As unhappy as I am with the status quo it is largely with the participants not the system.
At a Federal level my capacity to assess the suitability of candidates to handle the economy, health and defence is severely limited. I need a body assessing the quality of candidate in each seat and proposing if elected to government what role they will play such as Treasurer or Defence Minister which is what the two party system gives me.
On an independent model how would we know who will fill ministerial roles and what qualifications they may have to perform with competence.
Even then there have been some incredible mistakes like Obeid and McDonald.
The only time I might have the capacity to assess candidates is in our Local Council Elections and how horribly wrong do I get that. The corruption and incompetence among local councils is the stuff of legend.
Local Council elections field large numbers of independents and the idea after seeing their quality and vested interests over the years does not warm me to the idea that our top tier of government could function properly if staffed by independents.
Substitute independent builder/developers on local council for independent defence analysts for merchant bankers or CFMEU affiliates.
I have not followed the Teals but my peripheral vision suggests they do not embrace a wide cross section of the Australian community.
Having single issue candidates at the Federal level suggests an even bigger mess than what we have currently.
Political parties can be held accountable for putting the wrong person in the role of Treasurer for example. In a Parliament of independents the Treasurer may be very popular in their seat for some reason unrelated to their performance as Treasurer and they are elected again but some or all of those who voted in the parliament for that person to perform that role may be punished or not by their electorate.
