Is our 2 party system just a con?

[facthunter]

We don't HAVE a 2 party system to start with. Lib/NP are almost extinct.   WE DID have a 2 Party system but there were other parties from time to time, that came and went. Perhaps change the title?  Most forums are wrecked once discussing politics happens.  It even breaks up Families and some groups. A lot of people can't find any good at all in Politicians. I don't subscribe to that theory. Look a bit harder. Watch Question time. (It's often not easy.

  It's not a job I would seek and they are NOT ALL bad. Some are there for the spoils of office. The Best Pollies that Money can Buy. comes to Mind. None of them are overpaid. Their lives are not their own. The Media can destroy their career. Nev

[Siso]

On 14/06/2026 at 4:00 PM, Marty_d said:

That's kind of like saying "I'm sick of this rash, I'd rather have my arms amputated."

Maybe, they are pretty bad at the moment😆

[Siso]

Rash or gangrene

[nomadpete]

6 minutes ago, Siso said:

Rash or gangrene

If you are going to knock it, show me a realistic better option.

[Siso]

Thats the point. ON getting attention because of quality of the major players, weather it is right or wrong

[willedoo]

It seems like most of the political journos are writing and saying that the rise of One Nation has meant the end of the two party system as we've known it. It might come to that, where we have three main parties for a period of time. Or One Nation could flame out, the coalition eventually rebuilds, and we're back to the old two party system. I don't follow European politics much, but some of those countries seem to have multi parties and they try to cobble together a coalition of parties after the election to get a governing majority. It makes me wonder if that's the direction we're heading here in Australia.

[Marty_d]

Minority government has been fairly common until Labor's big seat haul.

In some ways I think it works better, they have to negotiate to get things done.  The problem is of course that if the LNP is in power they negotiate first with the far right parties. If Labor is in they usually negotiate with the Greens first which gives better outcomes.

While having a majority does give them the ability to make good reform, like these CGT discount changes, it can lead to complacency which then gets punished at the next election.

[willedoo]

Yes, John Howard found that out the hard way. He finally got a majority in the Senate allowing them to pass legislation at will, brought in work choices and got walloped for it. At least that's the way I remember it if someone can correct me.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Whoa.. There were a few spicy pages I just caught up on.  🙂

 

 

I think it is fair to say the two party system is in transition. To what - who knows?

 

I will leave the performance of Albo and his crew to the appropriate thread. However, it is clear that there is a perception that neither of the two majors are truly representing the majority of Aussies at the moment. And, from the polls, it is clear the libs at least (and possibly the Nats) aren't thought to be at all representing their traditional base. Labor, at least federally, seem to be not too far off their normal primary vote; I read it was somewhere around the 28% mark; not too much lower than the last federal election of, from memory, about 32%. 

 

At the same time, there is a perception (real or otherwise) that the gap is ever widening between the haves and have nots and that blame is being successfully laid at the feet immigration, which plays into both fear and bigotry. This is because more and more of what was the middle class is being squeezed more and more. For various reasons, which would take a book to go through, blame has successfully been laid at the feet of immigration. This results in a perception the immigrants are taking away previous little resources that the  majority of the population have to fight for, and along comes Pauline with her silver bullet fixes to everyone's problems. 

 

The Libs had their time and between Morrison and Dutton (with a little Littleproud thrown in), screwed things up so royally, they were booted out (Albo technically won, but in the famous words of Bill Hayden - a drover's dog would have won that election). To his credit, he took an early lump in the form of the Voice, licked his wounds, and then did a reasonable job. But hubris seems to be setting in (early) as it inevitably does, and he is no longer looking like he is really looking after the majority of the people he purports to represent. Having said that, the loss of primary vote is probably not much more than a protest vote - yet. 

 

The Libs seem to be so far removed from reality, that all but their most ardent supporters seem to have jumped ship. It's hard to understand precisely what they stand for. If I was a betting person, I would suggest in 5 - 10 years, without a complete about-face, they will fade into oblivion.  Which may leave a two party system - Labor and Phon.. Or more likely, some other party will spring up as the Greens seem to be marginalising themselves (or at least no one is covering them much anymore). Or there may be more parties, in which case it is likely to become lie some European countries where coalitions are formed and broken. 

 

Whilst I support the key budget changes on economic grounds, there is a lot more that can be done. And, people like David Pocock are using social media effectively to get a message across of what is wrong with Labor and the LNP. Just google or youtube him and you will see what I mean.