Reader Survey on the Federal election 2022

Yeah, well said from the first time voter. I have been voting for over fifty years and I’m sorry to say political parties with a long term policy for the betterment of the country are a thing of the distant past. I wish all young voters the best for the coming decades. My generation of politics hasn’t delivered the goods for many years.

Get rid of career politicians, limit all politicians to two terms only, then time to move on. Politics should be for people that want to serve their constituents and country, not for those that only want to get the "snout in the trough".

FWIW an interesting, if some may say self-serving, perspective on 'the party system' from 'the good old days' -

from the letter Australia's first PM Edmund Barton (by then on the High Court) wrote to Alfred Deakin in 1909 after the latter had formed a new government (his third stint as PM) with the so-called ‘Fusion’ of non-Labor groups -

“…the whole continent is to be congratulated on having at last a chance to govern itself on the principle of party cleavage, for in faith of the observance of that principle and not of sectional dissidence the Constitution was framed.”

Edmund Barton [from Sutherland House, Sylvania] to Alfred Deakin, 3 June 1909
Papers of Alfred Deakin
National Library of Australia MS 1540/15/1096

I would like to see;
Fixed 4 year terms ( sick of the unofficial election campaign, where millions of our dollars are spent advertising the federal govt)
A ban on lobbyists ( time to represent constituents, not vested interests).
A ban on donations (see above )(capped and funded by us taxpayers instead, based on the number of primary votes, (why should Clive Palmer be able to buy his way into parliament?)
A federal ICAC with independent funding
A change to proportional representation ( so people’s votes count, wherever you live)
An increase in independents ( and a more wide- ranging and considered decision- making process and debate.)
The end of the 2 party system and a move to govt ministries made up of the most capable and suited people from all different ‘sides’.
A move to a less adversarial style of political debate and discourse
Constitutional recognition of our First Nations people
A move to a republic ( maybe we should have a referendum every 4 years at the same time we vote and put a few questions on there, instead of deferring progress)
Someone not afraid to make the sweeping policy decisions needed to get us on a better path
Someone with a vision for what we could be and able to articulate that and bring people along on the journey.
I’d like to see a move to evidence- based decisions,
A belief ( and investment) in science, and scientific research,( and secure, long- term funding)
The end to mass casualisation and the gig economy ( how many jobs should one person need to survive)
A rise in real wages
I’ll stop now, the list of things to be done is long and probably none will ever happen, we will be stuck reacting to events instead of being proactive. Just imagine if we had decided to be the renewable energy world power we could have been….

Be careful with referendums. California has more than just about anybody and they have a problem that many pass but the funding is never clear. I didn't realise it but at least in California something passed by a referendum apparently is the highest ranking form of law and can't be easily overturned by the legislature, so the spending gets locked in. So year after year they get more actions added to the list of things the government needs to do (and all cost "something") yet no-one wants to pay for the added cost.

A weak and entertainment focused media is a big part of the problem. And a dumbed down audience who wouldn't watch anything of substance anyway. So there is a vacuum of policies as too few care and the risk/reward pushes this. Look at the rubbish ads from Clive Palmer ("keep interest rates below 3% for 5 years"). Just absolute crap and no rebuttal. People will vote for this with no idea how it would be achieved. The vacuum is not what parties promise to do, its the lack of how they will deliver that irks.

The policies of the Greens don’t seem to get much scrutiny and they could end up with the balance of power.

Re the three levels of Govt, the obvious one to go is the States, but what people do not realise is the that Local govt is the most incompetent and unresponsive to complaint of all three.

When will a debate commence on the need and cost of 3 layers of Government and 3 layers of public servants? A modern society with access to the data and technology that is now available surely needs to question if the duplication of resources and assets resulting from 3 layers of Government is still necessary .

That debate has been going on for ages, I can assure you. But just look at what happened when Mike Baird tried some very sensible reforms to local government in NSW to reduce costs and duplication. If that failed, despite the fact that local governments only exist by decisions and Acts of the States, then there's no way more significant reforms can get up. Too many people think that the system provides checks and balances.

Also, everyone needs to understand that the Commonwealth exists because the States agreed to devolve some powers to a national government. That's what the constitution discusses. Get rid of the States and at present the Australian government also ceases to exist.

So, as they say in the classics, it's complicated. Do we really want to go there?

Liberal nor Labour are perfect, but should be elected with a majority. We will become a third world country if the Greems and/or Independents with their single issue, ridiculous proposals, and that includes climate change, get any say in parliament. Please use common sense

K.M. What tosh! European countries are used to hung parliaments and they are more advanced than Oz. The way things are going, we are descending into third-world status; the banana republic Keating forecast.

Why is 'climate change' an issue? There is nothing we can do about it.

You're dead right Bill. But that is still no excuse for the human race to feel its ok to just carry on messing everything up.

Good question. The real issue is why is the government willing to squander Australia’s comparative advantage of cheap energy sourced from fossil fuels.

Good point... promoting renewable energy systems like wind and solar makes us fall into reliance of the economics of the suppliers of the systems(China) without really addressing the realities of long term vagaries of our planet's weather and proper measurement of the real long term trends of climate anyway, to justify it.

Can we afford to ignore the issue of the potential financial benefits of becoming global leaders and suppliers of sustainable energy?

If the Greens think they can stop climate change, what are their policies on the movement of the magnetic pole, tectonic plates/continental drift and the orbit of the planet?

It's time we had a fixed four year term (as NSW)

This has been one of the most disappointing election campaigns in memory. So much ultra cautious compromise and so little essential vision and charismatic leadership.

We must have the type of person in our parliament that really cares about Australia not their own or their associates interests

There is a commonly held perception that the Money Pit is endless. Each and every cause is calling for more funding, but there cannot be any increase in taxes to cover the spending. There has to be better controls in place to ensure the monies get to the needy, not to the greedy!

The scare campaign about independents is madness. The more independents in parliament the better. The ones who are in there behave very well and think the issues through properly not like the party members who just go along with everything the party comes up with. The independents listen to their constituents. They can be discussed with for a compromise.

I think independents will have a huge impact as a result of major party dissatisfaction. This is not preferable as would be a majority government but I don't think that either major party deserves my vote

Definitely disagree with that comment. We must have policy direction for the country {which we still don't have}.

Agree.
MM

The government term should be extended to 5 years and the date should be fixed to avoid the nonsensical or perceived advantage gained by the PM of the day to pick the date to hold the election.

It has been a long time, if ever, that the Australian voting public have been so poorly represented at a party-leader and policy level on both sides of the political divide.

The absence of a carbon tax is the major tragedy.

Plenty of royalties / excise / taxes on transport fuel, electricity, carbon derived dividends.

Any full, mid and/or long-term economic plan, policies and your actions for the country's future from any party in the election campaign? I couldn't see it except the nuclear warship with huge spending!
Also the effective and efficiency of the works are low from the government and its departments, therefore waste a lot of our taxpayers' money!

Very difficult to see much talent in Labor but the Libs have a leader who is deeply into avoidance mode around many important issues. His party should dump him and Labor needs a new leader.

The Libs need to find a way to drop the Nats from the coalition. These right wingers make it difficult to find anything like the middle ground. I find the Libs disappointing in pulling so called fringe elements into line. Scomo talks about the silent majority, he should know as his party seems very silent when the Matt Carnavans of the world get going. Never seen a tail wag a dog so completely. Labor seem to be beholden to the Greens as well, pulling them further left. Plenty of room in the centre if someone can find a way there....

Absolutely agree. The Libs need to turn to the centre cut away the dead wood of its right wing if it wants any future. The Libs vote among young people is so dismal because of that right wing.

People don't seem to realise that the Libs could not hold government without the Nats. In effect, we have had a hung parliament for decades. Conservatives fearmonger re Labor/Greens alliance. Meanwhile, the whole country is held to ransom by the backward, ignorant Nats. And they certainly don't speak for many in rural areas. Global warming is the biggest thing hitting farmers- your food and fibre producers. Do you really want to eat poisoned food from overseas?

so correct

great concept and I look forward to reading the responses. Hopefully overall more optimistic about the future of our country than I am.

Ask not what can your country do for you. Ask what can I do for my country!
So let's start by making all politicians apply for the job, with a specific and detailed job description.
This may help to eliminate and reverse the presence of a majority of career politicians who have never had a 'real' job, let alone having run and managed a profitable business.

This is the fundamental problem with democratic elections where leaders must be electable despite having no experience in managing even a small business. Our leaders only need how to "buy" votes with promises. In China, (putting all politics aside please), they believe leaders must know how to manage a country. Xi Jinping’s father was a senior official who worked for Chairman Mao. Yet Xi Jinping started his work in a village, managed a town, a city, a province before starting his career in the central government. It took him over 40 years to become the president.

An EXCELLENT idea ! ! !

Both major parties are lack lustre but Labor bothers me with reckless spending

Evidence of this reckless spending would be very useful

Should we start on one side of politics with $20+ billion Jobkeeper paid to large companies whose revenues actually rose in the pandemic with no desire to claim it back, and $100 billion on submarines that will not be delivered for 20 years while Australia has no armed drones.

And do you think the coming Stage 3 tax cuts which favour high income earners, with those earning more than $200,000 receiving a tax cut of $9075 per year, are justified when we are trying to slow the economy and face a trillion of debt?

Yes it’s the coalition that takes the prize for reckless spending during the great covid panic.

Roll on 20 days time when this sideshow is over !

As a member of the younger generation who will be voting in my first election, I am sick of parties who lack a definitive plan for the future of our country. I want a day where parties focus on policies for decades to come, not just to win this election. Political short-sightedness is everywhere in the current government re. climate change, and we seem to have lost the will to do what is right for the country re. taxation, housing and again climate change.

Well said! Wise words indeed from someone new to to the realm of elections. More younger folk with your outlook and we will hopefully have a truly worthy nation in future years.

Parties don't have a vision for the future because in a democracy they can only plan on being in office for three years. In one-party communist states with no genuine elections or opposition they can have 5 year or longer plans. The other problem is when an elected party has to compromise its plans with the independents and Greens holding a balance of power and a different agenda.
Very rarely do we have a visionary leader who inspires us to achieve the greatness we are capable of. Kennedy and getting to the moon was one.