Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters – Review of the 2013 Federal Election

A bi-partisan committee of the House of Representatives in Federal Parliament conducts a review after every election. This review has been made more topical because of interest in the role of minor party preferences for the Senate and the lost votes in the WA Senate recount.

The NDF submission focuses on the difficulty elected representatives face in attempting to review and improve an electoral system given that they are effectively setting the rules of their own game, and that this fact above all others will tend to guide the views of the citizens. This is not a comment on the merit of proposed reforms nor the capacity of elected representatives to deliberate on their merits: rather, it seeks to highlight the challenge of earning public trust and offers a solution for the JSCEM to consider.

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