Not being a technology savvy person, however when the NBN is up and running and supposedly all of the population will have Internet access, would it be possible for the Government of the day to set up online polls on all the truly important subjects ie-: Boat People, Cattle Exports, Carbon Tax and lots more. Everyone goes online regularly and votes for their opinion, it would have to be a multi choice answer and the majority rules (sounds a bit to Democratic really). This way the Pollies would have to listen to the people and follow the peoples ideas, not their own agendas.

Gunna! what are you thinking? the pollies do not care about your opinion..... just drill that in your brain, they are just about personal glory (Barnett's stadium, Court's bell tower, Julia's save the world from pollution..... ) we are just the milking cow from where they get the founds.
Julia dixit: I do not care about opinion poll I will do what is good for this country???????

Gunna1 said...

Not being a technology savvy person, however when the NBN is up and running and supposedly all of the population will have Internet access, would it be possible for the Government of the day to set up online polls on all the truly important subjects ie-: Boat People, Cattle Exports, Carbon Tax and lots more. Everyone goes online regularly and votes for their opinion, it would have to be a multi choice answer and the majority rules (sounds a bit to Democratic really). This way the Pollies would have to listen to the people and follow the peoples ideas, not their own agendas.

A government could never run like this. People's opinions are often based on supposition, and bias from everything from friends and family, to the opinion of a newspaper editor.

Could you imagine a world where people who knew nothing about a subject got to vote on it? Presumably the politicians do a better job of this than 'we' would.

Gunna1 said...

would it be possible for the Government of the day to set up online polls on all the truly important subjects ie-: Boat People, Cattle Exports, Carbon Tax and lots more.

Dude you've mistaken our system for democracy... it aint like that. You see the people who rule us don't give a **** what you think.

They give you a system where you choose between 2 clowns. The 2 clowns promise you something and you vote for which ever clown you like.

Then you give them the power to represent your wishes (representative democracy).

We will never get participatory democracy without a global revolution. You may get a make believe participatory democracy when they fully control the outcome.

Switzerland and a couple Nordic countries have frequent polls... they're the closest to democracy.

FormulaNova said...


Could you imagine a world where people who knew nothing about a subject got to vote on it? Presumably the politicians do a better job of this than 'we' would.

No need to imagine it, this happens in Australia today. A politician doesn't need any qualification or skill to get into parliament besides usually being the party endorsed candidate of a safe seat. The skills to become endorsed usually amount to ar$e licking, branch stacking and toadying to the powers that be in general. Once in all you have to do is not upset the apple cart and vote along party lines.

Whether the ordinary person could do a better job than a politician is debatable. Most people run their lives quite well without need for government help or assistance. This is despite the government taking a fair chunk of income away from them. Most people could follow directions and raise their voice when it was appropriate in parliament.

The problem with having a more direct form of democracy can be seen in a place like California where citizen approved referendums can really make government very difficult.

it would be good if the polies actually listerned to the folks of australia once in a while and if i wasn't mistaken doesn't pretty much everone in australia already have internet

doggie said...

Jradedmondo said...

it would be good if the polies actually listerned to the folks of australia once in a while and if i wasn't mistaken doesn't pretty much everone in australia already have internet

Windsurfers dont care

'cause there is not tax on wind yet!

doggie said...

Jradedmondo said...

it would be good if the polies actually listerned to the folks of australia once in a while and if i wasn't mistaken doesn't pretty much everone in australia already have internet

Windsurfers dont care

Neither do sailors

dinsdale said...



As for popular opinion, 83% of Albanoids voted NO!

I heard 84% of Albanyians have six fingers on each hand, but I don't think that necessarily means it is easier to pick corn with six fingers.

doggie said...

Jradedmondo said...

it would be good if the polies actually listerned to the folks of australia once in a while and if i wasn't mistaken doesn't pretty much everone in australia already have internet

Windsurfers dont care

Kitesurfers can't read

Jradedmondo said...

it would be good if the polies actually listerned to the folks of australia once in a while and if i wasn't mistaken doesn't pretty much everone in australia already have internet

No and no.

The absolute worst thing the pollies can do is listen to the public in the first 2 years of office. In fact most of the current gov'ts probs stem from listening to the public too much - ie opinion polls / news polls are driving our country.

The best thing a government can do is take a long term view and make the hard decisions that will serve the country best in 5, 10, 20 years. These decisions should be guided by experts in the field not old mate down the local's 2c worth.

If they are focussed on re-election in 3 yrs then they don't actually have long enough to do much meaningful stuff. If they are focussed on winning the polls next week then they can't make any good decisions because it's just a stupid personality/popularity contest.

Good leadership generally involves making tough calls that hurt someone but are in the best interests of the whole. I wouldn't want my kids to run my house, why would I want the masses running the country?

Open-source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open-source and open-content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is democratically opened to the general citizenry. The concept behind democracy, that the collective wisdom of the people as a whole is a benefit to the decision-making process, is applied to policy development directly.

Read more ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_governance

Look how easy it is: www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=9a09d&t=9a09d.40&f=9a09d.4d3a93

You have a Topic eg: CO2 Taxation Australia
Then you ask questions.
Get replies.
Find the best way forward.

Even a retard who can't read can just click the nice blue icons.

Governance is easy.

Mobydisc said...

In other words the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. The problem with that is a dictatorship can't be benevolent to everyone.

...

That's not what he said and that is the problem with most political discussion. One person says something and another person says something completely different in an attempt to shoot the other guy down.

In a proper democracy people vote in a government and the government governs. At the end of the term the people get to assess them and vote them in again or replace them. The opposition and the media serves to provide scrutiny of the government. There's a series of rules that stop the government going seriously over the top during their term.

Unfortunately what we are currently getting is a government hamstrung by the need to make deals with various fringe bodies, an opposition that has only one policy (to oppose anything the government says), and a big chunk of the media (Murdoch) ideologically committed to bringing down the government.

The concept of government by public opinion is a nightmare scenario from a crappy science fiction movie. You want to turn the system into Australia's Got Government or Politician Idol with all these people voting by sms (55 cents plus call charges)?

People talk about having less government so we can get on with our lives. The same people will whinge about the failings of the government when we have floods, fires, epidemics, financial crises, illegal immigrants, crime wars, crappy mobile phone reception, over priced petrol, bank fees, ...................................

Right on. the vehemence of The Australian,the Herald Sun,3aw,mtr etc is astonishing, it's like they've lost all pretense of political independence and they've crossed the line into barracking. I've never seen anything like it.