Senate

Message / Question

Yeah Dr Dave is right about the 39 votes, NOT 38 votes. But Dr Dave, you should ask Joe de Bruyn I think he'd disagree with you on that thing about Labor being hijacked by the greens ;-) Dave, do you think it's ridiculous there are so many Christians in Australia but we have like 1-2 senators in Australia? What's up with that??! PS: Agree with the questioner's comments about "The Prince", our best method to win power is to be the vocal minority (like the Greens), because of the silent majority (of most Christians, who seem to think Christians should be ignorant about politics) PPS: Dr Dave, I think the idea with preferences for House of Reps is that the Christian parties can also "influence" the lower house by saying if you vote for our principles we'll preference you???

Response

The reason for the 39 votes is that in the Senate, the President still gets an ordinary vote – this is because he/she is representing a State (in theory) and all States must have equal voting power. Because he gets an ordinary vote, he doesn’t get to have a casting vote if the number is tied, because that would give the President’s State one vote more than other States – thus a tied vote is resolved in the negative. In the Reps, the Speaker does NOT get to vote in a division, however in the event of a tied vote, the Speaker gets the “casting vote” to break the deadlock. Traditionally, the casting vote is in favour of the status quo.

I agree that it is somewhat crazy that a section of the community as large as the Christian population, doesn’t have more direct representation in our Parliaments. It must be said that there are a number of active evangelical Christians (like the current Treasurer) on both sides of the House, but as members of a political party, their influence is limited to the Party Room, when they are voting in a Parliamentary division, they are bound to vote with their Party, except where a rare “conscience vote” is allowed by their Party leadership. The church is the silent majority in the nation, but it has for far too long emphasized the “silent” – it’s time that the sleeping giant awoke and became more active in the political system. The question remains however, is it better to have a separate Christian party or is it better to actively join existing parties and try to bring change from the inside? I think that the jury is still out on that one!

Christians should NOT be silent and/or ignorant about the way that our nation is governed – the only thing that good people need to do in order for evil to flourish is NOTHING.

Re your preference in the Reps comment. I agree in principle, however the reality is that your model would only work if Christians were prepared to stand up for their beliefs. If political parties knew that the Christian vote was strong in a particular electorate, they would listen in order to get those preferences. At present, a vote for a Christian party in the Reps is little more than a “protest vote” with the order in which you preference the major parties (or a strong local independent) becomes your REAL vote!