When I was working on a cruise ship, a noticeboard poster said it all: “Please remember that Americans consider it acceptable to brag about their kids. Australians do not.”
Still better than the alternative - at least if we had the Republicans and Democrats here, a vote for an alternative candidate doesn’t automatically hurt the “lesser of two evils” candidate that you would support if you had to pick one or the other. That being said the fact that the Head of State (Governor-General) doesn’t have any real power (apart from dissolving parliament) and that the leader of our government is elected by the parliament from the parliament makes it so bad leaders (and good ones unfortunately) can be removed very easily.
I’d love to see a measure that bars the party of government from having a leadership spill for at least two and a half years after winning an election, or maybe at least a 2/3rds caucus majority to change leader during that time.
Edit: No retirement loophole they can exploit or something either. They should be held to service like a member of the military is, if they’re going to send our young people off to die. Retire in the six months before an election if you don’t want to re-up. Otherwise buck up and do the bloody job. If we did that for the whole parliament it might scare away the Clive Palmer types from even running.
Still better than the alternative - at least if we had the Republicans and Democrats here, a vote for an alternative candidate doesn’t automatically hurt the “lesser of two evils” candidate that you would support if you had to pick one or the other. That being said the fact that the Head of State (Governor-General) doesn’t have any real power (apart from dissolving parliament) and that the leader of our government is elected by the parliament from the parliament makes it so bad leaders (and good ones unfortunately) can be removed very easily.
I’d love to see a measure that bars the party of government from having a leadership spill for at least two and a half years after winning an election, or maybe at least a 2/3rds caucus majority to change leader during that time.
Edit: No retirement loophole they can exploit or something either. They should be held to service like a member of the military is, if they’re going to send our young people off to die. Retire in the six months before an election if you don’t want to re-up. Otherwise buck up and do the bloody job. If we did that for the whole parliament it might scare away the Clive Palmer types from even running.