Why it needs to change
Although Australians do not vote directly for a Prime Minister; come election time their vote is greatly influenced by the leaders put forth by each of the respective political parties. It would not be a stretch to say that for some Australians their compulsory vote is determined by this leader, and his or her past performance.
However; the carpet strolling power brokers seem to see fit to replace the leaders of their parties without considering the wishes of the people who voted these parties into power.
So, in the interest of saving Australians bucket-loads of tax payer money (not to mention the tedium of pre-election advertising and pandering) I recommend we do away with elections and install parties based on simple mathematics - the solution later.
A Bit Of History
There have been 8 political parties in office in Australia since Federation in 1901, these are:
Although Australians do not vote directly for a Prime Minister; come election time their vote is greatly influenced by the leaders put forth by each of the respective political parties. It would not be a stretch to say that for some Australians their compulsory vote is determined by this leader, and his or her past performance.
However; the carpet strolling power brokers seem to see fit to replace the leaders of their parties without considering the wishes of the people who voted these parties into power.
So, in the interest of saving Australians bucket-loads of tax payer money (not to mention the tedium of pre-election advertising and pandering) I recommend we do away with elections and install parties based on simple mathematics - the solution later.
A Bit Of History
There have been 8 political parties in office in Australia since Federation in 1901, these are:
- Protectionist
- Labor
- Free Trade
- Commonwealth Liberal
- Nationalist/United Australia
- National Labor Party
- National Country
- Liberal
Since 1901 the Liberal Party has replaced the Protectionist Party, the Free Trade Party, the Commonwealth Liberal Party, the Nationalist/United Australia Party, and the United Australia Party. Although the National Labor Party was never officially constituted as a party it was later subsumed by the Nationalist Party (which was subsequently replaced by the Liberal Party).
Currently the Liberal Party are the dominant party in a coalition with the National Party of Australia (previously known as the National Country Party).
The Australian Labour Party has been around since 1892. It changed the spelling of its name in 1912 to the Australian Labor Party, (after being influenced by the United States Labor Movement).
After all the name changing and subsumptions this effectively leaves two political parties that have governed Australia since Federation – the Liberal Party and the Labor Party.
The solution
In Australia, since 1901, the Liberal Party (or political predecessor) have been in power for 76.66 years while the Labor Party have been in power for 37.33 years. I figure, 114 years of data is enough to form some sort of solution.
Give or take a couple of decimal points the ratio of years in power is 2:1 for the Liberal and Labor Parties respectively. Therefore, I propose the Liberal Party serve two full terms followed by the Labor Party serving one full term (thus eliminating the need for elections and the need to change an unpopular Prime Minister mid-term).
Some may say that one full term or indeed two full terms is not enough to make any meaningful contribution to Australia. If that is true, then perhaps we could have four full terms of Liberal Party government followed by two full terms of Labor Party government. The question then becomes, who will decide this? Maybe we could put it to a vote. Then again – why bother?