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Not a silly question because courts and MPs do related work; both settle disputes about the law. Courts settle our disputes about what the law is, whether people are breaking laws. MPs settle our disputes about what the law should be, whether laws are breaking people. Parliament is our courthouse when it’s
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Routinely, we entrust the Senate’s balance of power to minor parties and independents, a voting strategy that covers our bet on whichever major party has a majority in the House of Representatives. We deny governments the double majorities – majorities in both House and Senate – that turn parliament into
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If you hire a house builder but know nothing about building, best make sure there’s a building inspector on your side. Else, you might have got a good price because the builder intends to skimp on the foundations, skimp on the insulation and the waterproofing, skimp on the concrete in
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This is where it all started, with a reform that is simplicity itself. It’s just a check box at the bottom of your ballot, inviting you to be your party’s brutally honest friend. An explanatory note on the ballot tells you that crossing the box registers your disapproval of the
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Kevin Rozzoli served as Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly for seven years. Although writing about reform of the NSW Parliament, his proposal could also be adopted by the Commonwealth Parliament. Rozzoli wants a Speaker elected by a secret ballot of MPs, who then becomes a ‘member at large’, serving
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Our concerns about lobbying should be directed, not against lobbying itself, but against the arrogance of secret lobbying. Citizens have a right to be heard but none have a right to lobby in secret. Lobbying stays because all of us have a right to lobby public officials (MPs and ministers,