This isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've been dominated by the same two parties pretty much since federation. This election campaign there weren't too many differences in policy between the two major parties so what it will do is it will force them to support the policies of the greens and independents if the government want support for their policies.

It is much more democratic this way. I wish we were more like Germany where they can choose a party that suits their ideology and know that will be represented. In Australia we pretty much only have 2 choices and they are both rubbish.

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Although NZ's parliamentary heritage is that of a Westminster-styledemocracy, it dumped its first-passed the post system for proportional representation in, you guessed it, 1996. And the country has never been better.

I am very much against a first-passed the post electoral system, which not only is undemocratic, but also (at least in Western democracies), generally leads to less effective policies, as can be seen by lower economic growth rates than coalition-run countries (See Lijphart, Patterns of Democracies). Yes, there are basket-cases like Italy, but for every one of these there is at least one Switzerland, which is anything but badly run.

In any events, ''winning'' an election is only a party objective. At the societal level, the goal of an election is to get a clear representation of the collective will, in all its various shades.

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Why all the minority governments (first Canada, then Britain, now Australia)? Easy...when political parties become unable to make the best decision for the country because it runs counter to what is best for the party, their support erodes from 'core+centre share' to merely its 'core' vote. In recent years, all of the 'tough' decisions have been postponed or avoided entirely in an effort to prevent loss of power. Consequently, more voters remain uncommitted or won't vote at all.

'First past the post' worked fine so long as the party had enough of an ethical compass to understand that some 'tough' decisions just couldn't be put off. Now, proportional representation and minority governments are the only way that western voters can keep a short leash on parties (both left and right) that can no longer be trusted to put an important national decision ahead of their own political career.