POLITICAL REFORM NEEDED
The lesson to be learned is that when voting for the Australian Senate, that voting "above the line" for minor parties can throw up nutters who can earn $200,000 a year, plus expenses to promote causes that are anathema to most Australians.
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A good example is the political career of the much publicised Senator Fraser Anning from Queensland.
In 2016 a double dissolution election was held at which Fraser Anning was third choice on Pauline Hanson's One Nation Senate Ticket, behind Pauline and Malcolm Roberts.
Roberts was subsequently found to be ineligible and Fraser Anning was declared elected to the Senate, despite having only received 19 primary votes, including one would assume his own.
He then defected from Pauline's One Nation Party and sat as an independent, before joining Bob Katter's Australia Party.
He was then expelled from that Party for espousing views that were too crazy, even for Bob.
Senator Anning has now registered his own extreme right-wing party, the Conservative National Party.
We'll see how that goes.
I'm all for the democratic process, but ours seem to be in serious need of reform.
John Martin,Woonona
SECT-IONED OFF
Council has declared the Cordeaux Gospel Trust an "exclusive minority sect".
Any organisation that excludes the majority of local residents should not be given any advantages when it comes to development applications, even though our PM is affiliated with such groups.
William Bielefeldt, Kembla Grange
THE FULL TALE
In response to Frank Tecza’s comment ‘Vastly Different’ (Illawarra Mercury, January 10) there needs to be a more contextual and expanded telling of the tale than his, about the end of the Labor Government in 1975.
The Dismissal which Frank refers to was not an action taken by people.
It was an action taken by the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, and came into effect on 11 November 1975. It was the “shutdown” of the current term of the Whitlam Labor Government and forced the need to call a fresh election.
The election took place on 13 December 1975, around a month or so later.
During the brief period between the Dismissal and the fresh election, Malcolm Fraser was appointed (not elected) as the caretaker Prime Minister.
Until this point, voters had not been involved or had a say in the actions taken by the Governor General, nor were their views known.
However, the election on 13 December would give them the chance to return Labor to government, if that is what they wanted.
The results of that election showed that many who thought the Whitlam Government was going to be good for the nation in 1972 had changed their minds by 1975 and, clearly, most voters wanted to be shod of Labor.
The magnitude of the change was indicated by the fact there was a 30-seat swing to the Coalition.
Richard Burnett, Wollongong
