New challenge ahead for voting public

IT SEEMS likely that Senate outcomes will present a management challenge for whichever party wins the House of Representatives.

Voting in the federal election. Picture: David Nielsen

IT SEEMS likely that Senate outcomes will present a management challenge for whichever party wins the House of Representatives.

It will lead to demands for electoral reform, particularly from those unable or disinclined to manage the Senate reality.

First past the post and optional preferential voting arrangements will be discussed if not demanded by those unable to understand and manage complex realities.

And while we will hear that an arrangement that elects a representative with 35 per cent is democratic (ignoring the 65 per cent who didn't), it's perhaps time to try some other arrangements.

Tasmania and the ACT have Hare Clark proportional voting arrangements well worth looking at.

It would give 45 per cent of local voters whose views are never heard or represented here a voice ... and create a future and outcomes that are never achieved under current arrangements until too late.

ANDREW MORAN

Battery Hill

Originally published as New challenge ahead for voting public