Forgot to post this yesterday, but it was great to see on the weekend that Michael Mann (with the help of Malcolm Turnbull) pointing out that the features of the Australian electoral system - independently set electorate boundaries, compulsory voting ensuring none of the ridiculous US effort just to get people to vote, and a preferential voting system - are a key reason why you can get a significant centrist cross bench that is likely to be very significant in forcing faster action on climate change.
The harm in first past the post voting seems really underappreciated - and I don't buy that James Allan argument in an article I linked to last week:
The least conservative Liberal (and National) government in Australia’s history lost last weekend.
There was no enthusiastic move to Labor. In fact, both major parties scored woefully low first preference counts. In any country with a first-past-the-post voting system both big parties would be reeling. There’s a reason why only Australia and one small South Pacific nation uses preferential voting; it’s because it works as a protection racket for the two big parties.
Which is why, I suppose, James, we see such influence of independent members of Congress (and Presidential candidates) in the USA?
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