shirro @ shirro @aussie.zone

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2 yr. ago

That is how Tasmania has worked for over a century. They call it Hare-Clarke but it is a form of STV. They also use it in the Australian Capital Territory.

Mixed member might be more suitable nationally here. I have mixed feelings about the example in NZ. Anything is better than FPTP which should only be in history books. Even ranked choice/preferential with what you already have is an incremental improvement if that is all you can get.

It is a great idea. Strike while the iron is hot.

I didn't realize Canada's electoral system was so outdated. I assumed you would have a popularly elected upper house and if not proportional at least instant runoff/rcv/preferential for your lower house.

We didn't want to give up local representation in Australia so we stuck with single member electorates but preferential voting. It is fairer to voters than FPTP but still results in a two party lower house that doesn't reflect the actual percentages of votes cast for parties so the senate is more powerful that UK or Canada to offset. We could do a lot better. NZ follows a more German model that compensates popular parties that didn't win seats. Not sure how I feel about that. The Greens would end up with 13% of lower house seats here instead of approximately 0 but chances are we could see parties like our own One Nation or the German AfD grow in influence as well. Tasmania has had proportional voting for their state lower house for over a century as does our capital territory.

Edit: the web site is very informative and and the fact checker addresses my extremist party fear well.

Good idea but also a gross oversimplification.

You can't compare a parliamentary democracy with a presidential republic whatever the voting system. The president is an elected tyrant. It's a miracle one hasn't gone rogue previously.

A prime minister is a chairperson who only serves with the confidence of their party. In the UK and Australia PMs are routinely knifed by their own parties. Additionally the government needs to win confidence votes to govern.

Australia has a proportional upper house with some real teeth. They can bring a government down. But New Zealand has a unicameral proportional lower house. Optimised for different things. Many people say NZ is better but they haven't had a big constitutional crisis so who knows. NZ only gets labour or national governments despite proportional representation.

Never been in a tropical storm but I have been forced to leave areas ahead of bushfire fronts and to travel close to fire effected areas. I dread the day some extremist nutcase defunds ABC Radio. You can't always rely on phone reception. A lot of old tech is better. Less distracting. More reliable.

Same around the world. When they say they want to deal more harshly with youth offenders in Queensland, Australia, they are overwhelmingly indigenous otherwise there would be more outrage. First we create the problems then we create the "solutions" which just create more problems. I hope it is getting better. A few years ago we had the PM giving an official apology. Now we have some politicians refusing to stand in front of the aboriginal flag. Its a huge WTF. I don't know what their brain damage is.

I should clarify that it could be Inuit lands that Trump may be seeking to control in case other indigenous people are wondering what the fuck I am talking about. Sorry.

I am not the enemy and I am genuinely sorry for your hardship (though not nearly as much as for people born into poverty, war and genocide in far lass fortunate countries)

Americans trying to justify themselves on social media seems like a waste of energy and focus and its probably not good for mental health. Outside opinion that contradicts the narratives we have in our heads is important. My opinion might be wrong but its a genuine observation. My very real fear is we can't rely on US citizens to fight for their democracy anymore and that has global implications for the world and my children's future. Please prove me wrong. I love to learn new things. The BLM protests were huge but perhaps they turned from grass roots outrage into a social media phenomenon instead of a real effective political movement.

Protecting our kids is an issue that cuts across all beliefs, races, classes to the heart of our humanity, the most basic goodness that unites our species. I think the turning point, if such a thing exists, may have been Columbine, 1999. Not the bad guys on 9/11, not Putin election interference or MAGA. That is the issue that would have really outraged most countries. Millions on the streets protesting. Politicians of all parties scrambling to act. The shootings kept getting worse every year and it was swept under the carpet. More than the homelessness, wealth inequality, healthcare, that makes me worry a lot for your future and by extension the rest of us. We are definitely drifting to the right here and are a worse society as a result but for all our similarities and weaknesses that is still the the most fundamental issue that separates your politics and society from ours which is why I think we can never really be in your situation (we also don't have the historical acrimony and economic disadvantage stemming from a bloody civil war).

And if people think they are alone and have no power perhaps consider reading books about Abolishionists, Underground Railroad, Suffragettes, Labour Unions, Socialists, the Civil Rights Movement, Gay rights, Anti-war protests, Environmentalists and all the other ordinary Americans who made a fucking effort and delivered real improvements to peoples every day lives while the thoughts and prayers brigade wasted the last decade taking selfies and lamenting their disenfranchisement on social media. The template is there. Just read a fucking book.

Trump is erratic and undisciplined and the whole MAGA movement is regressive, radical and dangerous and I am sure Lebensraum has some resonance with them. But there is obviously shit going on with the rhetoric on Canada and Greenland that points to control of the Arctic as being the driving issue. It possibly goes beyond the current executive and is some insane branch of long term US strategic thought. That suggests they probably only want 2 or 3 mostly uninhabited northern provinces plus Greenland under US colonial rule. Sucks to be indigenous (again).

Not saying those provinces should be given up under intimidation. But I doubt if even someone as stupid as Trump wants to deal with repressing a resistance movement on the US border. It seems more likely this is one of his famous "deals" (perhaps more accurately shakedown).

Sorry, but I think you and those like you are deflecting. I still see posts from Americans saying this wasn't us. We are nice people. We have no power. It is crazy. Why are you even online telling us this? You think we blame you personally?

I live in the other side of the planet. If I am going to help anyone its going to be some poor unfortunate struggling with poverty, war and genocide imposed on them.

Not delusional people from the richest country on earth who had everything and lack the will to influence their own fate.

Thankfully I live in a rich liberal democracy where over 90% vote and we still have a fairly decent though far from perfect society.

I can be outraged by what Americans let happen to their country because I'm human and a parent but I can't help and shouldn't help. American society needs to find its own solutions, in its own time and on terms it can live with.

You can't pass this off onto me.

Exactly. In Ukraine parents fight and die so their 4 year old will have a country to return to. In the US they let their souls die instead and leave their kids to fight their own battles.

You are a nation of Uvalde cops.

Downvote me. Argue. In your hearts you all know it is true. You are broken. You were clearly broken since at least the 90s when you met Columbine with platitudes instead of tens of millions of mothers on the streets screaming in pain.

They won't. They couldn't even get upset over kids being massacred every week in their schools. They are a broken people. Have been for decades. Their military.and economy didn't fail. Their moral fiber did. They substituted thoughts and prayers and other virtue signalling for community organisation and direct action.

If you think I am wrong then don't reply. Go outside and prove it. Nobody gives a shit what people write in social media. It means nothing.

It's a coalition of crazy. It isn't entirely clear who is going to be in control of what or for how long. It could get very messy.

It's a bad combo in my opinion. The HDMI forum hates Linux so we mostly use display port. If you need HDMI 2.1 or higher for 8k I don't know if it will work. It might end up with a really low frame rate. It is a crazy low end graphics card for 8k. That's a low end 1080p card as far as games go. DRM is a problem with crappy companies like Netflix, so you will probably be watching upscaled standard def pictures. They must want us to pirate.

Exaclty. They have a dumbarse first past the post system where you either vote for a shit party or throw your vote away. So people throw their vote away if they are disillusioned with the shit two party system.

We have an S tier electoral system where you can rank your preferences and make politicians aware that people are voting for particular issues and still make sure your vote goes to the least bad major. We don't want the sort of ignorance they have in the US where nobody gives a shit then they act all surprised. Fuck that. As major parties go the ALP is ok. They won't be my first choice but I am not leaving a vote that impacts my family to a bunch of News Corp readers.

Research your family history. Sometimes that can open doors but it might be expensive.

Bullshit.

Immigration has always been driven by the demands of the business community, not by bleeding heart lefties. We have low unemployment which puts pressure on wages and it is hard to find in demand skills. And we have construction and real estate speculation that is dependent on strong population growth to maintain profits.

When labour were truly a left wing workers party they backed the White Australia policy to protect the hard won rights of Australian workers which could be undermined by exploitation of immigrant labour. That turned out to be ignorant and wrong headed as immigrant labour aspires to the same conditions and revitalizes unions.

In every horticultural areas of Australia there are mini-busses of islander labour everywhere flown into the country by government programs to undercut Australian workers, but those guys aren't immigrants. There used to be another word for it in the old days that I can't use it now to call it out or I will cop a lot of shit about it.

Racists (cross-politics) want the immigrant intake to be in their own image but they aren't opposed to population growth. Environmentalists and sustainability types (generally center left) want lower immigration to put less demand on the environment and infrastructure.

I don't think average people care about gender identity either way. Nothing more Aussie than live and let live. They care about their wages, mortgages and paying their bills. Culture wars is manipulative bullshit to try and trick people to vote against their self interest and unfortunately it works.

Deviant Ollam posted an interesting video, This is How a Constitutional Crisis Will Begin about changes happening in prisons and makes an interesting point that the trans community make a convenient target for triggering a constitutional crisis.

You target a small, basically insignificant and harmless group, then ignore any court rulings while the media and public remain silent and disinterested. Its a pathway to uncontested executive power that can then be extended to persecution of other groups.

Arguing for privacy from government feels alarmist, distant and theoretical as long as there is rule of law and a sound participative democracy. But what happens to constitutional guarantees and legal protections if the courts lose their power and independence? Suddenly privacy becomes a very real pragmatic concern. Not only could you be in a targeted group but you could be guilty by association.

No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn't until Howard that the coalition started to catch up and Labor still take a very responsible and balanced approach to economic management.

To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world and wouldn't be competitive politically here. They can't maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like minimum wages, public healthcare and education for granted.

Now, if your conceptualization of right vs left isn't the traditional capital vs labour but the weird US culture war bullshit then the ALP are pretty much dead center as well (their right faction strongly overlaps with the coalition). It is a fairly laid back and generous country for the most part and most regular people don't want to be like the yanks and be polarised into us vs them hate politics.