Current political situation

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Ozarkgal said:
Hubby read my rant...says he's waiting for 3 or 4 black SUV's to come down the driveway...There was a day in time when I would have laughed at that.
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They'll likely just send a drone to keep an eye on you Ozark...after all, folks like you are a threat to this great country, likely a terrorist, LOL! Why can't we all be good little trusting sheeple, and trust that they know what's best for us. :mask:

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Pardon me for laughing.
Surely you guys are paranoid.

Downunder we have compulsory voting. We don't actually have to vote.
All we have to do is turn up and have our names marked off to avoid getting a please explain or a fine.
Participation rates are very high because we have all kinds of options - absentee voting for when we cannot be physically present in our electorate, pre-polling and postal voting also make it easy for people who have to work on polling day or who are too infirm to leave the house.

I joke that I must have an ASIO file by now because I write to politicians quite often. I wrote to John Howard (former PM) urging him not to take us to war in Iraq and received a letter in return that talked about 'weapons of mass destruction'. I've written other letters to the appropriate ministers urging better treatment for asylum seekers, especially the children but I'm not really worried that the government has me under observation. Sometimes I even write letters of encouragement to individual politicians who have done something praiseworthy.

I believe that we get the government we deserve and that apathy and cynicism are not the right tools with which to grow a robust democracy. Mind you, I think you have too many elections. We don't elect the judiciary or people like police commissioners. We do elect representatives for the three tiers of government - federal, state and local councils. That's enough for us.
 
Warrigal said:


Pardon me for laughing.
Surely you guys are paranoid.
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Sometimes paranoia is born of long experience ...

Downunder we have compulsory voting. We don't actually have to vote.
All we have to do is turn up and have our names marked off to avoid getting a please explain or a fine.
Participation rates are very high because we have all kinds of options - absentee voting for when we cannot be physically present in our electorate, pre-polling and postal voting also make it easy for people who have to work on polling day or who are too infirm to leave the house.
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So it IS compulsory and you actually have to "be counted" - how do you know they still don't use your name for some kind of vote?

I joke that I must have an ASIO file by now because I write to politicians quite often. I wrote to John Howard (former PM) urging him not to take us to war in Iraq and received a letter in return that talked about 'weapons of mass destruction'. I've written other letters to the appropriate ministers urging better treatment for asylum seekers, especially the children but I'm not really worried that the government has me under observation. Sometimes I even write letters of encouragement to individual politicians who have done something praiseworthy.
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At one time, in the dim and distant past, our politicians did a few praiseworthy things as well ...

I believe that we get the government we deserve and that apathy and cynicism are not the right tools with which to grow a robust democracy. Mind you, I think you have too many elections. We don't elect the judiciary or people like police commissioners. We do elect representatives for the three tiers of government - federal, state and local councils. That's enough for us.
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I believe we get the government they want us to have. Did you know that in our "Democracy" the majority of people could vote for a candidate, yet that candidate could still lose? Do you folks have an "electoral college"? That's a complicated way of making sure that only certain votes have any real weight, and is a system that is open to abuse.
 
So it IS compulsory and you actually have to "be counted" - how do you know they still don't use your name for some kind of vote?
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All voting is by pen/pencil and paper. If you turn up and have your name crossed of the electoral roll then no-one else can vote using your name. Once you receive the voting papers, which are initialled when you have your name ruled through,you go to a booth, mark it (or not if you refuse to vote) and then drop it yourself into the appropriate box for counting after the polls close. Counting is watched/checked by party scrutineers.


I believe we get the government they want us to have. Did you know that in our "Democracy" the majority of people could vote for a candidate, yet that candidate could still lose? Do you folks have an "electoral college"? That's a complicated way of making sure that only certain votes have any real weight, and is a system that is open to abuse.
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First, we don't elect our head of state because we are still a constitutional monarchy. We have nothing equivalent to your electoral college, nor do we have your system of primaries. We do have an upper house, the Senate, which is very similar to yours. Senators have a fixed 6 year term and half retire every three years. Each state elects 6 senators for every half senate election and the seats are allocated by proportional representation using a preferential voting system.

We also have a lower house, the House of Representatives, which has a maximum term of 3 years but the PM can call an early election if he/she wants to. One representative is elected from each electorate using a preferential system. Counting of preferences only happens if no candidate gets at least (50% + 1) of the primary votes.

Whichever party wins the majority of lower house seats gets to form government and its leader is appointed Prime Minister by the Queen's representative, our Governor General (a mostly ceremonial position). The party can change leaders at any time and then we have a new prime minister. This has happened in the last month when our first ever woman PM was challenged and defeated by someone from her own party. The irony is that three years ago she did the same to him.

We are due for a new election later this year but the date has not yet been set by the new PM. Even though the last three years have been tumultuous, with a minority government surviving only with the support of a handful of independent MPs, and with scandals surrounding various MPs, including The Speaker of the House, we are still facing a reasonably close election. Politics down here is anything but dull.
 
Thank you for the education - I appreciate it - but something you need to know about me - I'm totally apolitical. My idea of the perfect system of governance would be none at all.

I'm sure you folks have your fair share of intrigue and in-fighting, much as we have here. We are actually more of a monarchy as well, since our leaders act like kings and queens. :rolleyes:

You sound like you're very involved in the process, or at least very understanding of it - congratulations.
 
I'm an ex teacher and way back in 1962 at teachers' college we did a course in government. For one term we studied the Russian revolutions and the subsequent system of government that developed in the Soviet Union. Then for a term we studied the American Revolution and the system of democracy that emerged in the US. For the final term we studied the Westminster system of the English parliament and our own system that has some elements of the British parliament and the American federal system. It has been very helpful in understanding what is going on both here and in some other countries.
 
Warrigal said:




Downunder we have compulsory voting. We don't actually have to vote.
All we have to do is turn up and have our names marked off to avoid getting a please explain or a fine.
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I would love to give them a compulsive mooning and "Explain THIS!"
 

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