Sometimes, my friends ask me why I won't vote for the Labor Party and prefer independents. I like Labor policies well enough and vastly prefer them over the alternative government.
The problem is the corruption.
Where I live, it was obvious for decades. They've done good things to fix it, but even now, they have to deal with this ridiculous and horribly corrupt Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, and it makes them look bad because unions=Labor Party and that hurts.
@DyDave
I'd love to vote for unaffiliated / independent candidates. In some states it is easy to run as an indy but some states make it ridiculously difficult. Legislators here in NC made it so that it's effectively a duopoly D or R. Going independent requires a ridiculous number of verified registered voters signatures on a petition.
I actually penned a legislative bill to reduce the number of signatures needed. Eventually they passed reduced numbers but it is still difficult.
Yeah, as it stands in the US, you must vote for the lesser of the evils, full stop. Not voting just lets a vote for fascism go un-negated.
@DyDave Yeah...that doesn't work so well here in the States. I mean, you CAN vote independent or register in a party that is not Democrat or Republican and support those candidates. But it is largely a two-party system. It is really hard for independent candidates to win elected offices.
Yes, I know. Hence the explainer.😊
Our system is very different. We don't have a president, so the Prime Minister is the leader of the Parliament, who often needs votes from the independents or other parties to pass laws. The cross-benches, therefore, help hold the government to account.
Also, voting is compulsory and is ranked choice, so we often have 8-10 candidates for lower house seats and independents or minor parties can definitely win.
@DyDave is there any major party that isn't corrupt?
not being facetious. genuinely asking. in 🇨🇦, they all have some level of corruption. all of them. the system itself is corrupt.
i mean not as corrupt as some african & asian countries. but corrupt nonetheless.
so then i look at policies & what they have done, do. & vote accordingly.
i used to regularly wreck my ballot b/c i wanted peeps to know how disgusted i was by the choices. but now every vote is about keeping the very worst out.
I reckon it's getting to that point, TBH.
The ones that mean well in the big parties get shouted down by the machine of power-at-all-costs and the citizens lose out.
That's why I work for - and vote - independent now.
My ideal is a Labor government but in minority so the independents can make them less cowardly.
Only works in Parliamentary systems like ours, Aotearoa, or Canada, or maybe at some point the UK 🤷♂️
@DyDave the best things have happened (imho) when we've had a minority liberal govt w/ a coalition w/ ndp.
it's how we got public health care. canada pension plan. now pharma & dental care.
keeps them accountable. never give them a majority but NEVER EVER let the cons get in. delicate balance that.
Our first and so far only woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, did her best work in her second term in a minority government. She worked with the Independents to pass more good legislation than subsequent long-lasting rightist governments ever did.
Here, she excoriates the disgusting man I was proud to vote out when I found myself in the electorate of Warringah:
Note for American friends:
Voting independent here in Australia is not useless but rather gets you a representative in Parliament who actually shares *YOUR* views instead of the views that the Murdoch Right or the Labor Party has decided are the views one should have.
I like my independent MP a lot. She rocks.