How Two-Party Politics Has Failed Australian Voters

How Two-Party Politics Has Failed Australian Voters

Deep into both a State and Federal Election cycle, it’s hard not to stop and take stock of the choices being offered us. Election day is so much more than a handful of leaflets and a sausage sizzle at your old primary school: it’s your chance to decide how you want your electorate, your state, your country to look. But what are the assumptions and conventions that underpin the way we go to the polls? From compulsory voting to the Westminster system, our entire electoral process is underpinned with traditions and rules that shape our political world. But what are the notions and concepts we take for granted that aren’t an essential part of that framework?

Greens candidate for the Federal Seat of Melbourne, Adam Bandt, argues that far from being a symbolic presence to sway the tone of an election, smaller parties and independent candidates are an essential part of the democratic process. Two-Party Politics, he argues, isn’t only a thing of the past: it’s something best left behind.