Australians, like New Zealanders, have been asked to think about changing the way they vote their federal Government into power.
But unlike New Zealand, the debate has barely pushed itself above the horizon of a green paper on electoral reform released last November, and about 100 submissions that show no inclination to move away from the systems laid down in the Constitution.
Instead, most argue for or against the present requirement of compulsory voting and other refinements within the existing systems: preferential voting for the House of Representatives, proportional voting for the Senate.
Any major overhaul would not be easy in any case: under the Constitution this would involve a referendum requiring a double victory - an overall national majority of voters, and a majority of voters in a majority of states.
Apart from the issue of compulsory voting, there has been no public passion for change.
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