The Teals Have Revived Representative Parliament

March 8, 2024

Caroline Fitzwarryne predicts the end of party politics now that the community-based Teals have displaced senior politicians who had compromised their own integrity to support bad policy in the name of party solidarity.

Governments express frustration at having to work with minor parties or independent MPs. In doing so they forget that it is the parliament as a whole that represents the will of the people. The Lower and Upper Houses each present a reflection of the people’s wishes.

If the governing party lacks sufficient members in either House to govern in its own right it must work with minor parties or independents with whom it can reach agreement on any particular issue. This is the peoples will: we have said, through the election, that we dont want the unqualified policies of either main party. We want those policies to be tempered by other views.

The government can choose whose views it will negotiate with, but they must compromise to deliver the will of the majority of the people. This is not weak government; it is democracy in action.

Our community-based independent MPs have opened the door to truly representative parliament. The major parties must accommodate this to survive.