[lurgissy58]

Voting is just a way those in charge let us think we have a choice when really, it all happens behind closed doors and is orchestrated by powerbrokers who don't give a rats pitootie about the people.

 

[lurgissy58]

I believe artistic representations of male appendages are popular.

Unfortunately, he keeps getting in!

 

[lurgissy58]

We moved to Melbourne from a country town in 2019 due to covid-19 when we could not get supplies for our business. We sold our house to pay of Business overdraft and our Van and car. We never new that there was a council election in our area. Our whole family did not Vote. I was the only one who got fined. I did not get a notice for not voting until 2 years later, Which meant the the fees were accumulating. This never said what it was for, I rang and was told that I did not vote. This is crazy WHY only me. They found me because I had to change my address for my Centrelink pension. But this was done when we first moved, not 2 years later. I was told I could appeal this and I did, this took another year for me to get a notice that I still had to pay for this, with more fee. Just a money making racket I think. What I find crazy about this is you never know anything about the candidates anyway especially if you do not live in that town. I do not know how the people voted as we could not go anywhere. We just got to our next house as my daughter had bought a house, We both had sold our houses. This was never advertised that there was a council election or we would have known about this. I think it is about time that we were giving a choice weather we want to vote or not.

Fines are just a way of bringing more cash in for the government to splash.......if you had not changed your address on the electoral roll when the election occurred at your new address, you were not required to vote anyway. You would have still been enrolled to vote at your old address. Until you enrol to vote in a particular area, you are not permitted to vote in their elections. Did you change your voter registration 2 years later? If you did, this would have been how they picked it up. You should have won your appeal, but we all know how hard it is to prove that Government are wrong......

 

[lurgissy58]

It’s a bit stupid imo to take someone’s licence away if they don’t pay a fine. They need their licence to go to work to earn money to pay the fine. I’m not saying non voters shouldn’t be fined, law is law, but why not just take them to court

Unfortunately, stupidity and Government are interchangeable......common sense is not very common.

 

[Milner Flynn]

As usual Tasmania got left off the list AGAIN, do we not have any legislation for non voting or have we just disappeared off the map altogether

I was abroad for 3 years. On my return on changing my address I discovered that my licence had been suspended and I had been driving around for 3 months. What if I had been involved in an accident. How high handed can you get. This was in Tassie.

 

[Jim E]

I wish people would stop calling it "compulsory voting", it leads to too much misunderstanding about Australia's world-beating electoral system.
What we have is "Compulsory Secret Ballot". Getting crossed off the electoral roll and receiving a ballot paper satisfies the law, thereafter actually voting is optional.
Getting elected costs money and candidates have to find the money to register and then find more money to advertise their case for being elected. Countries without CSB also have to find money to advertise to get people to actually go to the polls and cast a ballot. This leads to candidates having to be millionaires or be beholden to the millionaires who fund them or both. The result is a 'Democracy' that is government of the people by millionaires for millionaires like the U.S.A.