Question Period with Justin

[Justin]

Well, as the Senatorial candidate for District 1, I would like to get intouch with not only voters from my district but for board members across Atlasia. To do this I created a question period to ask about my platform and what I can do for all.

[StevenNick]

You've talked a lot about Senate reform in this campaign.  I was wondering if you could share with the rest of the forum what exactly you mean by senate reform and what steps you would take to institute that reform.

[Justin]

I would be happy to answer the question from my Rt-honorable friend.

What I mean by Senate Reform, I mean actually reforming they way how we elect Senators and instituting reforms to make Senators more accountable to the people. Currently we have plenty of Senators who have voted on bills but do not explain themselves to the people of thier region.

As for actual reforms, I would first create a Reform Caucus, a tri-partisan caucus that would examine ways we can make the Senate a truly triple-E Senate. (Elected, Effective, Equal)

I think that we should return to the "first past the post" method of electing Senators rather than using the preferential system as the only way a senator or president can be elected would be have enough votes in the first preference ballot. It also serves to help the smaller parties and write-in candidate who should have a smaller chance at the vote.

I would introduce a bill that that would define what is an official party and a minor party and the requirements for a party to loose both statuses.

I would introduce a recall amendment that would give the right throw out people who feel they are inadequete and incompetant and replace them with someone else. This threat of recall would force Senators to not miss senate votes or key debates on a bill so that they can keep thier job.

I would introduce other reforms, like an actual redistricting amendment that gives the people of regions to vote on thier governor's ideas, sort of give that region's seal of approval on the whole deal. Also, we should have a nationwide vote on the actual redistricting map that was voted on by the governors to prevent gerrymandering by the parties. This would force the governors and the people to listen to the people.

I would introduce a hansard bill that would create a thread for all links to a bills, speeches, amendments, and other senate-relsted threads. I would also create a President's question time that would force the President to go before the senate and answer questions from senators that way he would be being accountable to the people.

[Justin]

Any other questions?