Is a vote for an independent a wasted vote?

Forget the independent and minor parties in this election - the media has.

The mainstream media in Australia supports the two-party system of voting and government.

Its failure to report objectively the minor parties and independents is a function of its support for the Labor and Liberal institutions because the media themselves are similar institutions.

So when Mark Latham, former Labor leader turned reporter, provided direct advice to electors - if you’re sick of the two-party system, submit an informal ballot for both the Senate and the House - the media again went on the attack.

As if he had not been vilified enough for earlier random acts of politics Latham was attacked by the ABC for attempting to destroy “democracy”, and legal minds turned to the possibility that he had infringed the electoral act itself.

The news media is quick to attack anyone who presents an alternative view of the two-party system and the attacks are not new.

One hundred years ago, David Storey, an independent in New South Wales, was attacked by the Sydney Morning Herald for attempting to establish a group of “independents”.

Storey and his proposed independent party were attacked by the Herald for being a “mischievous element” with no “administrative experience” and thus no way to provide policy or to govern in its own right.

The Herald was concerned that the strength of the Liberal vote would be split by unhappy conservatives who might defect to the independent party (known for a while as “democrats”).

One hundred years later the Herald is still producing opinions that reflect the two-party system - witness Paul Sheehan earlier this week (“Gillard’s pork pies hard to resist”) - but arguing the mirror image position.

Sheehan wrote that a vote for the Greens and their preference deal with Labor means a vote for a Greens candidate in the House may be a protest vote by unhappy progressives but will still go to Labor because of compulsory preferential voting.

This is not the case if we take Mark Latham’s advice. An informal vote can be a protest vote and there is no preference distribution.

What if everyone voted informal? More importantly, what if everyone voted for independents? “True” independents, not candidates lurking behind the veils of the two major parties while calling themselves independents on the ballot papers.

In 1910 the Sydney Morning Herald wailed that “nothing is more dangerous than that the balance of power should remain in irresponsible hands”. It was referring to Storey’s coalition of independents preparing to work together in the NSW Legislative Assembly.

Storey’s ideas were based on the successful 19th century model of small parties and independents working to form government. Similar groups have formed during the past 100 years but nothing has changed for the media.

The two-party system is institutionalised, just as the mainstream media is, so it is natural for them to wish to maintain the balance.

Why then do we bother voting for independent and minor parties? Why don’t we “do a Latham” and vote informal?

We do it because we believe in the same philosophy as David Storey exactly 100 years ago - that the party machines of Labor and Liberal prevent public policy discussion and that the controlled preselection of candidates is undemocratic.

A similar idea was attempted by the independent for Calare, Peter Andren, former Prime Television news anchor and later independent federal MP in 2005: he would be turning in his grave.

Sadly, Andren succumbed to cancer two years later and was unable to pursue the matter which, for want of a true champion, fell apart.

This does not mean that we should abandon the possibility of a government of independents and minor parties.

The most recent United Kingdom election result proved that the electorate is unhappy with the idea of two dominant parties and their narrowly-defined representative structure.

The present election campaign here in Australia has demonstrated that the two major parties, along with their gravitational moons, the Nationals and the Greens, are seriously out of whack with the socioeconomic and cultural structure that is Australia after a decade of the 21st century.

The mainstream news media is equally out of whack.

Independents and minor parties have the potential to provide true representative government across all electorates, not just within the marginals that are the focus of pork barrel party politics.

Sadly, a vote for an independent has been described by the major parties as a wasted vote and, Andren himself was described by a competitor as a waste of space in parliament. But a parliament comprised of independents and minor parties is not an impossibility.

It relies on citizens being educated about the voting process, having a belief that the two-party preferred system is not insurmountable, and marking the ballot paper formally below the line.

The real problem for independents and minor parties is two-pronged - the mainstream media treat them with contempt, and they don’t have sufficient financial clout to work up educative advertising and media campaigns.

A change to either or both of these impediments could hold the key to real representation and policy value at some point in the future.