‘Hung parliament explained: too much party testosterone drives the Opposition‘, New Matilda, 3 July 2016
Historical analysis of primary votes of major parties and other parties/independents since 1946, showing the decline for the major parties and the rise for the others. Labor’s decline is steeper than the Coalition’s.
Political pundits still talk about “crossbenchers” in the House of Representatives, as if it’s a perversion to have more than two parties in the chamber.
Contrary to many people’s assumption, there is nothing in our Constitution that says we have to be governed by a two-party Westminster system, and our early parliaments were certainly not simple two-party affairs. The term “hung parliament” is not in common use in other democracies.
