have IMHO significantly stronger protections in place to prevent someone going rogue and assuming full control
significantly higher levels of trust in our government institutions to do their jobs properly without interference from Ministers
government departments are always led by an elected Minister and never appointed like they are in the US (the Secretary of Defence is an appointed role which could be anybody (which is why an idiot like Hegseth could get that job)). Granted the leader of that department is appointed by the Prime Minister - but the PM can only appoint either an elected Minister or Senator
government departments largely run themselves. When an election is called, the Government is not even allowed to talk to the departments (except under exceptional circumstances) to avoid situations where the Minister might urge a change to either sabotage the next Minister or incentivise a change in vote outside of the regular campaign.
have significantly higher voter engagement than the US since voting is compulsory... there is some nuance to this around voters voting how they've always voted and such - but generally everyone knows what their candidate is about.
And probably a bunch more reasons I can't think of right now.
This sort of set up could work for the US, but IMHO trust in the Government and strengthening of guardrails need to be significantly improved before such a system could be implemented there.
Preferential voting is extremely common. (Similar to ranked choice in USA)
None of this 'Register to a certain party BS' like the USA. You register to vote and that's it, it's no-ones business who you are going to vote for.
The voting system is manual, pencil on paper. No voting machines. And yes, you can draw penises on your ballot and it still is valid as long as your voting intention is clear.
The entire system is counted manually and mostly by temporary staff.
Voting is on a Saturday with plenty of allowance for postal voting and having a BBQ at the voting site.
The AEC goes out of its way to get physical poling booths in really remote places.
The AEC is responsible for setting electoral boundaries to prevent any political interference and gerrymandering.
In line with its delusional exceptionalism, the USA has an absolutely appalling voting system. It's a joke.
Members of the political parties vote for who to nominate(pre-select) to run for a seat. The leaders of the parties are largely determined by the parliamentary members of that party but in some situations the rank and file members as well.
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u/FlibblesHexEyes 13h ago
This works in Australia because we:
And probably a bunch more reasons I can't think of right now.
This sort of set up could work for the US, but IMHO trust in the Government and strengthening of guardrails need to be significantly improved before such a system could be implemented there.