Mandate furphy

July 7, 2025

Unless each election is turned into the equivalent of of a referendum eg if you vote for us we will build a fast rail from Melbourne to Canberra via Sydney, there is no mandate. Vote for us and we will improve rail services does not qualify as a mandate.

Even tax reform doesn’t qualify as a mandate to introduce a GST. It does, however, give the winning party the obligation to introduce a tax reform bill for the Parliament to debate and vote on.

Mandates like Opposition are political furphies used to muddy the political waters. By labelling up to half of the non-government parliamentarians as the Opposition, we, in effect, devalue each individual’s vote in non-government winning electorates.

I agree that every decision from the toilet paper up needs to be debated in the Parliament but committing Australian troops to overseas wars and extreme spending must be debated and should not be covered by the term mandate.

Each elected member is entitled to put through the views of their electorate

Then there are the party and question time rules.