Major parties shut Senate door on usurpers

If the major political players have their way, the "up yours" vote will be limited to a symbolic and futile gesture.

That's because the entrenched parties, which attracted the support of three out of four voters at the 2013 federal election, want to freeze out pesky usurpers from a place in the Senate.

The unaminous findings of parliament's joint committee on electoral matters is an exercise in self-interest. Only what we pay our politicians prompts such bipartisanship.

Under the guise of repairing a corroded democracy, MPs and senators from the coalition, Labor and the Greens want to undo the "unfunny joke" they claim was the 2013 federal election.

In the process, they are in essence disenfranchising the two million or so Australians who told the major parties where to go.

In other words, "up yours".

The majors don't like the idea of micro-political parties "popping up like mushrooms" and gaming a system that parliament created.

Rather than address their own shortcomings and because they failed their own attempts at gaming, they want to shut the Senate door to bit players.

The committee argues voters are dissatisifed with the present system, but provides tepid evidence to support their claim, other than the obvious frustration with completing tableclothed-size ballot papers in some states.

Concerned political insiders told the committee that some candidates were elected through methods other than genuine intention.

Why? Because a handful of them won a place in the Senate from very low primary votes. Stand up Ricky Muir from the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party.

It's a guess, and the joint committee and experts can't explain, what nearly two million voters were thinking when they voted for people like Muir, or candidates from the Pirate Party, or the Australian Voice Party, or the Building Australia Party.

But we do know they gave the coalition, Labor and the Greens the bird.

By recommending optional preferential voting above the line and requiring six choices only for below-the-line votes, the major parties will be able to game the system their way.

Seventy-five per cent of the popular vote is likely to get you nine of out every 10 senators.

Some democracy.