How Voting In Australia Works (and why Australian elections are the best in the world) 

Hey everyone, thanks for watching this video! I have a couple of corrections: - I referred to the Lower House as the Legislative Assembly, and the Upper House as the Legislative Council. This is not true for our Federal Parliament. I got my wires crossed (it's the names given in Victoria, the state where I live, but not the names given at a federal level). - It was a little unclear in this video, but parliament is made up of both Upper and Lower houses. - I skipped how the Senate (Upper House) votes are counted. For this video, it was intentional, but perhaps in a video for another time... Whilst still being preferential, the count is much more complex than the counting the the House of Representatives, which our mock election demonstrates. This is why we will have a fairly good idea of how our Lower House will be structures on election night (if not in the days following), but we won't know the Senate results for weeks after the election. I may end up remaking parts of this video so that it is more correct, but for now please accept my apologies for missing the mark on these points.

It would have been useful to point out that the election is run by the Australian Electoral Commission, an independent body free of party politics, by law ! And that they are highly regarded by voters.

Best quote I ever head about Australian elections, "We vote for ones we hate the least" Which feels very different to many other countries.

Good Lord I've lived in Australia since 1981 - over 40 years - and have never really understood this preferential system. for the first time, I understand why we have this expression "two party preferred", and why people say 'no vote is wasted'. Thank you!!!

My electorate of Gilmore was the closest and last to be called. The Labor candidate won by 373 votes out of a total of 111,705 votes.

This explainer is exactly why I say they’ll pry compulsory voting (and to a lesser extent preferential voting) from my cold dead hands.

You forgot something critical about our democratic elections. The AEC and the fact it is a completely independent body that runs the election process. Thus ensuring that our elections are uncorruptable. That actually matters the most and is different to many countries.

This should be made compulsory viewing - some countries have the most ridiculous voting systems and it leads to violence. Not here, the most contentious issue on polling day is to decide which cake or sausage sizzle to choose from the school or church where your polling booth is located. I like it like that.

I would argue strongly that we have the best democracy in the world! You might think that is arrogant but let me explain why. (1) Compulsory voting means everyone participates, this has two benefits, everyone has a say so new governments can honestly claim a mandate and just as importantly both sides of politics (progressive and conservative) generally chase the middle ground which means the lunatics are weeded out of the system (we have had extremists elected but they rarely last long). (2) The Australian Electoral Commission is a masterstroke, running elections impartially, efficiently and effectively with bi-partisan support. Once you turn 18, you are automatically enrolled. (3) Elections on Saturdays makes it easier to vote plus postal voting, pre-polling centres means we get 97% effective vote unlike a certain democracy that likes to make greatness claims but chooses to make it harder to vote and disenfranchises poor people. (4) Preferential Voting means the majority can live with the choice of policies. (5) Time and Cost, we have election campaigns that run between 4-6 weeks maximum, this reduces costs and focuses the voters on the capabilities of the incumbents and identifies if the challengers are ready to govern. By and large we have had good, honest government for more than 100 years and while everyone still complains (humans are never completely unless they are - LOL) about the government of the day, our system is far superior to every other.

This was, overall, the best explanation of the Australian parliamentary system that I have seen on RU-vid. Well done.

Just a couple of things: 1. At the Federal level, the Lower House is the House of Representatives (not the Legislative Assembly) 2. Bills (potential legislation) can originate in either the House of Reps or the Senate - it's not just a Lower House issue

I'm in Voldermort's electorate, and worked both the actual day & counting after 6pm. Once preferences were done in my 1 booth there was only a difference of 20 votes difference between Voldermort & Ali France, it was pretty crazy! Also: you missed- the role of the AEC, democracy sausages & hung parliaments!

Preferential voting also means we can avoid the spoiler effect. This means we can vote 1 for new or smaller parties and if they don't make it then our vote flow to our preferred larger party.

Best explanation of preferential voting I've ever seen. Great job Scott. Let the dogs rule!

At our high school, we did all school voting - captains and prefects using the preferential system which was a marvellous education. Having lived in both America and the UK, I do prefer the Australian system. While it can be messy at times, we do not endower our Prime Minister with king like powers, they can be dismissed and they are voted in by people that they work with and not by people who can get conned. However the analogy falls over with Boris in the UK. The real difference is that 97% of citizens vote, and although there is a high percentage of voting the party ticket, there are also good examples when we don't. The preferencial voting ensures the least disliked candidate is voted in. Also, the voting does not get announced (or I think even counted) until the polls in WA are closed so there is no tainting of the later voters to think their vote doesn't matter. Also voting is on a weekend, when more people are able to vote, and we can vote somewhere else than our own electorate. So everything in Australia is to encourage a vote not restrict it.

Your explanation is gold. I worked on many small remote communities with majority Aboriginal residents. Explaining voting and our system of government was a regular role for me. This little video would have made life a lot easier for me and those others in the same game.

I actually wish we had a similar thing here in Sweden I often find myself struggling with which party to vote for, some of my favorites are basically so small thet they either dont qualify for government or are on the risk of not qualifying and since i dont want my vote to be wasted, i'm feeling a bit forced to maybe vote for a bigger party... Sacrificing what i'd truly want 😕

That was very well explained for those who needed an explanation or a brush up. Well done.

You've done a great job of condensing and simplifying our rather complicated electoral system and I'm sure lot of teachers are going to be stoked to find this. I think you're the perfect candidate to do a video on how our ballot papers work, what happens when you go to a polling place and how preferential voting looks on the ballot paper as distinct from and compared to voting the way a 'how to vote' card tells you. Thanks for this great resource.

Probably the best and easiest way of explaining the election tbh! :)

This was fantastic. Thank you. I think this would be amazing for primary kids who are learning about parliamentary processes. Well done

That was a great explanation of the mechanics of preferential voting. I knew we had it, but I was totally unaware of how it worked.

One thingi haven't seen mentioned here, voting in Aus is compulsory! You can be fined for failing to vote. Absolutely the best and correct way, so you don't get one group dominating.

This was really good…thanks mate!

I think this was a great video. I donn't want what I am about to say take away from that. I do think, however, your representation of the "dismissal" allowed for plenty of room for misunderstanding. The LIB/Nats had control of the senate and Labor the house of representatives. There was 18 months of blocked bills meaning no actual governing was happening. The blocking of supply meant that there was no money to govern. Whether or not these tactics were valid is not really the point. There was no effective government in this environment. The many great things Labor had achieved became impossible to follow up. In those circumstances it is reliant on the Prime Minister to call for a double disillusion. This was not done, and this is what everyone forgets. The right way to move in our system is for the Prime Minister to act first recognising that the government of the country is not actually happening. Eventually, after checking with the Chief Justice of the High Court as to options and legality, he, the Governor General, dismissed the government so that, and this is absolutely essential because it lies at the heart of our democracy, the people could decide. The Governor General did ask the Lib/Nat's to form a caretaker government, there were not a lot of other options, but an election was called within one month. When the people got the chance they voted in a landslide to reject the previous government. Now time would tell that the people became pretty disillusioned with the result. But, I believe, Australia entered one of its most effective, IMHO, periods of governance, never since then allowing one party to stay in power for too long. I think our democracy grew of age and became robust during those days in a way that it would not without it. So your representation that the GG kicked out one party and put in another is short of representing the full truth, it only effectively reveals the time immediately around the events and not the truth that the people ultimately decided. I think there is good evidence that our system actually worked and got stronger.

Great video, very clear an informative and spoken in lay terms. Well done

Great work bud, very clearly explained. Subbed

Wow that explains our voting system perfectly! Well done Scott

Very helpful! Thank you!

Plus most of us don't cry foul when a big baby loses. Accepting the results is imperative rather than confusing conspiracy theories, from within the echo chamber of social media, with facts.

As an Aussie I have to say well bloody done Mate! An illuminating, not to mention humorous explanation (I'd have voted for dogs btw - we own a Goldie) of the Aussie voting system!

one thing i think is extremely important to our system but is overlooked by most is the fact that our electorates are based off of number of electors and not number of citizens or just population

One thing you didn't mention in the counting of votes is that each candidate can have a scrutineer to watch the counting of the votes to make sure that each ballot is valid & added to it's first preference count & then scrutineer that the preferences are sorted correctly too. Once the booth count & preferences of all the HoR votes in that booth are counted the numbers are rang through to each state party head office by the scrutineers to be added to that electorate count accordingly.

*Compulsory Voting is the essential ingredient that makes our Preferential System truly representative* Without compulsory voting this system would go from sublime success to abject mediocrity. In fact, seems to me that regardless of what ever form your Democratic system takes, it would benefit immensely from Compulsory Voting, particularly as we do it here in Oz.

they're the best in the world because you can buy a snag/hotdog from the sausage sizzle out the front of your local school to support their Parents & Citizens Committee

A good side-effect of our two-party preferred system is the two "major parties" get great analytics of how citizens actually voted. Even though a minor party may not have won, the percentage of vote swing in a particular direction really shows how that electorate population is thinking and reacting to politics. They may have shown growing support to an independent or a climate change advocate. Even though Labor won, there was a swing AWAY from them nation wide. Hopefully they take notice of why there was a swing and act on it.

While it was mentioned that voting was compulsory, this is key to a true democracy. Unlike the US (just to pick an example) the elected government of Australia knows it has the popular support of the people, no matter how the lobby groups or self interested industries try to push for a particular outcome. In countries like the US where voting is not mandatory, the government is at the mercy of the lobby groups, major industries or whom ever can drive the money (ie number of voters) at the next election. The outcome of mandatory voting is we have a government prepared to make bold and sometimes confronting decisions (confronting to some sectors of the community) for the betterment of society on the whole. Know you might understand why the US is in such political turmoil these days.

Some further detail to the method of counting in practice. The first preferences are counted because the canditate wins a small price (a few dollars, usually goes to the party) for each first vote. After that there's usually only 2-3 major canditates from about 5-7 total. Any canditate who couldn't win with all the votes of canditates with fewer votes is eliminated, and the remaining preference votes distributed. The whole process usually takes only 2, or in a few cases 3 steps. If the major canditates are known beforehand, (which is almost all cases, the last election being an outlayer with the number of independents winning large shares) the preferred count is done a the same time as the first preference count for minor canditate's votes.

voting is NOT compulsory . attendance and being checked on the voting roll is

Very nicely explained

Thank you, a good explanation!

This video is great and should be compulsory yearly viewing for every Australian once they reach the age of ten. Many Australians don't understand our governance or the preferential voting system. Most people just follow the 'how to vote' propaganda handed out by the political parties. The major parties don't want voters to understand how the system works; this is how they stay in power. Democracy is a precious thing. It is the responsibilty of every citizen to preserve their freedoms and not be conned by politicians. Those who blindly vote the same party every time show they are not intelligent enough to examine the issues. You should vote for those who offer the best outcomes for everyone in the country and not just the ones who will benefit you. It's not just about YOU.

Great video 👌thank you

Nice. However, when nobody initially gets a majority, and a candidate is eliminated, it is worth spending a little more time emphasizing that you're now distributing according to the second preference (of those whose favorite was eliminated)! This is very, very important from a pedagogical point of view, since it is not something that American audiences, say, are accustomed to.

Fascinating! Didn‘t know!

After 60 years in Australia, the mystery of preferential voting is explained! And the dog won, yay! Thanks for this enlightening video, cheers!

great explainer!

Thank you it the first time someone has explain the Australian voting system

Excellent representation of Australian elections, also Left handers represent. :D

Great explanation of our system, but you forget the best bits! Voting on a Saturday and Democracy sandwich!!

Excellent work

You missed the best part of our Democracy/Elections - they are held on a Saturday, most Public Schools are a Polling Booth, so easy to find and close to home for most people, it takes all of about 5 minutes to vote, and you buy a $2 bbq sausage on bread with onions and tomato sauce on the way back to your car - job done till the next election ;)

Brilliant video.

Also, the AEC doesn't cut corners when it comes to the ballot papers - which are stored in sealed boxes and counted as physical pieces of paper. This makes it impossible to identify the manner in which any person has voted. The number of people who voted at any polling booth are tallied, and persons marked on a role. These numbers can (and are) checked against the number of ballots in the box. It makes any form of electronic form of voter fraud impossible. These tallies are made publicly available on the AEC website. If anyone dumped extra votes in a polling booth anywhere... We'd know.

One thing that some people like to claim is that in the system people get to vote several times. Which is not true. Each person ultimately gets to vote only once. Because the person that they MIGHT have chosen first has been eliminated. So effectively there is a new election of the remaining candidates. in which they still only vote once. The person whose candidate was not elected also votes in this new election. For the same candidate they already chose. The ones whose candidate was removed gets to pick from what is left. No one votes twice. Or gets two choices. It is a little bit like being in a queue at the lolly store. There are five children in the queue and there are just five sweets. Now you might have wanted the aniseed ball. But one of the kids ahead already has that so you can only pick from what is left. You still only get one pick. You just are not given the option of having your FIRST choice.

Nice video, fellow Casey constituent!

Missing voting slips that are "found" on the floor? Sounds very realistic actually. 😜

@2:28 "This is someone local to the area" Unfortunately, it's not always "someone local". Far too often we've seen high-profile candidates like Maxine McKew, John Alexander, Cheryl Kernot, and in the May 2022 election, former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally, "parachuted" into a seat representing a community they're not a member of, are unlikely to know much if anything about, and almost certainly aren't a part of. Hence why I was so glad to see Keneally lose to a local Independent candidate, in what has historically been a safe seat for her party. This is one part of our political system that I can't stand. I don't want someone who knows nothing about my community and has never been a part of it suddenly becoming my local member. I know it has no chance of happening, but I would like to see it legislated that someone can't run for a seat unless they've voted in a certain number of elections for it (ideally two, or have lived and been registered in the electorate for five years).

This is a great video. Every voter should watch it. Well done! And as for not sharing your politics, well done again! My guess: You're young, from Melbourne, long hair, inner city. If you're not a green, I'll eat my shorts! 😂

Thanks mate ..

Love the way we do things . We vote and get who we want for ! We don't have the arguments they have in the United States .

Great job

One thing our system helps create is it doesn't split the vote among voters

Really well explained. Only quibble- a token cat at the end of the video would have been cool too.

The main thrust of what you are saying is on the money but you have given some incorrect information. The Legislative Assembly is the lower house in Victoria. The lower house in the Federal Parliament is The HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Voting for the Senate is not preferential., It is proportional representation - its about getting a quota of votes so parties get roughly the number of senate seats that are equivalent to it's share of support in the population (If a party has 20% support in the state you expect them to get roughly 20 % of the senate seats in that state. So the representation is proportional to the amount of support a party has.)

Another point to add ... Some may say, "well if one of the major parties will get in anyway, why vote for the small guy?". The reason is that if a party gets X% of the primary vote (I think it's 3%) then they can receive additional campaign funds next time. It means that even if the small guy doesn't get in, they have a better chance next time.

There is a better system of voting than preferential. After going through every vote frame by frame to calculate Score Voting, here are the results. But first, Score Voting is the same as preferential, except instead of recounting the loser's votes, we count everyone's votes with equal weight. Your second preference should not be worth less because your first preference is in the lead. What we end up doing is calculating 1st preferences as having 6 points, and 6th preferences as having 1 point. So now we add all of them up. Mantises got 7 first preferences, 7 second preference, 7 third preferences, 5 fourth preferences, 14 fifth preferences, and 0 sixth preferences, for a total of 7x6 + 7x5 + 7x4 + 5x3 + 14x2 + 0x1 = 148 points. Cats got 8x6, 14x5, 6x4, 7x3, 4x2, 1x1 = 172 points. Dogs got 180 points. Mosquitoes got 46 points. (38 6th, 1 5th, 1 1st). Kangaroos got 148 points. Koalas got 147 points. And so the results we find are Dogs are the winners, with Cats as opposition, nothing changed here in this specific example, but we learnt a lot of valuable information. For one, Mantises, Koalas, and Kangaroos are all roughly the same popularity level. We also see that not only are Mosquitoes not very popular, they're also extremely _unpopular_ with majority of ballots putting them at 6th. We also see that the Cat lobby has a dislike for Dogs specifically, with many cat votes ranking Dogs low at 5 and 4, but dog voters are less vindictive with cats often ranking as high as second and third preference. We gain so much more information from this means of voting than we do with just preferential. For instance, we can see from that last fact that if dogs were elected, cat supporters would be quite unhappy, but if cats were elected, dog voters would not be as unhappy and would still for the most part be in favour of the ruling party. What we have by using Score voting is a system built on compromise and centrism. The Cat party to earn more votes would have to deradicalise to win over Dog party voters who by all means are happy for Cats to rule. The Dog party would also have to see what they're doing wrong to offend the Cats and why it's costing them points. In the preferential system, these facts don't matter. Cat Party is incentivised to radicalise its supporters further and request their voters to place Dogs last, meanwhile Dogs can ignore Cat issues so long as it makes sure Koalas and Kangaroos still vote for them, because the opinions of the loser Koalas and Kangaroos are worth more than the actively opposing Cats, who because they don't lose enough can't make it clear how much they don't like dog policies. Preferential Voting leads to extremism, but Score Voting leads to compromise.

A few things worth mentioning; 1. Candidates get money based on how many times they are preferenced first ($2.756 per vote) if they get 4% of the primary vote for a given electorate. 2. The senate election works differently. 3. Single Transferable Vote (STP) is not the greatest method for ordering dinner. Approval voting would be a better system, where everyone votes what they're happiest with. It's also a lot easier.

there is no compulsory voting in Australia ,it is compulsory for you to turn up and receive your voting papers, you then enter a polling booth at this point you can, if you wish draw unicorns on your voting paper. This would void your vote , voting is always on a Saturday

Don’t we also have publicly funded elections so we don’t ‘NEED’ donations to politicians during elections - eliminating the justification of bribery during the process. I think this is a fundamental requirement we should expand - no cash donations to any representative so they aren’t distracted by ‘outside interests’ US senators spend about 50% of their work lives chasing donations to fund their ‘career’, I’d rather our pollies spent their time DOING THEIR JOB! After that we need to work on the failures of the MSM and bias towards corporate interests Our politicians are some of the best paid in the world - they keep giving themselves bipartisan wage rises. Our PM earns more than the US president, and the only leaders who earn more have the title king, queen or emperor. Maybe we should tie pollies wages to the average wage, so when it goes up, so does theirs. That might get them working for us instead. Paying politicians so well is supposed to make them ‘bribery proof’ - like they’ll say “I don’t need your bribe, I have enough money thanks” - a quaint idea with little basis in modern reality. We might have a good electoral system but democracy needs ‘maintenance’ and transparency because the first to benefit by its corruption is the politicians Butas the AEC has stated, it will continue to be a safe system while we DO NOT use electronic voting. Ensure the AEC is unbiased and powered by ordinary people and we have a chance to get who the people want, not just corporate sycophants

I like that presentation and others should consider it.

This is similar to the way I described this type of voting to some friends of mine. In particular, when doing the food analogy, is the issue of allergies. If 11 friends meet up for a reunion, and choose from 10 local restaurants, you'll have a big problem if the only one with 2+ votes is the sea food place- but 6 of those friends are allergic! In such situations you don't have a democracy representing the wishes of the majority, you in fact have a minority forcing out the majority from being able to participate.

It would be very good to explain that what actually determines who is the government is not who has the most seats in the House of Reps, but who would survive a vote of no confidence if it were called. To be the government, you need 'the confidence of the house'.

Thanks! I wish more Australians understood how it all works

Very good explainer (and it's parliament:))

I found this video very interesting. How your country votes.

Australia does NOT have compulsory voting - Australia has compulsory attendance/participation. (Once in attendance you can leave the ballot blank or purposely vote informal). A subtle but worthwhile difference.

Comprehensive but I feel that you could have mentioned the term and the fact that we don’t have an Electoral College which is anti democratic. In addition we vote on the week end and we don’t need to be a citizen just a long term resident. Thanks for the posting.

And this is one reason why, if my choice doesn't get in, despite disappointment, I don't get too upset as I know that the majority ruled.

I would really love an explanation of how the vote in the Senate works. I used to scrutineer at elections so I have understood the system for the lower house, but I only have vaguest idea of how the quota system in the Senate works.

The examples for this were particularly good, showing a cut-down version of the full counting process to the point of a majority being reached. One thing. In the "Westminster System" section when referring to Parliament, the 151 electorates are only the House of Representatives whose members decide government (leaving aside technical details). You do mention immediately after, however using Parliament when only mean the House is misleading IMO. Also on the names, there is no Legislative Assembly in the federal parliament. We based the system from Westminster, the house names from the United States. Partly because the Commons and Lords do not really fit the Australian myth of egalitarianism, and partly because we have States (Colonies when the Constitution was written, States once enacted) and an elected upper house. The UK had neither of these to use as a basis in Australia. Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, etc are names used in States/Territories. The Senate count is complex due to the multi-member aspect which is more representative again. At least, they are within each State/Territory - the varying state sizes are a different story and in their way less representative. The detail is too complex to fully explain in a short video, so leaving it as you did is probably good for this one.

Our system of government isn't actually the Westminster system, and in fact it's been called the Washminster system, as we seem to take elements from the the US and UK. Though I do believe the term is debated by political scientists, I'm just someone who is interested in out political system. From the United States came (1) the federal system with powers divided between central and State governments, (2) a court to settle disputes over their jurisdictions and (3) the structure of the federal legislature, a House of Representatives to represent the people and a Senate to represent the States. From the United Kingdom came responsible government, the practice of ministers being members of parliament and having to obtain majority support from the lower house.

about half way through the video and getting concerned you're forgetting the most vital part of an election. the democracy sausage.

No system of democracy is perfect. I also live in Victoria, in an electorate that has overwhelming voted Liberal (our more right wing party - like Republican or Conservative) for many elections in a row. That means my vote doesn't really make much difference in comparison to a person who lives in a marginal (more evenly balanced) electorate. My Senate vote is more relevant, because it is not based on electorates. However, since all states get the same number of Senators, my vote is not as influential as someone from Tasmania, a state with a much smaller population.l

What about yearly re-allocations of electoral boundaries making elections fairer or picked beforehand ?

Should have also mentioned the strong political independence of the electoral commission and electoral border creation process :)

Two little points: 1. There was no need of a special graphic depicting Grayndler and Durack electorates if (as you said) it’s not to scale. No one needs to know the disembodied shape of two electorates! 2. You might have pointed out the Governor General intervened in 1975 ultimately on behalf of the people. He dismissed the government not to explicitly install another party, but to enable an election to be called so that the people could decide how to end the crisis. The system had a mechanism to resolve a dysfunctional parliament by calling on the ultimate arbiter, the people.

I'm over 18 and I don't have to vote cause I never enrolled to vote. Once you enrol you have to vote forever but if you don't enrol then you don't have to

What is the penalty if you don't attend the polling station assuming you're able to do so?

I believe that the best electoral system in the world is that used in New Zealand -- the Mixed Member Proportional representation system. In that system, you make two votes - an electorate and a party vote. In each electorate (of which there are 72), the person elected is the person with the plurality of votes in a first past the post system. However, the remaining 48 seats in parliament are allocated from lists of preferred candidates from each party in such a way as to make the total number of representatives in parliament for each party proportional to their total Party Vote. The next best, IMO, is the Hare-Clark system used in Tasmania, in which each electorate has a number of representatives, with the seats from each electorate allocated in the same way as they are in the Senate. In my mind, the ideal system would be a Mixed Member Proportional Hare-Clark system. Ie, the New Zealand system but with at least three members for each electorate with representation in electorates decided as in the Australian Senate. I do agree, however, that the Australian system is one of the best in the world; and far-far better than that in the USA or UK.

Your system is certainly better than first past the post, but our mixed member system in NZ has been very solidly accepted by the voting public. The only real objection comes from one of the big parties which lost its ability to govern alone which it had been very keen on. After a couple of elections the system was put back to the people by referendum and was endorsed. It provides a voice in parliament for people who had been disenfranchised for decades and forces parties to look for consensus policies rather than simply dictate. Also we got rid of our upper house years ago and see no reason to reinstate it.

I live in the smallest electorate by size, and for the first I actually got to elect the PM.🙂

Compulsory voting is good but gerrymandering still possible in Australia Aotearoa NZ has a better system.

The only thing you missed out was with the Upper House - Senate, in that yes there are 12 representatives from each state and two from territories, but only 6 are voted in every 3 years, and 1 from every territory, so a senator sits in Parliament for 6 years, then either bows out or is voted back in.

the mock election was a very helpful demonstration. i much prefer the Australian system but i don't think the voters in my country (England) are informed enough to list a preference order.

I like to stress that we have compulsory _attendance_ voting. Nobody is forcing you to do more than get your name crossed off the roll. Our PM is referred to as the 'first among equals' and _all_ the ministry is in effect our government. That can be tricky to understand because of how much our political culture has drifted into a personality-driven 'presidential style'. It's good that ministers are by custom also parliamentarians. This means they have to be personally exposed to parliamentary debate and scrutiny. Can I move a motion for 'pizza' to be called Italian and for 'fish and chips' to be called Greek (which makes sense if you were in Australia of the 70s to 90s)? :)

Australia uses the Wash-Minster system. It is a hybrid of the US Washington System and the UK Westminster System. This is seen by the use of sates with equal number of Senate Seats as in the US and single member electorates as in the UK. From the United States came the federal system with powers divided between central and State governments, a court to settle disputes over their jurisdictions and the structure of the federal legislature, a House of Representatives to represent the people and a Senate to represent the States. From the United Kingdom came responsible government, the practice of ministers being members of parliament and having to obtain majority support from the lower house.

technically, you can waste your vote, but that's only by voting incorrectly (not numbering enough, just ticking, etc) or identifying yourself on the ballot

Yes please, remake the video concentrating on how the preferential system works. Many Australians don't understand this. Also need to emphasize that voters don't have to follow party 'how to vote' cards. If people understood this better we could get candidates who stand for local issues and not those who just follow the party line. This education should be compulsory for all children and for those from overseas who wish to become Australian citizens.

Okay, you fixed FPP, but your house of representatives is still not proportional to the national votes for the parties. To achieve this a mixed member proportional system, like in New Zealand, Germany or many other countries would be the better choice. Saying you have the best voting system in the world just because you vote by alternative vote is very self centered.