A two-party stranglehold

Overcoming the ongoing conspiracy against Australian voters

With Labor’s new laws on campaign financing now before the parliament—and Labor campaigning heavily on the idea that any attempt to amend any of their legislation is, by definition, obstructionism—there is a greater need than ever to sharpen our critique of the two-party system that those new laws seek to entrench.

The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill, which has the support of the Coalition Opposition and the Labor Government, is an attempt to subvert the way in which Australian voters are increasingly rejecting the major parties, and we must understand how we are being duped.

The language I am using here is strong, but we need something to snap us out of the bias two-party governance has forced on our political imaginations. We must make ourselves think outside that box.

Nowhere is that brain capture more apparent than in the constant habit of Australian journalists to imply, insist or presume that the community independents are somehow a party—calling them “teal…