Psephology 101, Or Why Britain Should Embrace Electoral Reform

Posted on Saturday, 9th November 2013 by Ozboy

You may recall back in August, I railed against the undemocratic farce that Australian federal Senate elections have become. As indeed it has. Since the election in September, things have turned from farcical to downright embarrassing. During a contested recount in the Western Australian senate poll, it transpired that about 1,400 votes from two separate booths had gone missing, despite a concerted task-force effort to locate them.

If you followed my discussion back then about above-the-line Senate voting, you will appreciate that the order in which micro-parties are eliminated, even those which garnered a few dozen votes, is crucial to the ultimate outcome. As it turns out, two minor parties were separated by just 14 votes, which means an appeal currently before the Court of Disputed Returns is likely to be upheld, and a fresh Senate election held in Western Australia. We are therefore unlikely to know the precise composition of the new Federal Senate, due to sit on 1 July 2014, until early next year at least. A shemozzle, in anyone’s language. Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, UK | 14 Comments

Misery in Motown

Posted on Tuesday, 29th October 2013 by Ozboy

Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s grand railway terminal, opened in 1913, closed and unused since 1988 (source: Time)

Every Wednesday evening at 8:30, my wife and I switch on the television in our bedroom for our weekly fill of Hardcore Pawn (you should see the raised eyebrows on our friends when we tell them this). It’s a reality show centred on the day-to-day trading and behind-the-scenes shenanigans of American Jewelry and Loan, Detroit’s largest pawnbroker.

It’s compulsive viewing on a couple of levels: not only is it one of the most explicit displays imaginable of the free market in action, but it is a jaw-droppingly honest look at the train wreck that Detroit society has become. Every week sees a new swarm of forlorn, impoverished, wild-eyed, mostly black citizens of what was once America’s most prosperous city, desperate to offload some broken electrical appliance or cheap bracelet of dubious provenance, all for a few dollars. They have their own YouTube channel, which archives all episodes in full from their last four seasons. Here’s a sample:

Continue reading →

Posted in Libertarianism, United States of America | 58 Comments

LibertyGibbert Open Forum

Posted on Friday, 20th September 2013 by Ozboy

ArgumentI’m tied up with work at the moment so don’t have time for an in-depth article; so I’m throwing the floor over to you. A couple of starters:

A number of British readers have expressed a bit of envy at the recent turn of fortunes here in Australia. Given the public mood in the UK isn’t much different from down here, what in your opinion is stopping a Tony Abbott-like conservative resurgence in Britain? Or for that matter, in America?

Global Warming. I’ve avoided any dedicated thread recently, but the IPCC AR5 is due out shortly, and reports of leaked copies suggest the new accepted range of both projected TCR and ECS values have been reduced to the point where, statistically, any warming is more likely than not to be net beneficial. That the whole question of anthropogenesis, in other words, becomes moot. Thoughts?

Over to you.

Posted in AGW, Australia, Libertarianism, UK, United States of America | 191 Comments

DT Down for Maintenance – Ozboy’s Still Open

Posted on Friday, 20th September 2013 by Ozboy

James Delingpole’s posters are welcome over here till service resumes…

Current topics include the recent sacking of Tim Flannery and Drunk Tanks. Or anything else that takes your fancy.

I’ll close off this thread after the DT blogs resume operation.

UPDATE 20-SEP-2013 16:40 OK the DT’s up and running again. I’ll post a new thread here shortly.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

The New, Libertarian Conscience Of the Senate

Posted on Thursday, 12th September 2013 by Ozboy

I said the other week that I agreed with Paul Keating’s famous denunciation of the Senate as “unrepresentative swill”. It’s now looking highly likely that, due to complicated preference deals which few voters understood or were even aware of, six or possibly seven of the new Senate seats will be filled from outside the major parties. This would be great, if it represented the will of the people. But in several cases, it demonstrably does not. With six Senate seats on offer in each state, the quota is about 14.3%, or one-seventh, of the total formal vote.

Yet, for example, in Victoria, Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party is set to be elected to the Senate with just 0.5% of the primary vote, or about 3½% of a quota. In Western Australia, Wayne Dropulich from the Australian Sports Party has been elected with just 0.22% of the vote, or 1½% of a quota! In South Australia, Family First’s Bob Day gained 3.3% of the vote, or 23% of a quota—somewhat better—while in Queensland, Clive Palmer’s candidate, rugby league legend Glenn Lazarus, has a more reasonable claim to legitimacy with 10.3% of the vote, or about 72% of a quota.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Libertarianism | 16 Comments

Clean Up Australia Day

Posted on Saturday, 7th September 2013 by Ozboy

Rudd And AbbottToday’s the day. After six years of Labor incompetence and obsession with leadership battles, Machiavellian sub-plots, the best-forgotten Gillard Experiment, and the finale of Rudd Redux, Australians today will finally have their chance to go to the polls and cast an unequivocal verdict on the worst government in our history.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia | 52 Comments

Unrepresentative Swill

Posted on Monday, 26th August 2013 by Ozboy

SenateBallotPaper

I said the other day I’d have more to say about Senate voting, and why I believe it has descended into an undemocratic farce.

The Australian Senate is an artefact of our history. Our founding fathers in the 1890s, looking to unite six colonies into a single federated Commonwealth, had one eye on the British Westminster system of government, and the other on the American congressional model. The result, to put it mildly, was cross-eyed.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia | 22 Comments

Coasting Home

Posted on Tuesday, 20th August 2013 by Ozboy

Waste of time.If there was any justice, this election would already be long over. Having initially announced the election date back in January, Julia Gillard, and more latterly Kevin Rudd, have been determined to subject the nation to the political equivalent of peine forte et dure. Our nation this year has witnessed more hand-shaking, baby-kissing, shopping-mall-appearances and bizarre photo stunts than we are likely to see repeated, touch wood, for decades to come. Anything, it seems, but stable governance.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia | 27 Comments

Prai Minista Em Bin Brukim Promis Austrelia

Posted on Thursday, 25th July 2013 by Ozboy

Traditional PNG welcoming ceremony: a well-fed Rudd being paraded before hungry locals, as the drums roll faster and louder…

Is anyone really surprised?

Last Friday’s announcement by Prime Minister Redux Rudd, that as of now, all illegal boat arrivals would be sent to Papua New Guinea and, if assessed as genuine refugees, would be permanently resettled there, is an exercise as patently hollow as it is hopelessly flawed and contemptuous of the citizens he presumes to rule.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia | 36 Comments

No Big Deal

Posted on Tuesday, 2nd July 2013 by Ozboy
Ed Husic becomes Australia's first Muslim frontbencher as he is sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce

Ed Husic becomes Australia’s first Muslim frontbencher as he is sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce

Much has been made over the last day or so about the fact that the Member for Chifley, Ed Husic, was today sworn in as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Broadband. Husic, 43, born and raised in Blacktown in Western Sydney, of Bosnian immigrant parents, becomes the first Islamic federal frontbencher in Australia’s history.

Continue reading →

Posted in Australia | 21 Comments