The problem Australia has at all levels of governance is that those who we elect to represent us, represent the party before they represent the electorate. In a

The problem Australia has at all levels of governance is that those who we elect to represent us, represent the party before they represent the electorate. In addition to that, most of our elected representatives (House or Representatives and the Senate) are lacking in that essential item called a backbone. To find the truth of this, go talk to your representative at each level and try to get them to make public statements about subjects that are important to you. As far as the major political parties are concerned, their obvious differences are really minor and their hidden similarities are major. In the last few years, we have had our federal politicians vote bipartisanly for various legislation that was ostensibly aimed at preventing terrorism and yet, this country already had extensive legislation that covered those particular matters (all of it under criminal offences). One idea that has been discussed at various time in private is for each piece of legislation to be explained to each electorate and have a response return to parliament. So, instead of each representative voting on party lines, he/she would have to submit from their electorate the number of yes's, the number of no's and the number of abstentions. For any legislation to actually pass, the total number of yes votes from all electorates would have to be more than the total of no votes added to the total of abstentions. This would mean that for any legislation to be passed, the representative would have to work very hard to convince his/her electorate that they would need to vote yes for the proposal. The benefits of each legislation would have to be carefully articulated before getting traction. In addition, we could require that all legislation contain a sunset clause of say five years, after which the legislation would be null and void. For any extension, it would need to go back to the electorates again. One benefit of such a scheme, is the slow-down of new legislation and another would be that old legislation that no longer held the attention would fade away. I know, I know, this is a pipe dream and will never happen. But such a scheme would have the benefit that political parties would in all likelihood diminish.