![John Warhurst](/web/20160913035423im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/z/q/p/s/x/image.related.landscape.460x307.gramfa.png/1473299105954.jpg)
Our political system needs shock treatment
A circuit breaker, that is a short, sharp shock to the system, is needed to reform many aspects of modern politics.
John Warhurst is an emeritus professor of political science at the Australian National University.
A circuit breaker, that is a short, sharp shock to the system, is needed to reform many aspects of modern politics.
The common element in success is understanding how decisions are made and getting inside the political process with the help of those already on the inside.
The hold of the major parties is still overwhelming but getting ragged at the edges. The system exaggerates their position in the community.
Australians risk running from one side of the boat to another at the moment in our search for an acceptable leader.
Malcolm Turnbull has little experience as prime minister of dealing with the Senate.
The Liberals may well be an election-winning machine, but it is a machine with a remarkable inability to elect women.
It is strange that such agreements have never been made public because the parties should have nothing to hide.
Talk of a potential constitutional and/or political crisis following this federal election result is at best premature.
Winners can laugh and the losers can please themselves? Maybe, but there are other ways of judging a result.
The likely scale of the success of the Nick Xenophon Team in the Senate elections in South Australia is without precedent.
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