About the blog: ‘Unrepresentative Swill’

Two events caused me to start this blog early in March 2019. Having a website (or blog) was something I never really wanted to do. I was quite content to have many articles published in newspapers and magazines. Also, to have scholarly articles and books published was part of my aim as an academic. I was often invited to go on television and radio so I could see no reason why I should have a blog.

The two events that caused me to think I must start a blog began over the Christmas-New Year holiday period 2013-14. During that period I developed a hatred of the Australian Senate voting system. That hatred caused me to re-start my engines as an electoral reformer. It caused me to write a book titled Unrepresentative Swill to which I hope to add the sub-title Australia’s Ugly Senate Voting System. That is why the title of this blog is Unrepresentative Swill. Unfortunately, the book did not find a publisher.

The main section of this blog deals with my hatred of the Senate voting system, mentioned above. More details are given there. For the time being, however, I note that in the Australia Day honours list of 2006 I was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia and the citation for my award reads:

For service to the community by raising public awareness of and encouraging  debate about the political process in Australia and other western democracies, and through commitment to reform and improvement of the electoral system, and to education”.

I am especially proud of the “commitment to reform and improvement of the electoral system” part of the citation. There is no other Australian to match my claim in that area.

Early in 2013 my friend Peter Switzer asked me to become the Political Expert for his television program which is essentially about business, finance and the economy – but also about politics. I agreed and my collection of articles here follows the pendulums - located here.

The main section of this website is the one whose necessity caused me to set it up. It is titled “Unrepresentative Swill” which is the title for the website as a whole. Readers are invited to look for the detailed description of that under the heading “Unrepresentative Swill”, below. I think I should include my curriculum vitae so I have done that too. It goes last because it is the one needed least.

This website is not intended to be conversational. I intend to update it about seven times a year. The first updating occurred late in May 2019 when the full Federal Election results were known. That date is selected for obvious reasons. That caused me to re-arrange my pendulums. My intention is that the pendulums go in the order of importance of the jurisdiction. Thus, the pendulum to go first is the one entitled “Mackerras US Pendulum Electing Joe Biden 2020”, followed by the election of Trump in 2016.

The seventh pendulum is the one recording the re-election of Daniel Andrews as Victorian Premier in November 2022. The eighth pendulum is the one recording the re-election of Annastacia Palaszczuk as Queensland Premier in October 2020. The ninth pendulum is the one recording the re-election of Mark McGowan as WA premier in March 2021. The tenth pendulum is the one recording the re-election of Michael Gunner as Northern Territory Chief Minister in August 2020.

Here a footnote is needed. The original pendulum shows NT Labor as winning14 seats and the Country Liberal Party eight. That was the result of the 2020 general election. However, the CLP member for Daly resigned his seat subsequently and a by-election was held on 11 September 2021. Labor won the seat, increasing its numbers to 15 and reducing the CLP to seven. The CLP now needs a swing of 6.1 per cent to re-gain Daly. The median seat was Fong Lim but is now Arafura. It needs a swing of 3.6 per cent to fall to the CLP.

The two most recent pendulums for South Australia complete the current set of my pendulums. My pendulums now cover all eight jurisdictions of my interest, USA presidential. Australian federal for the House of Representatives together with the lower houses of NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA and the Northern Territory.

In July 2021 I decided to add a new section of this blog titled ”Why I chose the Western Metropolitan Region”. It follows on from my “Open Letter” to Antony Green and Kevin Bonham. While I could have chosen any of the Melbourne metropolitan regions for my illustration of Victoria’s electoral system, I chose Western Metropolitan for reasons stated in this new section.

I had hoped to get published my book “Unrepresentative Swill: Australia’s Ugly Senate Voting System”, but to no avail. No publisher would take on so conspicuous a money-losing prospect. I then tried to get a “Quarterly Essay” published with the book reduced in size. Chris Feik, publisher, Black Inc, sent me an email on Wednesday 24 November with the bad news: “Your reform proposals are, of course, worthwhile but I am not able to offer a Quarterly Essay due to prior commitments. In any case, the proposal may be of slightly too specialised interest to carry an entire Essay. I hope you are able to place your book elsewhere, given its merit.” So, I added it to the list after “Chapters in Malcolm’s unpublished book”.

The question of Western Australia’s Legislative Council electoral system has now been settled. My detailed plan was not adopted, but my very favourable view of the plan actually adopted was expressed in my Switzer article dated 24 November 2021 and titled “WA implements a genuine democratic reform.”

Malcolm Mackerras AO

7 August 2023