It's a miracle how relatively democratic parliament is today. It's still ridiculously ripe for gerrymandering, however. Full representation is surely the best way forward.
Blimey. No wonder Australia did so well as a Democratic nation….. as The UK sent political prisoners here as convicts. Their democratic leanings rubbed off on their sons and daughters. The founders of our nation. She’ll be apples. Franchise had nothing to do with class! Women had the vote from the outset ( decades before uk). We had 888 rule from the start too…. 8 hr sleep, 8 hr play, 8 hr work. For 14 years….. the newly independent Australia had the best working utopia in the world. Then came WW1 and the Flu pandemic.
I'm pleased to see you mention the political prisoners who were sent as convicts. There is too little understanding here in the UK about the number people committed as prisoners for transportation for being involved in agrarian and political reform, these people formed up to 30% of those transported. One must also question a considerable number of the other convicts whose petty crimes where driven through acts of desperation rather than true malice. I remember reading about two prisoners transported , one being a 14 year old boy for stealing a chicken, and another being a woman for receiving stolen goods, a chicken from her son. Springtime could sometimes be the hungriest months, the winter stores having been used up but the abundance of summer and harvest time not yet arrived.
