Vince Kean, Murwillumbah
Forgive me if I scratch my head in public. I keep hearing that Australians elect their prime minister. They do not! There is no space on our ballot papers to make a selection for the prime minister!
We elect a local member. The party that has the most elected members votes on who their leader will be. If they no longer have the confidence of the majority of elected representatives they can no longer be prime minister and can (and should) be replaced.
That is how our democracy works. It is ridiculous that any party should consider keeping a prime minister who has the confidence of only 26 per cent of the party’s elected representatives. To put it another way, they would maintain someone as prime minister who was opposed by 74 per cent of their colleagues. Presumably that means that 74 per cent of that party’s voters (as faithfully represented by elected members) would not support them as prime minister.
Democracies do not get destroyed by ‘revolving doors’. Democracies get destroyed by thoughtless electors who, knowing nothing of their own system of government, support stupid populist policies without applying even a modicum of intelligence to such idiotic propositions.
Vince,.
That is exactly the sticking point when Malcolm Turnbull led the Republic push. The public had no say in who would be our Head of State. So wake up people, are politicians our friends? No, when they push us out of the vote in Democracy and politicians exercise there vote in dictatorship over the people of Australia.
The public closed the Republic push down.
Vince
You are quite correct that people elect local members. But the majority of electors choose members of a party, and a party is entitled within its rules to put in place whatever arrangements it sees are fit and popular to choose its leader. You in turn are entitled to vote for someone else if you think a member is bound by rules you consider ridiculous.
On Len’s comment the Governor-general appoints the PM and does so if they are satisfied a member can garner the support of parliament, which is in turn elected by the people. As such the people have a strong voice on the nature of the governemnt and who makes up the ministry. The majority of Australians voted to end the connection with the Crown, however only a minority of Australians wanted a direct elected head of state. The remaining majority either wished to retain the constitutional monarchy or wanted a head of state and head of governemnt chosen in the current way. We are a very well governed country and most people have the sense to see that even if we ditch the monarchy our governemnt ain’t broke so don’t fix it.