Major issues not addressed

There are several major issues that will shape Australia's future, including the Central Coast's, but thus far neither major party is addressing them in this election.

The first is the electoral system.

Have parties and candidates considered proportional representation with multi-member electorates for the House of Reps or at least something like what the New Zealanders introduced 20 years ago?

Australia's main electoral system is based on single member electoral districts, which yield one MP for each.

Although 28 per cent of voters now plan to vote for minor parties, only a handful of their candidates may be elected.

Thus, the enormous diversity of our society will not be represented in the Parliament and we'll end up with the two sides of politics.

Of the two sides one forms the Government while the function of the other is to criticize that Government whenever they can.

Thus we continue with a negative adversarial political culture.

Even economic benefits are channeled particularly to marginal seats like the 12 submarines in SA or the $10 million for a hospital in Indi that was not paid because Sophie Mirabelle was not elected.

Elections can be won in such seats by one major party even if a national majority is won by the other major party.

Yes, that could happen again on this occasion.

The remedy here is proportional representation open party list system used by a very large number of countries in the world for over 100 years.

Just one vote is required.

All the confusing preferences would be a thing of the past.

The second concern is the relationship between Federal and State Governments, a costly problem.

The expense of maintaining Federation is up to $50 billion per annum.

Why not abolish the states: create a national and strengthened local government level?

The federal system was a practical political bargain of the six colonies in 1901 but it is now a costly hindrance to effective government.

Much has changed in the last 116 years.

Piecemeal tinkering to improve the situation has been consistently ineffectual, the latest casualty being the Reform the Federation Inquiry launched by the Abbott Government and, amazingly, supported by two former ALP Premiers.

Candidates should be asked if their party has any policies to replace this dysfunctional, costly Federation, abolish the State Governments and strengthen Local Government.

Research in recent years clearly shows that this is actually what the majority of Australians favour.

The final issue is the system of parliamentary responsibility differs from all other European systems, as well as from the US congressional system, in that the government has to be formed from elected MPs, and then only from one side of politics.

Many Australians don't seem to realise that democratic governments can be formed differently.

Also, what about the archaic Constitution of Australia that virtually cannot be amended?

Why not rewrite it?

Surely, this is not beyond an independent sovereign nation?

The Australian Constitution has been amended only eight times since 1901, the result of 44 attempts.

Why has the failure rate been so high?

Neither of the major parties have addressed these issues.

They have been placed in the to-hard basket perhaps.

Many voters had pinned their hope on the amicable Malcolm Turnbull presenting himself as a 'transformer', just the sort of person needed to tackle issues like described above.

However, that image has been dented seriously now.

If Mr. Turnbull was to win this election with a very small margin, what can we expect?

Email, 20 Jun 2016

Klaas Woldring, Pearl Beach.