Originally Posted by
arthwollipot
And so much for the new Senate voting rules being set up to prevent minor parties from getting the power. Good work, whoever did that.
Originally Posted by
psionl0
It would have been undemocratic to prevent minor parties who got enough votes from being elected. The aim was to prevent "micro" party candidates from being elected with less than 1% of the primary vote.
You are likely to get fewer parties in, but these parties have more senators. The result would be almost the same number of minor party members. In fact could even be more as the quota is only half what it is normally.
If they really wanted to reduce the number of minor party members they need to have a rule that says a candidate needs a certain % (say close to to a quota) of first preferences otherwise they are eliminated.