Proportional voting system is needed

It is high time that Australia caught up with the rest of the western world and had a real democratic system.

This can occur only through proportional representation.

Our two party Federal and State Governments voted in on preferences do not and can not represent an Australian majority and can not represent mainstream Australia.

Our two-party system is in danger of representing the businesses which fund their election campaigns.

Thus it can happen that policies which are very unpopular are followed with impunity.

The Howard Government is prepared to fight an illegal war in Iraq despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Australians do not want this war.

The Howard Government is prepared to build a nuclear reactor in the middle of suburban Sydney when the Australian people do not want a nuclear reactor in their neighbourhood.

The Howard Government made us one of the few developed nations who won't ratify the Kyoto agreement despite the worst drought and fires on record.

The Howard Government provides us with the social policies which contribute to making us world leaders in the suicide rate and drug deaths.

Liberal environmental policies or the lack of them make us world leaders in the extinction of endangered species and land clearing rates.

Only a voting system that makes sure that all Australians and their political parties are proportionally represented in the Lower House can ensure that these and other important issues are discussed in the decision making process of parliament.

If The Greens or other small political parties obtain more than five percent, 10 percent or 14 percent of the vote, then they should have that proportion of seats in the lower house, not zero.

The Greens want to change our prehistoric preferential voting system to a more democratic proportional representation system.

Even if this is a state election, the political issues are too big to ignore.

A political change can only occur through a systemic change to a proportional voting system.

Karin Solondz, Woy Woy