Australian Politics

Hello again from Australia! I thought I would blog about the political system in Australia and what is currently happening.

Essentially, Australia is a monarchy with allegiance to the Queen of England, but in reality the Queen does not have any power. Technically, Australia is part of the commonwealth of England, but they were federated in 1901. They use a parliamentary political system that, according to Wikipedia, is a bicameral system (I’m flashing back to my college World Politics course). The Parliament is broken up into the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 150 members of the House of Representatives that represent the 150 electorates (or seats). The electorates are just like our congressional districts. When you vote, you are only voting for your representative seat. Once the election is complete, the party with the most seats is in control and they name a Prime Minister, although before the election, everyone knows who will be the PM if their party wins. The senate has 76 seats: 12 for each state and 2 for the two territories. These are voted on at state level.

There are three major parties in Australia: Liberal Party (centrist republicans); Labor party (centrist Democrats); and National Party (rural conservative republicans). In general though, the center of Australian politics is a bit to the left of the center of US politics, especially regarding social issues. For example, you would be hard pressed to find any Liberals that would support the type of gun laws we have in the US. The Liberal and Labor party are the two that have a chance to win the majority, but the National party has a coalition with the Liberals so they often vote together. There is also the Green party which is very left of the center especially regarding the environment, but they are too small to come close to a majority, but they do have some representation in the senate. Some other interesting parties that are no longer registered as official: Communist party, Fishing Party, Nuclear Disarmament Party, Four Wheel Drive Party and the Outdoor recreation party.

The Liberal party has been in the majority since 1996 with John Howard as its leader and Prime Minister. There is an election coming up and the latest polls show the Labor Party with a significant lead in the polls 58% to 42%. The Liberals – and John Howard in particular – have lost a lot of popularity with their support of the war in Iraq, lack of action regarding the drought, and moving slowly with countering climate change. If the Labor party wins, Kevin Rudd would become the Prime Minister.

In Australia, everyone has to vote or you face a fine. I have to admit, even though I am disgusted with the voter turnout in the US, I don’t like the idea of compulsory voting. I’ve talked to a lot of people to see if compulsory voting encourages them to learn more about the issues, and it does not appear to. Australians that don’t care about politics tend to just vote the way their parents have always voted. You end up with generations of voters voting with no understanding of who they are voting for or what they stand for. There does not seem to be any “independent” voters in Australia.

I intend to learn much more about the political structure and as I do, I will share with you.