Can the Dems really bounce back?

The coalition of the independents…

“who truely are the third force in politics these days”

A third force? The greens? Perhaps “third Voice” is more accurate. They’re hardly a force.

the greens ?

lunatics.

If the Dems get more than 5,000 votes in total in the ACT I would be surprised.

Better vote for the Greens who truely are the third force in politics these days. Vote for them first and make it known to the majors who really have to be listened to now/future.

Pandy: Would you care to explain how any formal vote is “wasted” under our fully-preferential voting system?

dalryk: In the short term, by far the most likely outcome is that the Lib/Nat Coalition will hold power in the Senate (anyone think we might be seeing the first double-dissolution election in a long time soon?). In the longer term, if they both get some support then it’s unlikely that either the Greens or Family First would have the balance of power in their own right – far more likely is that the support of *both* would be required by the government of the day for any particular legislation (or, alternatively, the support of the opposition). This is clearly not going to happen for legislation that goes too far in either direction (with the possible exception of some socialist economic policy which is often supported by socially conservative groups like FFS – however the ALP has been moving away from this since Hawke came to power and it’s never been Liberal policy).

Just to let you know, The Democrats launched their 2007 ACT campaign today. While the local ACT Democrats have been deregistered as a party, this has no impact on the current federal campaign. In fact, the ACT Democrats membership numbers have grown by 50% in just the past two months. The majority of new Democrats members across Australia are coming from Generation Y, and these members are not living up to the GenY apolitical stereotype. They are motivated, educated and interested. I think there is a real feeling in the Canberra community that the Democrats can hold the major parties to account. As the policies of past 2 years have shown, the Democrats are sorely missed.

problem with losing the Democrats (at least at a federal level) is that it leaves the Greens and Family First as the two parties who might hold the balance of power. I’m not sure which would be worse personally, bunch of commie nut-jobs, or right-wing religious fundamentalists….

At the local level though I don’t think it makes a big difference. The ACT legislature’s such a disfunctional body to start with, one more or less dissenting view probably won’t change things much.

Democrats who?

Don’t waste your votes boys.

“I can’t stand the idea of only two parties having any say in our Governance particularly in a place like Canberra”

Geez, we have a funny proportional representation system which is more fair than single member electorate. Basically, don’t vote for the major parties and that’s your solution.

Or better still, vote for a thoughtful individual irrespective of their party.

correction: a bi-cameral system does not ensure fairer…