Dear Editor,
The 2025 Election saw the Labor Party re-elected in a landslide, but received only 34% of the primary vote.
With the declining levels of support for the two major political parties, the growth of minor parties and independents has fractured the votes required to elect a government.
“Fractured voting” means that voters who once steadfastly supported Labor or Liberal now split their support across minor parties and independents, with preferences flowing in different directions under Australia’s preferential voting system.
Preferential voting weakens accountability.
Candidates may win without strong first-choice support, relying instead on being a “least disliked” option rather than a genuinely popular one.
In the 1975 federal election, minor parties and independents combined accounted for only 4% of the primary vote.
In 2025 – 50 years later – this has increased to 34%, the highest ever recorded since the emergence of the two-party system.
A recent survey by Melbourne research firm Fox and Hedgehog revealed that support for the Coalition has slumped to 25% “Surveys bleak results,” The Advertiser, 10/26, should raise alarm bells for the current opposition leadership.
Our parliament needs a strong, unified, and focused opposition that holds the current government to account and presents itself as an alternative.
Currently, the Liberal Party is failing miserably on both fronts.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
Writers Week disappointment
Dear Editor
As a writer with modest claims, I am disappointed, angry, and disturbed by the Adelaide Festival Board’s decision to ban writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah with the express backing of Premiere Peter Malinaukas (The Advertiser 9/1). The Premiere has been a polished leader but for me the sheen has been badly tarnished by this decision.
Faced with a comparable situation only two years ago he was quoted as saying he was against arts bodies and festivals being ‘more concerned with risking the wrath of government than creating worthy, challenging programs …. at worst, it leads us to a future in which politicians can directly stifle events that are themselves predicated on freedom of speech and the expression of ideas. A path, in fact, that leads us into the territory of Putin’s Russia,” Malinauskas said in 2023.
Show some real courage Mr Malinauskas – reverse your support and encourage, without interfering, the board to do the same. Oppression and censorship never enhanced social cohesion.
Righters Weak.
When might is right in Writers’ Week
who is strong and who is weak?
Those who plead for cultural care
are intent on stirring fear.
Not fear of Bondi bullets though,
but fear that writers’ words may show
that might disguised in euphemisms
only deepens ancient schisms.
Whether holocaust or genocide
let no atrocity be denied:
bombs and terror from whomever
can only from ourselves dissever.
Nick Carroll, Streaky Bay
A Tale of Two Commissions
Dear Editor,
Prime Minister Albanese’s prevaricating, but necessary and most welcome decision to finally call a Royal Commission, after nearly a month, has parallels with Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities.
Following the tragic and shocking events of December 14, NSW Premier Chris Minns acted urgently and without any outside pressure and called a Royal Commission within a fortnight.
Prolonged, widespread, and intense calls for Prime Minister Albanese to do the same were met with responses that it wasn’t necessary, would take too long, and that NSW was already conducting one.
His justification yesterday for reversing his initial decision by informing Australians that he had spent considerable time, behind closed doors, negotiating with victims and others, and formulating guidelines is highly questionable and is an attempt to placate the high level of dissatisfaction with his initial poor response.
To hear ad nauseam yesterday from our PM and his Ministers, following the announcement of the decision, that they had been LISTENING, which takes time and deep consideration, belies the vehement responses and reasons they provided when challenged repeatedly over their original decision.
Admitting that he was wrong in the first place and had changed his mind would have been far more palatable than the tale told yesterday.
Ian McGowan, Ceduna
There’s nothing here
Dear Editor,
It would seem that the long-held adage “money talks” is true, given the silence the Ambulance Union has exhibited about ambulance ramping leading up to their recently confirmed salary increase, “Ramps quiet after pay-rise” The Advertiser, 07/26.
Throughout the 2022 state election campaign, the Ambulance Union was extremely vocal, chalking ambulances, using social media to complain, and regularly appearing in print and electronic media, which placed the blame for ambulance ramping solely on the Marshall-led Liberal Government.
It was concerning to read that the Ambulance Employees Association secretary, Paul Ekkelboom, in his weekly phone calls to the Minister said, “I’ve been quite vocal about ramping,” despite the fact that today ambulance ramping has soared, spending a record 52,000 hours in hospital car parks in 2025, significantly up from 28,152 hours in 2021, a 77.6% increase.
Replacing their incessant and highly emotive campaign highlighting the seriousness and danger of ramping during the 2022 election with a weekly phone call to the Minister beggars belief.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
Long bow drawn
Dear Editor,
I congratulate and thank Usman Khawaja for his highly skilled, professional, and entertaining contribution to the Australian Test cricket team throughout his distinguished career.
I acknowledge, sympathise, and am concerned about the unfair treatment, with racial undertones, that he has endured at times during his time at the crease.
Cricket today is a professional game, and the Ashes series between the Aussies and the Poms is the ultimate test for our cricketers and is highly valued by all, whether player, commentator, or spectator.
Usman’s questionable decision to play a round of golf, while suffering from back spasms, before the First Test was concerning, and he received universal criticism from many in the media for doing so.
The image presented by his actions rightly raised questions about his commitment, professionalism, and preparation for such an important match in the Australian cricket calendar.
However, I believe he is drawing a long bow when attributing the criticism of his preparation for the First Test to having any stereotypical connotations.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
National debt
Dear Editor,
With Australia’s national debt nearing $1.3 billion, one would hope that government expenditure is under serious review and that appropriate and necessary cuts are made to questionable items.
To read that Australian taxpayers are funding a research grant to investigate changing the date of Australia Day, “$1.5 million to kill OZ Day”, The Sunday Mail, 04/26, is clear evidence that this is not the case.
Any proper decision-making process should initially gather and consider relevant background information to establish whether any proposed grant should be presented for further consideration or declined.
Determining and then providing this grant completely ignores the Resolve Strategic poll released in January 2025, which indicated that just 24% of voters supported changing the date of Australia Day, down from 39% in January 2023.
It would seem that this decision serves a political purpose rather than responding to the needs and desires of the majority of Australians.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
Juvenile offending
Dear Editor,
“Armed ’10 boys and girls’ in robbery hell” and “Three girls in court after child stabbed at station” The Advertiser, 03/26, both highlight not only the high level of juvenile crime in SA but also the inadequacies of our juvenile justice system, which is often referred to as “a slap on the wrist and a bag of lollies.”
Given that juvenile offending is on the increase, it is a clear indication that something is seriously wrong with how we are currently dealing with inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour and the application of consequences that don’t act as a deterrent to offenders. Our police work hard to solve juvenile crime, arrest and charge a growing number of them with multiple offences, only to discover that the majority of them are quickly released on bail and receive little or no consequences or penalties for their illegal actions.
Too often today, juvenile offenders are represented by legal counsel who successfully convince presiding judges of the need to show compassion and empathy for the offenders’ circumstances, both past and present, and plead for leniency when applying sentences. This growing trend of showing greater compassion for juvenile criminals than their victims seems to emphasise understanding the deeper causes of their behaviour rather than punishing any wrongdoing and holding them responsible for their actions.
Imposing soft sentences and penalties for offences needs to be stopped now, and a system of stronger deterrence adopted quickly, or this juvenile crime epidemic will continue to spiral out of control.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
