Senate results not representative - Anthony Green

Anthony Green, a well of knowledge on all things election and who runs a website about it all, has appeared before the inquiry into the Sept federal election. He's widely respected across the country on such subjects and gives a valuable insight as to WTF happened with the senate votes in the election.

An election campaign should ideally be a "training ground" that would produce senators who had the skills to negotiate legislation and represent the public. 

That was plainly not occurring, said Mr Green, who appeared to take a swipe at so-called "preference whisperer" Glenn Druery – a consultant who engineered a complex series of preference swaps between micro parties that resulted in the election of candidates who secured only a small percentage of the vote before preferences were distributed. 

The current system allowed putative senators to "engage in cabals" and cut "strange deals" rather than talk directly to the Australian public, Mr Green added. Read more

No shit Sherlock. People have been saying for ages how unrepresentative our Canberra pollies are. It looks to me like there's too much manipulation of the system and too little engagement with the public going on. Too much politicking and too little listening. Too much going on behind closed doors.