The whole point of proportional respresentation is that it trades a degree of accountability in return for a greater plurality of representation.
But it occurs to me that the trend in ACT Elections has been very firmly against plurality to the current Assembly where Deb Foskey sits alone as a Green on the cross bench.
And yet we the people languish in a situation where no single member is accountable for the area in which we live and can safely ignore the feelings of 90% of the population as long as they play to a 10% base.
I do wonder if we wouldn’t actually get a more diverse Assembly (and a hugely more accountable one) if we had 17 electorates each representing ~15,000 electors. I’d imagine the Greens could easily pick up a couple of seats in the inner north if they ran good candidates. Also prospective candidates would have electorates they could seriously hope to canvas.
Your thoughts?