Climate change is real. One only has to consider the serious floods in Northern NSW and Queensland to realise that. Increasingly, voters realise that maintaining the image of yesteryear as representatives of two economic classes in society is merely reflecting the past.
Important additional aspects of the political reality are the rights and political competence of women and, of course, the environment movement, formerly hardly directly represented. The result is a much greater complexity to be expressed in democratic practice and major party platforms.
Evolution
A tendency to dream up hardly achievable energy projects, primarily to present stark alternatives colours this situation. Just how democracy fares within an electoral system that perhaps suited former economic class systems is a vexed question. The ‘evolve’ theory has reached its limits quite some years ago in Australia. The notion that the country has a thriving liberal democracy, recently still claimed by several academics and also by the Strengthening Democracy Report (2024), is not supported by the reality.
Several other academics and journalists have earlier suggested political system alternatives, even before the sacking of Gough Whitlam in 1975, now half a century ago, without practical results.
The reality is that the political system basically has not changed much at all since WWII and is now no longer fit for purpose. That also applies to the Constitution. The Republic Referendum failure, the Voice Referendum failure, often the federal system and the electoral system for all lower houses of Parliament in particular are evidence of stagnation. If the ALP scores a small win in the 2025 federal election, they should look for a bold leader, preferably a woman with environmental credentials. The Greens have proportional representation in their platform. Why are they not campaigning for that policy?
The federal home affairs minister aimed to present a positive Strengthening Democracy Report pointing out in several ways that Australia’s record in promoting and maintaining democracy has been among ‘the best in the world’. However, there is also a serious underlying concern ‘that all is not well’. That actually seems to be the very rationale for that report altogether.
Questions remain
But it falls seriously short of explanations why all is not well and what solutions may be found to fix the mounting problems. Certainly, the growing decline in the vote for the major parties in the last five or six federal elections presents evidence galore. However, the difficulty of new political actors fairly gaining ground in the existing system is not discussed. In particular the lack of female representation in the Liberal Party and the serious electoral discrimination against the Greens are missing.
The proportion of the public who consider democracy important in Australia is said to be over 80 per cent. Also, the need for much better civics education is stressed without an assessment of the consequences in the last 50 years. Earlier, a very extensive 2003/4 government report about the Republic Referendum failure already made that very clear. However, the decline continued. Obviously civics education need to be expanded and highly rewarded.
Change needed
What is missing in the democracy report is a discussion of what exactly could be or should be improved, and how. Presumably this is left to the political parties, political academics, and writers. The declining status of the major parties, reflected in their low percentage of the vote and the growth of Independents and minor parties, suggests that the need for major change is urgent indeed.
The need for bold action really is now, and far beyond further debate. The recent publication of Evolving of Democracy (2024), the title of a series of several articles, still suggests a preference for gradual democratic improvement. How realistic is that really? If anything, evolvement has been blocked since 1975 and that has much to do with the principal electoral system, based on single member districts. Strangely, the role of the Senate is not discussed at all.
Reflects voters
However, the ALP actually changed the electoral system of the Senate by introducing a system of proportional representation in 1948. This was a major improvement in terms of democratic government for years to come, supported actually by both major parties. Prime ministers of both the conservative Coalition and the ALP at times have complained about this but the reality is that it forced the major party in government to present legislation that would be sufficiently acceptable to the much more representative Senate. In short it actually saved Australia from the worst effects of the two-party system.
Prior to 1948 the ‘first past the post’ and the group preference systems used for electing senators meant that all Senate seats in any state could be won by candidates of the same party. The Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1948 provided for the adoption of a system of vote-counting known as proportional representation.
The result has been that the membership of the Senate is now a truer reflection of the voters’ support for the different political parties.
Dr HV Evatt said that, ‘the fairest system and the one most likely to enhance the status of the Senate is that of proportional representation.’ (Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 16 April 1948, page 965).
Proportional representation has enabled small parties and independents to gain representation in the Senate, providing a place in the federal parliament for a wider expression of community viewpoints.
The ALP has claimed that its election system should be fair. It may have a grand opportunity to demonstrate that by appointing a Committee of Inquiry to consider electoral system change. Meanwhile, the Greens’ policy of proportional representation should be the winner in this election.
♦ Dr Klaas Woldring is a retired A/Prof of Southern Cross University.
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