …”
Punna
Oh, yes, yes. I forgot that one.
I think that might be an example of a gradual language change where the original quote is forgotten and a similar word replaces it. I know there are others of that nature but I can’t bring them to mind (coffee injection not up to speed yet this morning!)
lizzie @ 710
“begging the question” is probably one of those.
I’m getting quite worried over the way that Murray-Darling water is being handled.
Lizzie,
My pet hate is when people say “somethink” instead of something.
[“begging the question” is probably one of those.]
although that’s change in meaning of an expression rather than a different word.
Punna
Yes, that’s a simple reversal of meaning. Annoys me, but now universal.
somethink
Well, that’s just bad pronounciation (deliberate spelling mistake, I assure you) 🙂
The Big Ship @ 687
I’m old enough to recall when the ABC was regarded as some sort of authority on these matters. In fact, I probably had some of my own misconceptions set straight by reference to their standards.
It’s one thing to talk about their standards of journalism slipping. In some ways that’s still a matter of opinion – though a strongly held one by myself, at least. A political slant is just a journalistic choice at any rate, and it can be controlled through a firmer editorial hand – in theory at least.
But for some reason, when I see incontrovertible evidence of the basic standards of competent writing slipping away, it really shakes my faith. “Free Reign” is the sort of thing you’d expect from the Herald-Sun, not from the national broadcaster.
madcyril @ 651 quoting Mark Day
[To my mind, it is visionary, transformational and utterly essential to meet national aspirations to be a 21st century smart country, rather than simply a quarry. I am surprised by two things: the manner in which the NBN has morphed from a generally accepted project under Kevin Rudd to a political hot potato for the Gillard minority government, and the growing doubts being expressed even by those best positioned to benefit from the network.]
Why would Mark Day be ‘surprised,’ given his newspaper’s uncritical and wholesale acceptance of all things Abbott?
The NBN is manifestly of future benefit to our entire nation in ways that we can only speculate on at this time. The technological and productivity gains are only now being glimpsed, and will pan out into undreamt of vistas of new business and public utility and opportunity in the years to come.
Let the Luddites in the Opposition, and their News Ltd cheersquad, continue to hide their collective heads in the sand. The NBN will prove to be one of this nation’s enduring and beneficial public enterprises in the decades ahead, and the Coalition can keep plugging their ‘horse and buggy’ era policies as the rest of us move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.
To continue in the Churchillian mode, if the Australian Commonwealth should last a thousand years, men will still say, ‘this was their finest hour …’
[ Changing old election results on a FPP basis is quite misleading. ]
Definitely OC. Many people vote Green first and ALP second to register their support for the Green cause, but also to keep the ALP in at the expense of the Libs.
It’s ironic that the Coalition was quite happy with preferential voting when the DLP was sending their preferences the Coalition’s way. Now that the Greens are a major force, and there is a strong preference flow from the Greens to the ALP, the Coalition wants to ‘re-visit’ preferential voting.
[into broad, sunlit uplands]
I’m hoping there’ll be a bit of shade there as well in years to come …
[lizzie
Posted Monday, October 18, 2010 at 10:53 am | Permalink
I’m getting quite worried over the way that Murray-Darling water is being handled.
]
As far as I can see the initial report is now being used as a straw man; it no longer has any standing. The government has sought to distance itself greatly from it.
Expect no reform. Just expect the current buybacks to continue as usual.
[Any reversion to this system would result in an electoral alliance between ALP and Greens to maximise their numbers – just as the Libs and Nats have done]
Not necessarily, given the greater ideological difference between the ALP & the Greens.
In any case, setting up a formal coalition arrangement would take quite some time … and during this time the Libs would be able to rule uninterrupted.
[If the 2007 election were to be rerun with First Past the Post, then the results would be:
ALP: 76
Coalition: 72
Independents: 2
Rudd would have had a knife-edge 1 seat majority.
No wonder the Libs are slavering over first-past-the-post.]
Except that because the elections in 2007 and 2010 WEREN’T run under FPP , so we will never know how the voters would have really behaved if they had been.
In 2007, for example, there was a strong “get rid of Howard” sentiment. I suspect many people who preferred The Greens policies in that election would , in fact, have swallowed their objections to some ALP policies and voted Labor if FPP was in place.
In the 2010 election the general public perception was that Labor would win it, even though the polls were extremely close by the end of the campaign. Would people have voted differently if more of them thought that a Coalition government was a real possibility? I expect so.
The reality is that you simply can’t meaningfully take the results from a preferential vote and assume that people would have voted the same way if FPP had applied.
vik @ 647
This isn’t really a fair conclusion to draw. If the system was first-past-the-post, I know I for one would change the way I voted. I only vote for minor parties or independents because I know my vote will eventually flow on to the ALP over the Liberals. It’s my small way of trying to keep diversity in play in the system.
If I knew my primary vote was all that mattered, I would vote ALP #1 every time. And I’m sure there are plenty of people who feel the same way as me.
Change the terms of reference and you also change the voting patterns.
Ha! Looks like a few people came up with that idea the same time as me.
Never mind the BER and the Batts, all the shonky lieberal voting contractors have been rorting from time immemorial and are still at it.
There are so many of them in Qld the BSA can’t keep up with them.
What a gold mine it would have been if they had have got the Unhinged one in as leader. More and easier rip offs.
Funny how the people getting ripped off always blame the BSA in Qld, it is never their fault that they don’t do due diligence, check out the credentials of the contractor and his/her licence on the BSA website.
I don’t like to see anyone getting ripped off but i have to say serves them right if they feed the greed.
Link for 726
http://www.couriermail.com.au/property/states-building-watchdog-has-paid-out-a-record-42-million-in-claims/story-e6frequ6-1225939575112
Looks like Mary McKillop will be made Patron Saint of the Abused and of Whitleblowers.
Sounds like a superb idea to me.
[Expect no reform. Just expect the current buybacks to continue as usual.]
My bet, blue_green, is that, as you say, the buy backs will continue as they have been, probably with much the same result as the “guide” contemplates anyway, but that the “Plan” in its final form will focus on technical water saving measures, together with the implementation of measures to keep the relevant communities viable.
I suspect, in fact, that much the same result will be achieved, but the rural communities (and no doubt the coalition) will believe and claim they have had a “win”.
Rod
I agree. The plan just lays out a longer term horizon.
Dio
[I thought it was $40-60/tonne and about 1.5% of GDP.]
Yes the $30/tonne I quoted was a starting point. As for the 1.5% of GDP that was my point – the GFC stimulus was 2% of GDP, so it is significant, but hardly enough to send us broke.
Morewest
True, it didn’t stop their economy even at that price; the entire electricity sector is less than 4% of the economy.
Hence we return to point one: Moran’s article is just a scare campaign based on false claims about “what Treasury said”. Still posted on ABC though, with no counterpoint or rebuttal 🙁
[Emma_Rodgers | 29 minutes ago
John Howard on Q and A October 25]
Another one to miss.
John Howard to appear on Q&A. Well he does have a book to sell
[
RT @Emma_Rodgers: John Howard on Q and A October 25
]
Tweet
[howespaul Hang on I’m confused, did the Pope or did Rudd make Mary a saint? The news says the Pope but Rudd sounded like he was saying it was his idea ]
What a moron. What does Howes hope to gain out of continuing to bash Rudd? Perhaps, other than look like a total boof head.
He has none of the substance on Shorten or Combet.
“People sliding into poverty as bills increase” . WA has the biggest gap between rich and poor.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/18/3040907.htm
I am not surprised.
At last the government moves a motion – Amanda Rishworth on food labelling.
The Big Ship @ 687
Aguirre @717
Agree 100%.
But I think there’s still a “correct use” doc of some sort in the ABC. It’s just that it doesn’t seem to be in use much, especially for the “commentator” types, nor in Unleashed.
(Of course I don’t count sports journalists who live in a world of their own 😆 )
By the look of the global press coverage, Mary McK is likely to get a very swift promotion in the Saintly realm.
The ‘aussie whistleblower saint’ and ‘protector of the abused’ are everywhere in global headlines. Given how topical (and important) this is, I truly suspect she will enter a whole different pantheon very swiftly.
[so when you actually sit down on christmas day dont forget why your doing so]
As long as you don’t foget that Jehoshua ben Joseph was actually born on January 7 (using the Gregorian Calendar). source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Christmas#Orthodox_churches
The date of December 25 was chosen by the early Christians for no other reason than survival.
Had they celebrated on his birthday (assuming he actually did exist), the Roman authorities would have noticed them and hauled them off to the Colloseum to be used as lion feed.
The Roman Empire celebrated the rebirth of the sun god Sol Invictus on Dec 25, so the early christians changed their big day out to coincide with this festival. After all, who’s going to notice a few people celebrating when the whole empire is celebrating?
Had they not changed the day, in all likelihood christianity would not have survived.
So, when people get together on Dec 25, remember that they are celebrating the pagan sun god’s day, nothing else. In non-Roman Euro cultures it was called Yule.
All based on the resurrection of the sun in the northern hemisphere following the winter solstice.
Not even remotely relevant to anyone in the southern hemisphere. We should celebrate this on June 25.
And then of course there’s Easter (dedicated to the pagan goddess Oestre), that coincides with the start of the northern hemisphere’s spring, which also has no relevance south of the equator.
Both are cases of christanity hijacking northern hemisphere pagan festivals and claiming them as their own.
[What a moron. What does Howes hope to gain out of continuing to bash Rudd? Perhaps, other than look like a total boof head.]
I agree. I’ve completely revised my opinion of him. Since Rudd Removal I’ve decided he’s nothing but an arrogant, self-centered wanker. I think it would be a disaster for the ALP if this man ever went into politics.
Confessions
I second your views. He is an example of those who have acheived little other than rising to the top.
[Looks like Mary McKillop will be made Patron Saint of the Abused and of Whitleblowers.]
It’s been proposed but I can’t see the Vatican wanting any more attention on the abused, and George Pell is arguing that she’s not the right saint for the job.
I refuse to “celebrate” Christmas any more because of its hijacking by the profiteers. I am also annoyed that we are now having Hallowe’en imposed on us from USA, the old Mothering Sunday turned into a soppy sentimental Mother’s Day where husbands give their wives presents (Yuk!).
[BernardKeane | 28 minutes ago
Boswell angry. Scientist says he doesn’t run policy. Boswell SMASH.]
Sounds like Boswell is getting his annual dose of estimates apoplexy!
blue_green, I saw his two tweets yesterday about Rudd and thougt to myself “is he drunk?”. Not smart at all
thougt = I can’t use a keyboard today!
[My pet hate is when people say “somethink” instead of something.]
Mine is using could of, should of, and would of instead of the correct terms could have, should have and would have.
Another one is calling this * an asterix (or astericks). It is an asterisk, and don’t get me started on using the term eck cetera.
I attach a comment attached to Barrie Cassidy’s latest bileous extract on the Drum.
[Budovski:
18 Oct 2010 9:03:14am
Well Barry has gone and written a book about his favourite past time, having shots at Kevin Rudd. Cassidy is the self appointed gossip master on all matters Rudd and ALP, and his campaign along with Chris Uhlman to unseat an elected leader due to personal dislike should have resulted in both losing their jobs at the ABC. It was unprecedented, unwarranted bias interference.
While I am not a fan of Rudd and agree with you on quite a few of your criticisms of him I find your obsessive ‘witch hunt’ courtesy of the public purse highly un-professional. If you had had a real story or real information about a corrupt or grossly incompetent Prime Minister you would have been doing your job, but instead you worked on behalf of your friends in the ALP to push their agenda.
Personally I cannot see how the ABC can employ you in your current role any longer given that you showed a complete lack of objectivity and a juvenile blood lust for gossip worthy news.]
[Glenn Milne]
[The ABC has given a platform to Alan Moran of the IPA to sprout this piece of exaggerated, fear-mongering nonsense about “putting a price on climate change”]
[John Howard on Q and A October 25]
The IPA, the Liberals. News Ltd shills. It’s THEIR abc.