Elections
Watching the U.S election process and comparing it to Australias, its hard to tell who has the better setup.
My understanding is that in the U.S the election occurs on a tuesday, a working day, and that voters have to make time to attend to the ballot. In Australia our elections are held on saturdays, which typically used to be a day off but nowadays most of the people I know work six days a week. Its still something of a carnival atmosphere given its a weekend, the kids get to come along, theres balloons and we're voting for clowns.
Voting is voluntary in the U.S but compulsory in Australia, under threat of prosecution. What that really means is you have to show up and sign your name, but that doesnt mean you have to vote for a real party. Informal voting where people simply leave the ballot blank, scribble obscenities or a horsie on it or name some fantasy figure like 'Hugh Jorgan' for Prime Minister, are always a feature of our elections. Some individuals took advantage of this mindset to create small parties that they knew people would vote for simply to spite the five (5) major parties in Australia, thus we had the 'Party! Party! Party! Party' and the 'Green Fried Tomato Party'. The Fishing Party and Shooting Party are still on the ballot but most of the smaller weirder ones are gone.
Ive been told that until recently U.S voters didnt have the option of early voting or, if they did, certain preconditions had to be met. Here anyone can vote early and walk away from the last two weeks of the campaign, something Ive done for over 15 years. It means no queues at schoolyards and I can ignore fourteen days of political advertising. The politicians here are starting to realise this and campaigns actually tend to relax a bit in the last two weeks because they know more and more people have done their duty and switched off the tv.
We dont have fixed terms, though they are under discussion, and typically have our elections every three years or so when the Prime Minister decides the circumstances are in his or her parties favor. Australia has not yet had a female Prime Minister but I put that achievement at most two elections away. Frankly, no one I know really cares about the gender of the Prime Minister. New Zealand has had at least two that I remember, one from each camp, and the current PM, Helen Clark, has held the post for about nine years. The current Premier (Governor) of Queensland, Anna Bligh, is in fact a direct descendant of William Bligh, commander of The Bounty and former governor of colonial New South Wales (where he had a second mutiny thanks to an army officer, who, as chance would have it, my ancestor served as a property manager). This sort of thing really appeals to Australians and for all the harping about her performance as Premier, no one has made an issue of her being a woman. Thats one thing I prefer about Australian politics.
Guns arent a campaign issue here anymore since the last PM all but outlawed them. Abortion isnt an issue either though its more vigorously debated at state level. Religion is making a comeback but Australia is still incredibly secular. Class division plays a remarkable part in politics here for all the posturing about this being an egalitarian society... the new Labor government just imposed a 33% 'luxury' tax on new cars over a certain value purely to target wealthy car owners. I guess the one big difference between the U.S election and one of ours is that U.S $150,000.00 would buy matching outfits for every politician in Australia. For a country this rich in wool theres a hell of a lot of synthetic fibre rustling on those parliamentary benches.
So Im watching the election in the U.S and will be in the U.S a few days after the polling day. Somehow I doubt all the argueing will be over by then. Theyll just be argueing over the result instead and Im looking forward to the bitter recriminations simply for the entertainment value.
K
