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- October 22, 2006
Democrats dead in the water
The Australian Democrats certainly are. Undoubtedly their highest profile Senator, Natasha Stott-Despoja, has announced she will not stand for re-election and will leave parliament when her term expires in 2008. Her decision to leave politics is due to wanting to focus on her family and recent health problems seem to have made up her mind about it. Stott-Despoja was probably the most likely of the remaining Democrat senators to be re-elected, and even that was by no means certain.
I’d say its now almost certain the Democrats will have no federal parliamentary representatives following the next election.
Natasha Stott-Despoja, for all that I disagree with a lot that she stands for, will be missed in federal politics. She was an articulate and passionate member of parliament, and fought hard for what she believed in.
Just another thought on this. I’ve thought for a while that politicians should only be eligible to serve say 2-3 terms, not make a lifelong career of it. The benefits would include getting fresh faces into parliament constantly, turning over the deadwood faster, forcing political aspirants to work out in the real world rather than purely in politics, among others.
Technorati Tags: Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Democrats, Democrats
4 Responses to “Democrats dead in the water”
If Federally they do go for four year terms for HOR, then the senators will be elected for 8 year terms. I think that should the limit of how long they should serve.
By B. S. Fairman on Oct 23, 2006
The idea of a limit is appealling. But I think it would go the way of limiting their super.
By Boysenberry on Oct 23, 2006
I like the term limit idea. I guess the only issue is that the high degree of change might make elections fairly chaotic?
e.g. imagine if the Howard Government lost its entire front bench in 2007 as a result of this rule. I mean that would be fantastic of course :), but it would be hard for the government to have to rebuild its front bench with entirely new and comparatively inexperienced faces…
By Guy on Oct 25, 2006
Term limits is a great idea, just one of many changes that need to be made over here in the USA
By TOM on Oct 27, 2006