Our votes watered down over the years

Our once great system has been manipulated

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Queensland election campaign is upon us.

Please forgive me if I would say that nothing much has changed since 6 October, 2020, when I think it became official that parliament in Queensland has been dissolved.

No, the sun did still set in the afternoon and rose in the morning.

 

On the QT website, I note that Eloise Rowe claims that "taxpayers are an endangered species".  Yes, we elderly people know that now that we are not earning money in more ways than one.

No, we do not get a pay cheque anymore and our super is in the doldrums as well.

But then, we can live on an oily rag because if we like to do a sudoku a day and read a lot well that does not take too much money.

And the latest Jodi Picoult book was only $16 so with a $20 voucher for my 70^th birthday from a daughter I was even able to buy a packet of soft jelly lollies as well as the book.

 

Now I go to the letter by Brian Branch. And you know, he delves in to the biggest hate I have about elections. This is promises.

The only place where I have found promises to be kept is in the Bible. 

The most famous one of all is found in Isaiah 66:7-8, and refers to the fact that Israel will be restored as a nation and this did happen on May 17, 1948, and so took about 2,900 years to come into fruition.

 

So, Brian, I do not see any "promises" being foretold as in the Bible. I think a promise in election time is really a "hope I can do this".

Maybe it should be noted the words "hope I can do this, God willing." [If they do not believe in God, then stiff cheddar; because if you see all the movies out about Batman and Superman you will agree with Romans 1:20 that "people are without excuse" because God's invisible qualities have been clearly seen].

So, what else is it about elections that I do not like?

It is the watering down of full preferential voting.

My whole education system taught me that the secret ballot came from Australia.

I learned to be proud of Australia and respect Australia.

I learned about our preferential system whereby someone could get elected through the preferential system by over 50% of a vote for a certain type of view or a belief in certain principles.

This was opposed to the USA system where it was first past the post and usually a winner was one with less than 50% vote.

 

Now within Australia over all the years most people seem to want a gerrymander.

Depending on whom we want in we support the original Australian way of voting or a diluted form of preferential voting (optional preferential voting or even a straight out "tick one box" as in some local government elections).

 

So basically, "elderly people" (sic) like me are very suspicious of a government that uses very cunning manipulation to get the result that they want.

 

Glenda Carroll, Bundamba

Originally published as Our votes watered down over the years