Difficulties in Breaking through Australian Two-Party System - Essay Example

Australian Politics] Name Course Lecturer Date Introduction In order for one to understand the way Australian politics functions, comprehension of matters dealing with political parties is fundamental. The parties control state and centralized parliaments, present all governments along with oppositions, and also structure the temperament of political discussion. Well structured national parties have governed Australia's political scenery since confederation. The Australian Labor Party rose towards the end of the 19th century. The party represented organized employees. Conflicting interests joined up to form two major parties. Minor political parties in Australia have found difficulties to break the hold of the two-party system. There are several reasons behind these difficulties1. Australia’s electoral system The kind of Australian electoral system is one of the main reasons as to why minor parties have not been able to break the two-party system. The issue of compulsory voting has boosted this kind of system in that, a certain percentage of voters show up at polling stations but they enter their ballot papers when they are blank. Moreover, in preferential voting system, for candidates to be elected, they are required to get absolute majority of 50% plus 1 vote. In such a system, minor parties are left out in parliamentary representation because getting such a percentage is difficult for them since they are less popular. However, in the case of proportional voting system for senate election, minor parties get seats in senate in proportion to their secured votes. There has been also the case of ‘rorts’ where voters are registered into an incorrect address to vote for Labor Party. This is a failure of the electoral system2. The two-party system Australian politics functions as a two-party structure following the permanent alliance between the Liberal and National Party. Inner party regulation has in the past been tight, a case which is different from that in other states like the United States. The political system in Australia has not at all times been a two-party structure due to other emerging minor parties. However, it has not been always internally firm as in current decades. The Australian Labor Party can be described as a social independent party which in recent years it has carried out a neoliberal economic curriculum that is set up by the labor movement of Australia. The party largely represents the metropolitan working class, even though it gradually has a support of compassionate middle class as well. Since November 2010, the Party has produced a minority government together with four cross-benchers’ support. On the other hand, the Liberal Party of Australia is the centre-right party that mostly represents business. The term business denotes the uptown middle classes along with many country people. National Party of Australia, formerly the Country Party is Liberal Party of Australia’s permanent alliance partner at state level. The National Party of Australia is a conventional party which represents countryside interests. The two parties are jointly referred to as the Coalition. These two parties have formally joined resulting into the Liberal National Party in Queensland while the National Party goes by the name the Country Liberal Party in the Northern region3[Syl10]. Australia’s party structure is controlled by the two main groups which are the Australian Labor Party on one side and the alliance parties which are the Nationals and Liberal Party of Australia on the other side. Despite there being a small percentage of other small political parties which have attained parliamentary representation, the major three parties control organized politics all over Australia. Only on unusual instances have other parties or autonomous members of parliament taken up any responsibility in the creation or maintenance of governments. Since 1922, either Labor or the Coalition has formed the Australian Federal Governments. As we all know, federal governments are responsible for all the major decisions in the country including decisions regarding elections. Not that the other small parties have not been attaining substantial parliamentary representation during the elections, but even if this happens, they have been denied their right to take part in the formation of the government4. With the Labor Party and the Coalition forming the government, the two sides have always ruled in their favor at the expense of minor parties’ interests. The two sides have had a magnificent influence not only in the operations of the country, but also in the country’s dealings with other part of the world especially the West. The two groups somehow provide support to one another in their operations and decisions. As result, their combined support has always become too much for the minor parties to break through. For instance, in 2005, Australian trade representatives went up to the final phases in efforts to come up with a free trade treaty with the U.S. All through the twelve-month negotiation, Howard’s government emphasized the significance of getting an excellent agreement for Australia, which comprised of the elimination of US trade restrictions on main Australia's farming exports. Towards the end of the negotiations, conversely, it was apparent that the treaty was to fall well without Australia's expectations. Though the Australia's trade representatives were all through aware that the negotiation was to be a tough one, they were surprised at the abysmal deal that was on offer at Washington. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Howard superseded their proposal that the treaty not be signed. He was without a doubt of the opinion that an awful deal is better compared to none at all5. On the side of Howard, the matter was not greatly about particular costs and gains for industries as well as social curricula, or even the disposable economic gains in general. Basically, the trade agreement was all about politics and not economics. From the domestic political rank, Howard's victory in getting a free trade treaty with the United States was upheld as a proof of his fiscal and foreign strategy credits, particularly in comparison to the new boss of the Labor antagonism, Mark Latham. The alliance asserted that, any attempt to oppose the trade treaty by Labor was a proof of its anti-Americanism. It also demonstrated that, a Latham Labor regime was not to be depended on in the management of Australia's affairs with the United States, as well as the alliance. This attested to be an outstandingly successful political scheme and though Labor was intensely segregated on the basis of the treaty, at long last, Latham was not ready to oppose it. This is a misuse of power at its highest degree to oppress the minor parties alongside their leaders. When such cases happen, the minor parties are outdone by the major parties and end up being helpless6. Time and again, similar situations take place in the country with the leaders of the major groups not even caring not only about the interests of the minor groups but also of the normal citizens. All they care about is retaining power and being re-elected to their seats time and again. Since the minor parties have not been given a chance to represent the government, they have not had the capacity to influence the country’s operations and public bodies or do something that may enhance their supporters’ base. For this reason, these parties have always faced challenges in their attempts to do away with the two-party system7. Minority parties There are several minor parties in the Australian politics. These consist of the green party, formally known as the Australian Greens, the Katter's Australian Party and the Family First Party. The last two parties are considered as socially conformist parties. In the recent past, important parties have comprised of the pro-independence One Nation party along with the socially noninterventionist Australian Democrats. Historically, minor parties have not continued to exist for a long period in the Australian politics. One of the highly important minor parties in Australian history is the Democratic Labor Party which was founded out of the Labor split which took place in 1955. The DLP acquired Senate seats and also exerted substantial pressure all through the 1960s to the early 1970s. Following the elections that were held in 1974, the party’s parliamentary representation was eradicated. Another minor party was the Australian Democrats which was formed in 1977 by the ex-Liberal Don Chipp. The party turned out to be one of the highly lasting amongst all the minor parties in Australia’s political account. It held the Senate’s balance all through the 1980s up to the 1990s. However, it split up at the beginning of 2000s. In the recent years, the Australian Democrats have been replaced by the Australian Greens. The party now has one member in the parliament. It has also had nine senators subsequent to the 2010 election. From the history of Australian politics and minor parties, it can be said that, the reason as to why minor parties have not survived and be in a position to break through the two-party system is due to lack of representation in the parliament and senate. The non-representation implies that the interests of these parties are not supported and represented in the operations of the government. All political parties are formed to accomplish certain objectives and thus, there is no way that the activities of these parties will prevail without the support of the government. Major parties form the government and take control of everything8. Dictatorship of the majority The Federal Senate has been endorsing without analysis of vital legislation that is central to the Australian lifestyle. For a period of 24 years, this governing body was a very effective in checking on the power of the government. Now, its systems and processes are a total failure and the checks are gone due to failure to endure the domination of a regime senate majority. Both Hawke-Keating and Howard governments faced an opposition senate that generated a strong balance on their power. However, they had the capacity to rule and execute major reforms. Prior to July 2005, there was no a single party or alliance that formed senate’s majority. Opposition parties and independents with enormously diverse political opinions shared power and a joint motivation to hold administrations answerable and to put up the processes as well as systems of the senate. The structure worked effectively for Australians and the citizens’ democracy. The legislation commission organization permitted the senate along with the entire public to inspect legislation exhaustively, testing government assertions in a vigorous, interactive and honest procedure. Estimates boards allowed the general public to hold administration answerable for the expenditure of their taxes. The boards exposed Australian participation in Abu Ghraib, monetary mismanagement of defense initiatives and the indignity of Vivian Alvarez’s expatriation9. The fight between the government with the majority opinions of opposition senators alongside their authority to modify or reject constitution formed one of the major political issues at the time. As a result, the Howard administration was forced to cooperate on GST along with the Native Title, whilst being rejected on Telstra and trade relations. Many critics supported the progress of senate answerability and evaluation mechanisms thinking that they were permanent aspects of the parliamentary democracy but it was not so. The maintenance and efficiency of those systems was exclusively dependent on the opposition majority in the parliament. Each action was contingent to a collective opposition majority election for its effectiveness10. Since the citizens wanted the system of holding the government answerable to continue, they have since then fallen victims of the opposition majority’s tyranny. This is because, they are forced to vote for the parties of these majority senators so as for the accountability to continue. Such a situation has highly contributed to the non-survival of minor parties due to lack of adequate support in form of votes since most voters want to maintain the non-government majority at the senate. On the other hand, the opposition majority also wants their interests to prevail and thus they try their best in seeing that any upcoming minor parties fail because if such parties succeed, they will interfere with their interests11. Conclusion Minor parties in Australia have faced a lot of difficulties in breaking through the two-party system that is characteristic of Australian politics due to several reasons. The Australian electoral system’s policies and shortfalls like the case of rorts have highly contributed to this. In addition, sole control of Australia’s party structure by the major parties, non-representation of minor parties in the parliament and senate and dictatorship of the non-government majority. Bibliography Syl10: , (Hale 2010), Read More

 

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