A veteran election analyst is warning of an inevitable High Court challenge to planned changes to the way Australians vote for the Senate.
A clearly-frustrated Malcolm Mackerras told a joint parliamentary committee inquiry in Canberra he would be devastated if a challenge in the nation's highest court failed.
"I look forward to the inevitable High Court case with fear and delight," he said.
Constitutional law expert George Williams said the system now enabled parties, not voters, to determine the flow of preferences.
"That's not a good system because it may be parties direct preferences to flow in a way that is indeed the opposite to what a person would see as their true voting intent," he told the inquiry.
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Professor Williams agrees the changes are a major improvement on the existing system, but also wants to see optional preferential voting below the line as well as above.
Prominent ABC election analyst Antony Green said the existing system had created a "herding process".
"You have been herding people above the line for the last three decades by making the choice of how to vote asymmetrical," he said.
