Government Accountability

The Queensland Legislative Council (or Upper House) was abolished by the Constitution Amendment Act 1921, which took effect in 1922.

Queensland is the only state in Australia to have no Upper House, and allows the ‘winner takes all’ approach to elections and the way the government is run.

I would highly recommend that you read ‘An upper house for Queensland: an idea whose time has come’ by Nicholas Aroney and Scott Prasser (Click here to read).

The main reason for the return of an Upper House is to increase accountability within the government and remove the ‘winner takes all’ tactic.

Nicholas and Scott say there are three key issues must be addressed in order to re-establish an upper house in Queensland.

First, electoral realities dictate the need to ensure that a new upper house does not mean more elected officials and added costs.

Second, an upper house should not be a mirror image of the existing lower house chamber. Proportional voting with multi-member electorates based on three or more regions would overcome this problem.

Third, the powers of a revived upper house should not be seen as causing deadlocks between the two houses. Improved accountability, not policy gridlock, should be the prime aim of a new upper house.

As I have written before, I would propose the following suggestions as a way to achieve the above points. These suggestions would be up for debate if other affective ways were found:

• Move 25 positions of the lower house into the newly created upper house.
  Currently each member of the lower house looks after an area with about 30,000 voters.  With the changes each member would look after around 50,000 voters.
  
  By moving positions from the Lower House to the Upper House, there is no need for additional politicians.

• Restore the Upper House at the next state election to allow the public to vote for who they want in the Upper House and avoid the cost of an additional election.

• Proportional voting would be used, same as the Federal senate.

• Just like the Federal system, the houses would have to work together to produce the best outcomes for the people of Queensland.

Again quoting Nicholas and Scott:

The problems of establishing an upper house are not constitutionally, administratively or even politically insurmountable. What we need is political will to put the issue on the agenda, a commitment by all the parties to improve accountability and an independent process to progress the issue.  The people through a referendum will do the rest.

Family First supports the return of the Upper House to Queensland, and it's about time the rest of the political parties did too.

Positive Politics

I believe Australians should be able to respect and look up to their politicians. They should be the example to the community on how to act and behave. They should treat all people with respect even if their opinion is different to their own.

It saddens me to see our politicians wasting time and money yelling at each other and continually criticizing one another. All politicians no matter what party they are from were voted in by the people. They all should act and behave on behalf of those people. I can't imagine too many people been proud of their elected representatives or even some of the candidates at the moment. 

Already in this election, I have had false and misleading information published about me and the Family First Party. But, Family First and I believe in raising the level of integrity and honour within our political system, and we try and lead the way for other candidates and politicians to follow.

When talking with people in the community about the upcoming election, I am focusing on sharing my values and the policies of the Family First Party and letting them know what I can do for them, the city of Ipswich and Queensland. I do not worrying about or criticize what the other candidates have or have not accomplished.