Chris Holstein and Kathy Smith are into blaming each other’s parties for the outcome of the poll in the state seat of Gosford (Coast Community News, April 22).
Holstein’s advisers also mention the preference deal between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Greens, presumably preferring a return to the “first-past-the post” system. Kathy Smith is silent on this, but the ALP is known to much prefer to “govern in their own right”. What should matter to the voters is that the majority is not represented by either candidate. This is the case in many seats – state and federal. Holstein’s primary vote was 42.5% and Ms Smith’s was below that.
What is really to blame is the system, not the candidates. Both single-member district systems, “fi rst-past the post” and the preferential system, frequently, not rarely, deliver this result. The superior alternative is proportional representation, especially the party list system. Proportional representation (PR), used in at least 90 countries, is based on multi-member district systems.
It results in diverse parliaments and in majority coalitions. Thus far the major parties show no inclination to reform the system. The blame game is part and parcel of the adversarial culture of the current system. It is negative, unproductive, unnecessary and costly. We are compelled to vote in this system and, for the lower house, compelled to preference as well. Change is long overdue.
The New Zealanders made the change to PR in the mid-1990s. If Ms Smith wants to make her mark, this is the key reform needed, nationwide. Social democratic parties in countries with PR systems have governed like that successfully for around 100 years.
Email, 27 Apr 2015
Klaas Woldring,
Pearl Beach