Compulsory voting is anti-democratic. Senator Nick Minchin's recent call for the introduction of voluntary voting is to be lauded. In some cases, people might wish to show the batch of politicians presenting themselves for consideration that they are not impressed with any of them by not voting, without having to turn up to have their names marked off the roll to avoid prosecution. The Prime Minister doesn't hold with prosecution for non-voters, so why bother with compulsory voting. Not voting, if enough people don't vote, can be a very powerful political act. And, if citizens don't wish to vote because they are not interested - and many of we Australians are apathetic and politically naive - why not let the rest of us who do care make the decisions?

Terrific article, Irfan.
I have often pondered on the hypocrisy of those who maintain they believe in small government when it comes to the making of money, but who insist on meddling in people's private - particularly sexual - lives.
True conservatives, who want to keep out of the boardroom and the bedroom, have my respect. The others are simply talking out of both sides of their mouths. It's like the current conservative govts mantra of choice in areas like workplace agreements and education. They love choice, when it refers to choices they agree with, but hate it, for example with abortion and who someone may marry, when it is about choices they don't like. They are not in favour of freedom of choice, at all. They only favour those who make the choices they agree with.
Funny kind of value, hypocrisy, but it is one much beloved by our current crop of conservatives.

My point wasnt about voluntary voting in isolation: the libs could get nothing through last time they had control of both houses - my point still stands conservative parties usally do well ut of voluntary voting;

My point was these guys are conservative by name and not by nature - even putting the voluntary voting stuff to one side - they are change agents of the most agressive kind.

The dependence of conservatives upon the religious right has been amply demonstrated by the last two US presidential elections. With the aid of Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition, George W. Bush has been able to steal the presidency twice. He was ably assisted of course by his brother in Florida legitimising the disenfranchisement of thousands of registered voters who happened to be black. He was also strongly advantaged by the fact that the privatised electronic electoral system is mostly owned by Republican controlled corporations, and by the fact that voting is voluntary.

Voluntary voting has been tried in Australia. When the conservative coalition was in power in NSW they made voting for local government voluntary with a view to extending the system to state elections later. The result was a massive swing to the right in local government, to the lasting benefit of developers, simply because the conservatives were much better organised to get their supporters to the polls. Senator Minchin knows that this would be the result if federal elections were voluntary which is why he is pushing for it.

A much more serious danger would be if the Howard government were tempted to use its control of both houses to follow the US lead and privatise the Electoral Office. This would mean the use of electronic voting machines, already introduced in the ACT, which could only be produced in sufficient quantity by large corporations. If the result of the count in Ohio in 2004 is anything to go by, the operations of these machines would be completely inauditable being "commercial-in-confidence".

Then, if anyone were to question the validity of the election result, the anti-terrorism laws could be used to silence them.

there was an interesting article in todays australian suggesting a corelation between religious conservatisim and social disfunction. basicaly the more religious a country, the higher the rates of murder, rape, child abuse, teen promisucrity, stds pregnancy and abortion. hmmm seems ironic that those claiming to be the moral basis for society may be doing it the most damage. but then the religious and political right has allways been a mess of moral contradictions, which i will summarise by singing you a song.

"weapons not food, not homes, not shoes,
not need just greed, feed the war canibal animal,
i walk the corner to the rubble, that used to be a library,
watch them line up to the mind cemetary now,
what we dont know keeps the contracts alive and moving,
they dont have to burn the books they just remove them
while arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells,
and they rally round the 'family', with a pocket full of shells"

rally round the 'family', with a pocket full of shells.
Zack De La Roche.