Harry Tsoukalas and Online Direct Democracy

The idea of this party is that the members of parliament vote according to the instructions from the electorate. For that the people in the electorate would have to install some software on their computer or smart phone.

It's an interesting idea but I have two main integrity concerns with this. The party's website does not deal with those, as far as I can tell, but I put my concerns to Harry Tsoukalas while we had a telephone conversation.

• If the party does not like the result, what's to stop them from manipulating the results? Harry Tsoukalas answered that the party would be prepared to submit itself to audits by the Australian Electoral Commission. I am not convinced. I am not sure that the AEC would or could involve itself in this way. And I doubt that the AEC has the technical ability to do this in any case.
• What would stop people taking part who are not legitimate voters and what would stop people voting from multiple accounts? Harry Tsoukalas answered that details would be cross-checked against the electoral roll. That offers some protection but not enough. This would not stop people enrolling with the details of another person, especially if that person is unlikely to enrol him/herself. I put this to Harry Tsoukalas but he had no answer.

Another, but relatively less serious concern is that relatively few people will participate and that those people may not reflect the electorate as a whole very well.

I have shared the stage with Harry Tsoukalas twice in community question and answer forums. He was pleasant and I have nothing negative to report from my interactions with and observations of him.