Labor wins S.A. election

[onetrack]

Early figures are showing Labor in S.A. enjoying a comfortable win, for a second term of Govt - while Pauline Hansons party appears to be sucking up all the disaffected Liberal voters.

 

Ashton Hurn, the Liberal leader in S.A. who promised great things, is polling around 10% lower on her primary vote. Not a good sign for her continued reign in her job. The Liberals in S.A. will be holding a wake over the decomposed remains of the Liberal Party in the State, by the look of things.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-21/sa-election-day-live-updates/106476924

[willedoo]

It's always interesting watching how the seats pan out on election nights. One seat, Mawson I think it was, Labor has lost 20% of their vote to One Nation. In a lot of seats the 20% approximate swing to One Nation has come at Liberal cost with a much smaller amount from Labor.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Can you see what's wrong with our electoral system?

 

One Nation and independents got well over 1/4 of the primary vote, perhaps a 1/3, and because there was no seats won except for one independent, all those votes end up with zero value.

 

The only votes that have value are the ones that help to win seats. The votes that don't win seats just remain as bits of paper filled out by voters who get ignored for the next four years.

 

This is one of the reasons I stopped voting. Some votes have significant value, while other votes have no value at all.

 

For a system that has mandatory voting, all votes should have value, and proportionate representation in the running of the State, or Nation

 

So the jurassic idea of "winning seats" needs to be changed to: "A party is to get as many votes as it can, and then, a party's voters will get a real say in Parliament". In other words, abolish "seats", and have proportionate representation in Parliament instead. That will mean every vote will have value every election. No voter will be left behind.

 

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Grumpy Old Nasho

[willedoo]

It's hard to see it ever changing. The two party system, sometimes referred to as the uniparty, needs preferential voting to maintain their hold. They'll fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.