I'd like to see the current non-representative mode of democracy torn down and a new approach to election of officials put in place. When it is all boiled down the outcome is just a coin toss (Greens support Labour ; Nats & one Nation support Libs ). Being selected for either side is relatively easy - just get a few hundred of your mates to sign up as local members in winnable seats and you are the candidate for the election. Because the size of seats (Federal) are in the order of 100k even strong independent candidates tend to get left aside due to lack of appreciation by the general electorate. This is at the crux of why everyone elected to parliament is not representational.
Something I've thought might work is to reduce the size of 1st order "elected" officials voter base. Lets say this is capped at 1000 people and there has to be at least 3 candidates ( means of assuring reasonable candidates is another problem) Voting day comes and 1,2,3 preferential voting creates a winner - toss the coin if its a draw. You now have 25,000 1st order officials.
Next stage is the 11k level - 3 days after voting finishes : 11 elected officials (common geographic areas) vote for one of them to advance to the next level and one to become a local council member Down to roughly 2250 candidates - 9 elevated officials (common geographic areas) elect one member to become the federal parliamentary member and 2 members are elected as state parliamentary members - or this could be a zone not bound by the state boundaries. again 3 days to finish
Failure to advance candidates from any level results in random names drawn from a hat.
Big advantage of this system is the large number of original elected officials. No party has the resources to drill down and control a minimum of 6 out of 11 of the 1000 original elected officials.
Would even make it illegal to advertise being a member of a party and cap campaign spending to $500 per nominee only at the original voting level. Every stage after that is only 11 and 9 people so there is no requirement for campaign spending, it's all out there for everyone to see.
Will never be implemented as is a system that would virtually guarantee no career politicians.
