With such a close election it appears Australia is headed for a Hung Parliament.

One could attach a meaning that Australians weren’t really sure who they wanted elected and thus haven’t been able to decide.

However if we look at the numbers and facts more closely this isn’t the case.

Australians have significantly voted in favour of the Coalition and a major swing against labor especially in QLD, NSW and WA.

Out of 8.4million that voted 400,000 more voted for the coalition being 44% of the Primary Vote compared to only 38% for labor.

That is a resounding statement that Australians don’t want Labor and more of the incompetent economic mismanagement.

I mean what hard working tax payer wants to sign up for 3 more years of our money being wasted by an inept Government that has us in ridiculous debt levels.

Actually the only ones are largely the ones bribed by Labor with sweeteners largely welfare recipients, or those who believe the B.S. that Labor was the reason we avoided the recession during Global Financial Crisis or the die hard Labor voters who will still vote for them no matter what.

So, despite the majority of Australians clearly saying that they want Labor out and the Coalition in, even if they aren’t overly happy with either party or leader, why do we have an undecided election and a possible Hung Parliament?

It’s because of the ridiculous preference voting system.

Many disenchanted Labor voters couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the Coalition so they voted for the Greens.

The Greens have done remarkably well in this election as a result of Labor voters heading their way.

However, here is the irony.

Those voting for the Greens; many  because they refused to vote for more of Labor’s gross economic incompetence and also because of  Rudd dropping the Climate Change Action he promised to be elected in 07, have actually ended up keeping Labor in this election instead of a complete wipe out otherwise.

All because the Greens preferences go to Labor whether Green voters like it or not.

Thus a party like Labor that’s clearly lost a lot of support is still in with a chance, despite it getting its backside whacked by the Australian voters and effectively told we don’t want you anymore.

So now it’s likely it will come down to the 3 amigos i.e. the 3 independents to who will be able to form a minority government.

Now, here is where it gets interesting…

These 3 independents are ex National Party and represent electorates that despise Labor.

So much so that Labor’s vote in these electorates was as low as 5% and as high as only 14%.

I mean it isn’t even safe in these electorates to even mention Labor, they are detested so much.

As they are largely rural electorates including New England, Northern NSW, Port Macquarie and Far North Queensland, which has been a National seat for decades until recent terms when Tony Windsor defected to become an Independent.

Now Labor will attempt to bribe these independents to form a minority Government as will the Coalition.

However if these independents dare form a minority Government with Labor then their will be riots on the streets in these 3 rural electorates as whether they wish to acknowledge it or not these Independents were elected because they are meant to be largely Anti-Labor .

If they vote against their constituents wishes then rightly so they’ll be run out of town.

Actually if Tony Windsor does I personally will invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into the New England seat at the next election to see he is run out of town.

Why?

Because it would be outright treachery to go against the peoples wishes because you’ve being bribed to do so.

And also the next election is likely to be quite soon so the 3 Independents had better preserve the wishes of their constituents in their electorates that voted for them to now have this immense power in the first place.

Ironically as these electorates have been Independents for sometime they received little government election funding however now they’ll be offered so much government bribes it won’t be funny.

Maybe finally Independents can deliver something as generally other then a protest vote they are genuinely a complete waste of time and ensures your electorate gets bugger all.

It’s also a good reason preference voting should be abolished to avoid a party that received significantly less votes to be able to claim power possibly by bribing some Independents or sneaking across the line.

It doesn’t matter who you voted for I’m sure most would agree the Party that gets the large majority of votes should not be able to be defeated by a minority Party that has had less votes and a huge swing against it.

Especially as Labor is controlled by the Unions which represent even a smaller minority of Australians that is approximately only 14 % yet this minority are able to dictate who is not only the Prime Minister of the country without Australians voting for her initially, Julia Gillard they can still exert enough power via the Preference Voting system to have Labor form a Government when the majority of Australians have voted against them.

Somehow that doesn’t seem very democratic but highly communistic when minorities can dictate against the majority of voter’s wishes even if you’re not a Coalition Supporter.

Other thoughts:

I sense many Australians are resigned to having to vote for political parties they largely aren’t that excited about.

Even many that swung to the Coalition are voting for them only because they see them as the least worst option.

If there was a box on the electoral voting paper that said…

I’m not happy with either of the major political parties I’m sure this box would have received more votes then either Labor or the Coalition.

People I feel want better political leadership and better Political choice.

An effective duopoly with Labor and Coalition means they control the agenda largely making it hard for smaller parties to ever grow into any significance.

The Greens have done well to pick up a lot of the protest vote however, due to preferences is still effectively a vote for Labor and I’m not sure all Green voters like that.

The National Party also did well winning 12 of the 24 seats it contested areas despite many saying it’s in decline.

However I think we need to look at a whole new political model.

Political Parties don’t tend to unite countries but divide.

Why have political parties at all?

In my next article I’ll discuss alternatives to even having political parties that could be far more effective way to progress a country and have the people empowered to have a real say in how things are run on a continued basis not once every 3 years where their is limited choice and no clear way to vote on the policies you like as often you’ll like some policies of a party but not other policies but if you vote for that party you have to settle for some policies you oppose.

Jamie McIntyre,

CEO 21st Century Education