One

One coalition for
One term for
One purpose:
Destabilising Australia’s two-party dictatorship.

You probably know that most Australians don’t like either the Labor or Liberal parties. You’ve probably even wondered why those parties keep getting voted back in despite public dislike for them. If Australia is a democracy then people and parties that Australians actually support should be elected, not the ones who are the least bad of two distasteful alternatives.

What you might not know is that there are many systems in place that support this undemocratic situation (compulsory preferential voting, single representative constituencies, media coverage, the physical layout of parliament, the two parties in power choosing who has power, etc). And because democratic change is not valued knowledge in school, like those three Rs and STEM majors are, you probably don’t appreciate that those systems can be changed. So when you think about politics and government you might feel a crushing sense of powerlessness.

But wait.

With a little bit of understanding about our democracy and with a lot of votes it is possible to change that. It’s possible that one day an upcoming election will make you smile and feel a core of confidence because you know that you can vote for a representative whom you like and believe will effectively champion what you care about.

Can you imagine influencing how Australia is governed?

Imagine all of the minor parties and independents forming a coalition, for the one purpose of removing the systems which reinforce the two-party deadlock. (Not removing those parties completely mind you, they’d still be around after the ‘one term for one purpose,’ but they’d be in power in proportion to the support they have from voters, not support from established systems.)

All this imagined coalition would need to do is gain more than 50% of seats in the House of Representatives for one term. Then they could make the necessary changes. What would result would be a system much more adaptive to public will, which is after all what democracy is about. A system where it is much harder for any party to gain the semi-permanence that Labor and Liberal have developed. A system where representatives must negotiate for the best possible outcome rather than simply voting along party lines. A system that would be much easier for you to influence.

Would you vote for a member of that coalition? Would you vote for someone who has made the commitment to be part of that one coalition, for one term, for the one purpose of removing the two-party bias? Would you choose to take Australia that way?

Vision

As a child I read a lot of self-help books and most of them had the aim of enabling the reader to be wealthy and successful. One concept that kept cropping up under different names was the worth of reminding yourself of your vision everyday. There are many ways to do this, daily verbal affirmations, post-it notes with key details where you can’t fail to see them, and vision boards. Back then I tried a few of them but couldn’t figure out what all the hype was about because after a few days the reminders all became boring. I stopped seeing them, they didn’t help me and if anyone else saw them I was embarrassed.

But I now have cause to reconsider the worth of vision reminders.

So This Is DIDO

I have a husband. But sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.

This is in no way his fault. He took a drive-in, drive-out job on a nine days on, five days off roster to get us out of a small town where neither of us fit in and so we could be closer to IVF and higher education providers. It cost him a delay in his dream of going to Europe and it means I still don’t have to work.

So when I tell you that I sometimes feel like I don’t have a husband it is with a mortifying sense of guilt. He is doing everything in his power to make this relationship work for us, for me, and sometimes I struggle to remember he is there. How bad is that?

Overdiagnosis

I probably don’t have Aspergers.

Every year or two I go and see a psychologist or psychiatrist because I suspect there’s something wrong with me. I go in believing or fearing I have a specific disfunction and I almost always convince the therapist that I have it. Bipolar? Two sessions tops and I can have a psych trying to get me on meds. Conversion Disorder? I don’t even need a full session. PTSD? They’ll be leafing through Levine’s work straight after our first session.

But an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) like Aspergers? I’ve never been able to pull that one off. Which could mean that ASDs are under-diagnosed in adults, females, and people with ‘superior level’ IQs. It might also mean that I should come right out and ask for an assessment on those disorders rather than explaining my symptoms in the order the DSM lists them. (I don’t because I’ve found the ego of specialists just can’t cope with knowledgable clients). Maybe it means I’m actually a below average sociopath.

I’m Not Going to Say It

I begin to think it might be easier to sell red dust to my friends in Central Australia than it is to get people to look at the website for… no I’m not going to say it. If I tell you what it is I bet your eyes will glaze over, I bet your hand will twitch over the mouse as you start wondering, “What else could I look at on the Internet?” And that would be a tragedy of lost opportunity for you. And I’ll have to crawl home to Alice Springs and go into the business of selling red dust.

But now I’m in a bind because a piece of writing should state it’s purpose in the first paragraph to assure the readers there is a point. So by trying not to bore you into leaving I may be boring you into leaving.

Oh the humanity!

Politics.

There I said it.

Politics.