Greens reaped rewards of emissions backflip: poll

admin /30 August, 2010

Greens reaped rewards of emissions backflip: poll

Updated 2 hours 49 minutes ago

An exit poll commissioned by the Climate Institute shows almost one third of Greens voters in key marginal seats would have voted Labor if the introduction of the emissions trading scheme had not been delayed.

The survey was conducted by Auspoll in 30 key marginal seats across Australia.

Thirty-two per cent of voters said they would have been prepared to vote Labor if it had retained the emissions trading scheme, but when that did not happen, they chose the Greens instead.

Unwritten conventions of government

admin /29 August, 2010

Unwritten conventions of government

By Antony Green

Posted Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:26pm AEST

Last weekend Australians thought they were voting on who would form government. If Labor or the Coalition had won a clear majority, this would have been a reasonable summary of what the election was about.

But with neither side having gained a majority in their own right, the murky world of government formation under our system of unwritten constitutional conventions has been exposed to the light.

The Australian Constitution provides a framework for government in Australia. However, that framework is bare of flesh on how to deal with the current impasse.

The Constitution was deliberately written to be vague on the process of government formation. The intent was for the written constitution to be a simple framework within which Australia could inherit the unwritten constitutional conventions that applied in the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster.

The conventions of the ‘Westminster’ system evolved over several centuries. Where the French and the Americans engaged in revolutions and set down written constitutions, the United Kingdom muddled through with an unwritten constitution built on conventions as the society transformed itself from a feudal to a constitutional monarchy.

At its heart, our constitutional framework see voters elect a representative Parliament from which the ‘Crown’ in the form of the Governor-General appoints advisers. In the real world these advisers are the Prime Minister and Cabinet, but constitutionally these are advisers appointed by the Crown.

Whether governments are elected or appointed by the Crown hardly matters when either side of politics has a majority. But these conventions pre-date party politics, and in situations such as the current election result, these conventions matter.

So let me run through a few questions about what will happen in coming weeks and how the constitutional conventions apply.

Declining trees spell gloom for planet

admin /25 August, 2010

The greens are the breakthrough story of this election

admin /23 August, 2010

The Greens are the breakthrough story of this election.  I want to make sure you’re the first to understand how significant these results are—and that we couldn’t have achieved them without your support. Yesterday, the Greens won the balance of power in the Senate, as well as our first lower house seat at a general election Continue Reading →

Governor General’s job to choose new leader

admin /23 August, 2010

This places the GG in a very awkward position. The number of seats, not the number of votes either party receives will influence the GG’S decision. There is a need for clear guide lines for the GG to follow. The Constitution may need to be altered to provide for this contingency. The GG will incur Continue Reading →

The Greens are the breakthrough of this election

admin /22 August, 2010

Dear friend, 

The Greens are the breakthrough story of this election. 

I want to make sure you’re the first to understand how significant these results are—and that we couldn’t have achieved them without your support.

Yesterday, the Greens won the balance of power in the Senate, as well as our first lower house seat at a general election in Melbourne. We’ve achieved so much together this election that it’s hard to quantify, but here are some numbers that tell part of the story: 

• We won a Senate seat in every State, including our first ever Greens Senators in Queensland and Victoria. This gives us the power to shape the agenda of the new Government and achieve real outcomes on issues like climate change, a fair go for asylum seekers, equal marriage, and improving public schools and hospitals; 
• Our first ever lower house Greens Member of Parliament has been elected in a general election – congratulations to Adam Bandt who won the seat of Melbourne with a massive 13% swing to the Greens on primaries!