There needs to be changes to Australia's voting system

IRRESPECTIVE of the leadership outcome I again state that I believe we should get rid of the two pernicious components of the Australian electoral system.

IRRESPECTIVE of the leadership outcome I again state that I believe we should get rid of the two pernicious components of the Australian electoral system, namely compulsory voting and preference voting. The first is blatantly un-democratic and the latter a system riddled with corruption and the opportunities for dirty dealing.

The voter should have the courage to stand or fall by his or her first and only choice. If your candidate does not win then take it on the chin and move on.

I am a staunch conservative yet everywhere my choices in politics seem to be varying degrees of left, from soft pink to glaring red. There are no genuine options for old-style voters such as myself, where once the ALP stood for the "red raggers" and the Communists and the Liberals supposedly for the "blue rinse" and old-money class. Now they try to be all things to all people, which is not a viable idea. Whitlam certainly was no true Labor man.

As a monarchist I saw both options, Turnbull and Shorten, committed to turning Australia into a republic, something, by the way, which England never was. Charles, Prince of Wales, became King Charles II the moment his father, Charles I was judicially murdered at Whitehall in 1649 and reigned until his death in 1685.

Anyway, I'll believe we have a genuine conservative option when I see someone with the spine to stand up to the United Nations and tell them to make an appointment with a taxidermist.

They control us and it's time this stopped.

We should have the death penalty restored in Australia ... hanging was appropriate for Ned Kelly in 1880 and crime and vicious criminals have not changed from what they have always been. Harsh times demand harsh measures as goes the truism.

A genuine conservative would have these options firmly on his or her agenda and be prepared to put them to the Australian populace as matters needing attention.

ROGER E. DESHON, Toowoomba

Originally published as There needs to be changes to Australia's voting system