Electoral Misinformation

I'm constantly disappointed with the way the Labor and Liberal parties deliberately misrepresent Australia's electoral system just to maintain their positions.

The pollies are starting to realise how popular Q&A is getting, so they're preparing to use it even more like a soapbox than Lateline. It's getting so bad that Tony Jones is having trouble keeping them under control. It didn't surprise me that Julie Bishop would accuse the Greens of becoming a new faction of the ALP, that sort of hyperbole is nothing new but I wish she wouldn't insist on it as though a mere preference deal makes it literally true.

Yet Piers Ackerman is the one who really disgusts me. He pointedly re-inforced people's misunderstanding of the electoral system just to sound like he was saying something scary. He stated that 80% of Green preferences went to Labor as though those people casting the votes had no power over that!

So, you know, 80 per cent of those votes will be essentially the people who think they're voting Green for whatever reason, maybe a protest, maybe over the sacking of Kevin Rudd or the assassination of Kevin Rudd, will actually be voting - wind up voting for Labor.

What a cunt!

There was similar misinformation coming from a former Lib cum Democrat (probably bitter that their place has been taken by a party that would never have passed the GST). He was considering the possibility that the Greens would get together with the Coalition but making it sound like it all depends on Bob Brown's opinion. Even from his own (quite accurate) description, it's clear that it's not up to Brown alone -- the power to block supply will only come when the Greens deem it "gross political corruption or misconduct" AND the Liberal-National Coalition opposes the legislation. Dickhead! If somehow all those three parties with their radically different points of view can agree that something's not right, I think there probably should be a double-dissolution.