h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My dictionary defines democracy as "a classless and tolerant form of society". Uhuh. I suppose democracy like many things is relative.

Actually it's first definition is: "a sysmem of government by the whole population, usually through elected representatives". So I guess one could rule the world by democracy as long as you got round to talking to everyone. A pub crawl might do the trick in Australia

So you're saying that, by becoming Ruler...I would *have* to do a giant pub crawl of the country...

...I think I'm gonna faint...so....happy...

*looks at the recumbent form of a passed-out Tanzen* Now, that's my kind of dictator. Tanzen for PM!

Kea, thanks for the Listener article. It does sound quite like the PR spin that my organisation uses. We are, on the surface, nicer to people than the previous department was - the devil lurks in the detail. I had heard of Christine Rankin before, but not all the details of the saga - I did a quick Google and had a read. The politicisation of the public service is clearly a reality on both sides of the Tasman, but it does sound like Ms Rankin wasn't exactly the best possible choice to lead a welfare organisation.

And here I am again - another Saturday night, another election. This time it's for the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory. The current government is a minority ALP one; we might get a majority ALP government out of this poll. It would be the first majority government in the ACT since self-government was started in 1988.

There are three electorates, returning a total of 17 members. Ginninderra and Brindabella return 5 members each; my electorate - Molonglo - returns 7 members. No, I don't understand that either.

The strange thing under this system is that the parties each run a raft of candidates as a team, but the individual candidates also have to campaign in their own right, even against their fellow party hacks. It's bee very entertaining, in a low-grade way.

I voted Green again, with the ALP second. There was a special delight in putting a particular Liberal last; she's a former basketball star and seems to think that equips her for a life in politics. Dopey bint.

At this stage I'm sure that the ALP will win overall; it's just a question of whether they govern in their own right. The Greens may end up with one or two members in the Assembly. To my inexpressible glee, the God-botherers have, in the current local vernacular, 'died in the ar*e'.

What's the voting system Ivan? Candidate and electorate votes? Do you have to rank them as well?

It's the Hare-Clarke system. Only one category of vote, with optional preferential voting. Candidates are grouped according to party, but the party doesn't control the order in which candidates appear. The ballot isn't standard - that is, Candidate 1 on one paper might appear as Candidate 3 on the next ballot paper... This limits the amount of electoral advertising; the party can't issue a 'dummy' paper with the order of candidates that it would prefer.

I used all my preferences - a number against every single candidate.

I'm still trying to get a grip on this system. I'm used to the South Australan system, which is more like the federal model.

Hi everyone! Can't believe I didn't know where this thread was...

I've lost faith in my fellow Australians as well. (I hate using that phrase (my fellow..) it sounds like that ballroom dancing freak...). I'm at Uni, I'm a labor voter, a student unionist, yadda yadda so we were actually feeling pretty optimistic right up until about 5 pm Saturday night. Since then everyone's been completely despondent, apart from a few rightist FREAKS with money behind them that don't understand what's going on.

So far (1 week and counting) things aren't getting any better. Have promoted "f**k" from word of the day to word of the year...probably next year too!

Bring on the revolution

(Now where is that wine cellar?)

Ami of zx

The govt is in the process of deciding which promises were 'core' promises and which promises can just be quietly forgotten

the have already backflipped on medicare.........

Hi Ami - there's probably still some people in the wine cellar - just follow the sound of clinking glasses and muffed giggling. It's all SA produce in there; if you have any Margaret River wines handy, I'm sure they'll be fallen on with cries of glee.

Helly, I'm not at all surprised that Medicare is the first casualty of truth. The Libs hate it so much...