Editorial:

Preserving the two-party system

Australia's ruling class and their compliant mass media 
outlets are going all out to present the election campaign as a 
two horse race — Liberal or Labor. It is extremely difficult for 
other parties and independents to break into this capitalist 
castle except in the Senate where there is a system of 
proportional representation.

The two major parties would dearly love to bring about changes to 
the Senate but but fear the likely backlash if they tried to 
scuttle proportional representation or removed the Senate's 
powers to block legislation. The election of smaller parties and 
independents to the Senate has given the people of Australia a 
voice and some say in what would otherwise be an uncontrollable 
Liberal or Labor Party monopoly.

If proportional representation were applied to the House of 
Representatives, the nature of political representation would be 
substantially different there as well. A system of proportional 
representation was introduced to New Zealand's electoral system 
with quite dramatic results.

The Labor Party with the help of some trade unions is flat out 
trying to remove Michael Organ (representative of the Greens in 
Cunningham NSW South Coast), one of the few Members of the House 
of Reps who was not elected as a Liberal/National Coalition or 
Labor Party representative. They are so scared of his single 
voice in the House of Reps and the example his election sets.

The lack of proportional representation in the House of Reps 
plays a key role in maintaining the stranglehold of the two-party 
system over parliamentary politics. The major parties are 
drowning the electorate with carefully targeted promises of 
spending millions upon millions of dollars. The daily splurge of 
promises is impossible to keep up with. Even Howard, whose 
environmental credentials are virtually nil, has the temerity to 
make statements about preserving old growth forests in an attempt 
to claim environmental respectability.

But the real class interests come out when even modest changes to 
industrial legislation and the cutting of government funding to 
some private schools are put forward by the Labor Party. Employer 
organisations, which have been given almost everything they could 
ever ask for by the Howard Government, are talking about job 
losses (as if they care) and other calamities should any trade 
union rights be restored. Brendan Nelson, Howard's Education 
Minister had the gall to assert his concern for taxpayers when 
the Labor Party leader called for a redistribution of monies 
going to very wealthy private schools.

How far the Labor Party is prepared to go in winding back the 
Howard Government's industrial legislation remains an open 
question. The decision made by the High Court last week (See The 
Guardian 15/9/04) is yet another severe restriction on the right 
of trade unions to take industrial action on any issue that is 
judged by conservative judges to be outside immediate employer-
employee bread and butter issues.

Mark Latham commented that the Court's decision was a 
constitutional one and that was the "end of the matter". Yet 
making this ruling inoperable is a major task for the trade union 
movement if it is to regain its freedom of action on all matters 
on its agenda. Mark Latham has promised to abolish Australian 
Workplace Agreements — a form of non-union individual work 
contracts. But will he abolish all individual contracts that 
override awards or enterprise agreements? Would he restore a 
centralised system of comprehensive awards that cover ALL issues 
facing workers in every workplace?

Just so long as Australia's political system is chained to the 
two-party system it will not be possible to implement really 
progressive solutions to many of the economic, social and 
political problems facing working people and their families and 
which arise from the domination of the corporations over society.

In these elections the Communist Party is not standing candidates 
but members are out giving support to left and progressive 
candidates, in particular the Greens, who offer policies that are 
in the interests of people and the environment. The CPA supports 
the building of alliances and co-operation between such forces 
with a view to breaking the two-party system and establishing a 
government of a new type, a people's government.

The introduction of a system of proportional representation to 
replace the present single member electorates that enshrine the 
domination of either the Labor or Coalition parties would assist 
in this task and give the people of Australia a greater voice in 
government.