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Features Australia

The sordid state of voting for the Senate

<p class="StandfirstFeatures">Thanks to a foolish Bob Hawke decision, our constitution now allows shady backroom deals to determine the Upper House</p>

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

Australia is one of the oldest continuing democracies in the world. As our constitution says, the politicians are ‘directly chosen by the people’.

Not always. We now have senators who rather than being chosen by the people, sit in the senate as a result of shady backroom deals.

At times they even hold the balance of power on issues crucial to the nation.

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David Flint is co-author with Jai Martinkovits of Give Us Back Our Country, 2nd edn., Connor Court.

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