"If I could be pursuaded that those who didn't vote, wouldn't complain and whinge about the government in power, then I might have a different view."
Great point. In fact, we optional voters could make a bumper sticker on those sentiments: "If you don't vote, don't whinge".
Sadly, I think most of the people I know who aren't into voting, aren't into discussing politics either.
Or religion.
In fact, there's zero chance of ever meeting them on OLO.
Maybe the bumper sticker should read: "Only OLOers should vote!"

"Only OLOers should vote!"

What a logical error:

Those who don't care, don't use OLO, therefore those who don't use OLO, don't care (and therefore should not vote)...

Rather leave OLO aside: those who don't care, should not vote!

Therefore, the logical error was...?

"Therefore, the logical error was...?"

All A are B, therefore all B are A

A = those who don't care about politics
B = those who don't use OLO

So all those who don't use OLO do not care about politics, and therefore should not vote, or in other words, Only OLOers should vote.

Hmmm.

Australia is one of the few places, where participating in an election is mandatory and enforced.

It is not so in UK
It is not so in USA
nor Canada,
nor Europe

Compulsory voting does exist and is enforced in Mexico, South America and Congo…. Neither of those places has any exceptional quality of democracy beyond those places where participating in voting is the decision of the people trusted to cast their votes.
Compulsory voting is not enforced in France nor India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

it seems t me, if someone, for whatever reason, chooses not to vote; it is not up to the officiating bureaucrats, in a democracy, to seek to impose an obligation on the electorate to vote.

Such an obligation is not democratic and flies in the face of reason.

If the bogans are too busy, squandering their welfare benefits on trinkets, instead of voting socialist into power to bribe them with more welfare, I have no objection

If the non-thinkers wish to be the non-voters, I have no objection

And whilst we are about it we would do better to go back to a first past the post system instead of this jackass proportional representation farce, which see tipping points of power handed to the fringe dwellers who stupidly vote Green

While we are busy reforming voting why not go the whole hog and use the Internet as a voting machine on every proposal. We could use something like the OLO surveys to actually decide on whether we all actually want a Carbon Tax or not.

Much fairer democracy

One of the problems to be solved would be the power it gives to the "Editor" or whoever decides the wording of individual proposals.

Alternatively any proposal that had been approved on the Internet survey could then go to Parliament to be drafted as a legal Act.

Or would it be even better to come to the Internet survey AFTER the Govt had passed it.

Lots of thought