I agree that a review of the system would be a good idea… and should involve both houses of parliament as there’s no point having both House of Reps and Senate being elected based on proportional voting.

I also like some of what Natasha Stott Despoja (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-blank-ballot-not-the-answer-to-a-lacklustre-campaign-20100816-126ys.html)… “we should be doing more to encourage young, educated Australians into politics – and we most certainly should be encouraging people with ideals and vision, people with the courage of their convictions.”

I will admit that it would make getting independent candidates into parliament much harder … but should also admit that I don’t see this as a problem. I think of the way Brian Harridine held the government hostage over such ridiculous issues. Today I was listening to Bob Katter talk about the issues he would want to take up in a minority government and they too were scary.

One of the other advantages I saw with proportional representation is that it would would encourage the minor parties to take a more realistic and feasible approach to government – raising the level of political discussion.

However, I’m not convinced that I want proportional voting for both houses of parliament. I guess the advantages of the current system is that it put some of the local issues that the Federal Government influences and/or responsible for onto the political agenda (yes, unfortunate that it does gets more attention if it’s in a marginal seat) and it also allows for Independent MPs to be voted into parliament – it would be much more difficult for an Independent candidate to get a seat under a proportional voting system in the House of Reps.

In Sweden a party needs to get at least 4% of the votes to get into the parliament, then from what I understand the seats are distributed amongst those parties proportionally. Applying the 2007 senate results to the 150 seat House of Representatives would have given 68 seats to Labor, 67 seats to the Liberals/Nationals, and 15 seats to the Greens. No other party came close to the 4% margin required for entry.

Australia uses this 4% rule for funding – that is to get the 2.31 AUD per primary vote, you need to poll at least 4% of the electorate.

But I agree both of the major parties are fairly moderate, and that many (if not most) of the parties on the senate sheet fall into the wacko category.

You should read ‘Myth of the Rational Voter’ by Bryan Caplan if you haven’t already too.