Col and Leigh

What seat at the last election was not won by the person who got the most votes before preferences? Rhetorical question. None, Zip, Zero.

Your arrogance about abolition of compulsory voting giving the coalition an advantage is breath taking.

It is the other way around, Leigh the evidence is out there, the abolition of compulsory voting would decrease the coalition vote by 1.8%

I do agree that compulsory voting should go but for different reasons, it would make candidates work harder in their electorates and the idea of safe seats would go.

I only hear from my local member when an election is called maybe it would get this lazy liberal off his butt and not take things for granted.

At it again, Steve. "Idiot", "arrogant" - all because you don't like other people having an opinion. Address your remarks to the instigator of the topic, not to all and sundry.

I stick by what I said, irrepective of your blah. What? Do you think you have some miraculous power that will change peoples' minds?

Rather than calling other people names, you should give some thought to what people more polite than you could be calling you if they took notice of your posts.

Leigh

I was referring to "It is a well known fact that there are more thickos voting Labor than there are voting Coalition".

I pointed out that this is not a well know fact and that it is arrogant of you to assume such, given as you stated you have no evidence for the statement.

Given that only 75% of eligable voters cast a valid vote under compulsory voting in the last election and that 36% stated they had no interest in politics it means that only about 50% of voters even care who is elected.

So our Govt, was elected by 39% of voters, hardly democratic.

Leigh if you can call people "thickos" I can call you an arrogant idiot, fairs fair :)

Steve Madden “So our Govt, was elected by 39% of voters, hardly democratic.”

That is Garbage.

If less than 77% care and 39% (or roughly 51% of 77%) elect the government then it is perfectly “Democratic”

The thing with a democracy, it is never presented as a “perfect” solution (otherwise we would be allotted voting rights based on IQ).
The imperfect system should at least respect the sovereignty of the voter by leaving the “choice” with the voter, Both Who to vote for and whether or not to vote at all.

That you, I suspect, resent the electoral wisdom and “democratic” outcome of the will of the majority of participating voters is your problem

Col

I think you misread what I wrote, sure the Govt got 51% of the vote of those who voted but 61% of those eligable to vote did not vote for them.

I was commenting on compulsory voting, which I oppose, given that 36% of people have no interest in politics then we should have a voter turnout of about 50% if voting was not compulsory.

This I suggest would be unacceptable to all political parties and would result in candidates actually getting involved in local issues and getting people to vote for them, you know the hard work you are in favour of.

The 18.9% Liberal/National and 17.1% Labor voters who have no interest in politics but vote anyway are the ones who create "safe seats" there should be no such thing.

Get them off their collective butts and earn our votes not expect them on a plate.

I notice you didn't comment on first past the post voting, very strange. :)

in my opinion voting should require a certificate of understanding for the election process & the doctrine of parties. at every election all parties ramble on about how we need more of everything but as soon as they get into power they are stuck with the horrible reality that they can't deliver on their promises. let's look at the standard promises. "better eduction' is always a huge catch cry but when will we see it. "better health services" where is it ? "less taxes" now there's one. "law & order" well, we might as well give up on that one. how can we ever expect to form a functional society when we have a system which forces us to vote but fails to inform us of the fundamentals of various parties so that people can make "An Informed" choice. the present system where the revenue taker rather than the revenue maker dictates is not an efficient one hence the devided & disappointed electorate. we need to focus on sustainability & reward for effort. sorry lefties i know this hard for you to comprehend but you can't sustain an economy which costs more to keep than what it produces.