Is the Current Governmental System Fair and Democratic?

In Australia we have a representative democracy. This means we vote for a person to represent us and our needs. These representatives will then write or contribute to a bill that will then be proposed to parliament to try and get it passed. These bills will hopefully reflect what the majority of us citizens believe in and what we think should happen.

In parliament, the party will announce their bill. Members from other parties will ask questions and propose amendments to change the bill to fit what they think it should be. If the majority of parliamentary members agree with the bill, it will be passed.

I believe that this government system is fair and democratic, because everyone can make an input to what happens in parliament and other big decisions. Also, people don’t need to just vote to get their voice heard, they can send a letter and sign a petition so other people higher up can take action on the things they believe should be changed.

There is, however, a chance that an elected representative doesn’t do what they said they would do and act in a way to benefit themselves. Luckily when this happens the other members of the party can kick them out.

Also, the time between elections (every 3-4 years) means that the representatives need to be careful of their actions and maintain popularity so they can be elected in the next election. This keeps the people in power from things like corruption, making the Australian government even more democratic.

The multiple layers of parliament contribute to fairness by making a bill have to be examined by many people of different backgrounds and opinions before it can be passed.

One issue I have noticed is that voters who are interested or concerned about politics may vote for a random party or even one somebody told them to vote for. This can be problematic because it makes to votes by people who are genuine and passionate about a party worth less because they care while other don’t. But there is no clear solution to this because making it optional for people to vote could create more problems like; too little votes in general, and a waste of resources trying to persuade people to vote for them and their party.

I do believe that raising the time a representative is incumbent for might encourage them to tackle more long-term problems. At the moment a representative in the house representatives gets elected every three years while in the senate it’s every six. If the time they were elected for was raised even just by one year, I think that the politicians will be less likely to create short term solutions but look further ahead, to fix things like climate change.

In conclusion I believe that this democracy that Australia has currently, is fair, democratic and a good way to get people involved with politics.