log man said...
Gunna1 said...
We can debate this and other issues until the cows come home. What concerns me more than anything is the fact that, even though we live in a "Democracy" this Government has gone against all the popular opinion in numerous polls and surveys on this subject, as well as Immigration, Nuclear Power, Mining Tax, Resource tax and whole lot more. Oxford Dictionary - Democracy = Government by the whole people of a country! I am no Rhodes scholar, however I think I am smart enough to make informed decisions and I credit the majority of Aussies with same ability however our thoughts are being railroaded by a vocal minority with vested interests.
Try looking up representative democracy......... that's what we have. We elect a government and they make decisions on our behalf . Or try looking up Gunnamocracy . Thats where you get exactly what you want no matter how loony it is. And by the way I don't think popular opinion would be on your side on ANY of those topics
Hate to burst your bubble Loggy and I also I hate copy and paste, however on this occasion I make an exception. I think this counts as popular opinion. From the Nine MSN website this arvo -
VOTE -
Should Australia sell uranium to India?
20391 for
44999 against
Japie says we would not be having this conversation if we started up a movement that introduced electronic voting. Why is this not pushed?
There are some techno gurus on this site, lets hear your opinion, you could introduce electronic voting without risk.Llet's face it, people value their money more than their votes.We put an awful lot of trust in electreonic banking, it must be possible ensure better security in voting than we have now?
Imagine that, we could completely eliminate politicians and know exactly where we stand on all issues within an instant.
Gues that answers my question really
We need something , that vote on selling uranium to India was crap ! Nearly half the labour party didn't want to do it ! And it still got through!!!
If India blow the bejesus out of some thing half the ALP will be to blame !!!!
There is an article in the Fairfax media about how democracy in Australia is going down the drain. Today all you need to voice heard is a few million dollars, some paid analysists/lobbyists who will peddle your point of view, and then cajole the politician to agree to your position. Politicians no longer make decisions based on independently evaluated facts but on whoever is making the most persuasive case.
I personally believe representative democracy is the product of a time where communication and transportation was slow, limited and expensive. Today its cheap. Why do we persist with a system where we effectively just have a say once every few years to pick who will represent us, usually someone who represents no more than 60% of their electorate. Then once they go away to parliament they start representing almost anyone but the people of their electorate.
there was a bloke who ran for the senate in the last federal election. his plan was to only vote whichever way he was told to on the basis of online polling. he would post the issue up for debate online (constituents could click for yes or no) then vote in the upper house according to results.
great idea i reckon. pollies are only supposed to be mouthpieces for the citizenry.
Yeah, I can just imagine it...
the first week's vote: "who wants to spend more money on schools"?
the next week's vote: "who wants to spend more money on roads"?
the third week's vote: "who wants an increase in taxes to pay for the last two votes"?
Despite the media making out that it is easy and the decisions are simple, I would argue that I understand it enough to know its not that simple.
good point. i guess not many would bother to log on & read the entire bill being proposed. they would just go for the easy fix...i guess i didn't really think that one through before i sung his praises 
Some of you guys are referring to direct democracy (the real democracy). There are only a handful of countries in the world that have a direct democracy – Australia is not one of them neither are the US. But having a direct democracy requires the people to get involved, the citizens would decide if uranium gets sold to India or if a carbon tax is being introduced, not the polies. Technically this could be done via electronic vote, but that would result in another Myki disaster.
However, direct democracy usually work well I smaller civilized countries with a high living standard i.e. Switzerland. The problem with this system is that there are always regional differences in how people vote, the majority forces their will onto the minority, which leads to tensions over time. The minority then blames the majority for everything instead of the polies. If you throw in economic instability over an extended period of time you have a civil unrest, and in some countries that have tried it has resulted in a civil war. Not sure if this would work in OZ.
What we need is politicians on both sides that have balls and long-term thinking, and don't bend over for any slight pressure form the industry.
dear mobyd......who are the govenors of demonocracy....Faifax [oxymorrons]
the media are shock jockeys, they dont allow free thought of their jurnos.
Democrusy is only a thing of the mind...there to be manipulated. 
gibberjoe,
if you read the article you would have seen it criticises journalists more than politicians. The author brings the case in point of the ABC Sunday morning TV show "The Insiders" showing how our system is of democracy is being debased and corrupted. When journalists become part of the system and are on the "inside", they can't or won't do the job that is expected of them.
This can be seen moreso in the USA where the mass media is completely undemocratic as evidenced by it ignoring a major politician who has widespread support and a chance of being the next president of the USA, Ron Paul.
