Voting Day 101!

Most people do not like voting. Most people do not see the point in voting (my vote will not make a difference). Most people dread even the thought of going near a polling booth. During the US Presidential Campaign, a YouTube video of a young girl crying at the thought of another few weeks of campaigning went viral and I am sure many people can relate to her pain - even if she was a mere 4 or 5!

Now there must be reasons for this right? I mean it is not like when you go into the polling booth you have to have an injection / cut off your hand / stick a needle in your eye... do you? Nor do you get laughed at / shot at / looked down on depending on which way you swing, so what is the big deal? I guess people who are voting for the first time in a couple of weeks could be a tad nervous or apprehensive at the thought - God knows what is going to happen when it is just you, a pencil and two pieces of paper in that tiny little booth.  But rest assured you still have plenty of time before September 7 to get ready, and here is my list of things to do before you go and get your name crossed off and cast your vote.

1. Learn who the major parties and minor parties are. This is really really important for those first time voters as not all parties will endorse or put up candidates in every electorate.

2. Find out which electorate you are in, especially if you live on an electoral boundary it may have changed! 

3. Look up your local candidates either on your local stobie poll or political leaflets that will no doubt flood your letterbox. That or you can go to the AEC website for full details on candidates and voting places, among other things of course!

4. It is also vital to have at least a basic understanding of the different voting systems in play at the Federal level. In the Lower or Green House Preferential voting is used to elect the 150 members. This type of voting requires voters to place a number in the box next to the preferred candidate and subsequent numbers corresponding to the level of preference for all other candidates. In the Upper or Red House voters need to decide whether or not they want to vote above the line (1 number only) and let parties decide preferences or below the line and number  EVERY!!!! box.

5. Read all the leaflets that get sent to you, some of them may even be important! Most, if not all political parties, groups and Independents will want to secure your vote and this means nagging you until you give in. Phone calls, text messages, emails and sometimes even personal visits are just some of the ways they will try and make contact. And it won't stop, it will never stop .... well maybe on September 8th but the road is long before you get there!!

6. The Debates. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have so far encountered each other twice in a debate ... of sorts. The second one was dubbed to have covered more ground and was probably more exciting than the first but that does not mean they weren't important. Debates, however unexciting, gives candidates more of an opportunity to cement their every changing views in the public arena. Despite flip-flops, backflips and policy turnarounds, these two people and their subsequent parties are trying their hardest to sway voters to vote for them. Promises, 'core' promises and political sweeteners are all part of the game, the game to win office. 

7. Have Fun! I have said it before and I will say it again, we in Australia are part of a privileged group of people who have the choice about who our representatives are and ultimately who will form the Government. Barry Cassidy on the ABC says that this parliament was a 'mixed bag' which got a lot done but was very politicized throughout its three year term. Whether or not that was a result of the people inside parliament or those outside fueling the fire remains to be seen but one thing is certain, it was a hectic time and political speculation was always at an all time high. Vote Liberal, Labor, National, Green, Katter, Palmer, Democrat, Sex Party, One Nation or Independent I don't care, all I care is that you vote and vote properly, no donkey vote, no invalid vote and no writing on the side of your ballot. You have no right to complain about the work the government is doing, if you could not be bothered or you intentionally messed up your vote! Your vote is sacred and use it well!    

Hey You!

When I tell people I want to grow up and be a psephologist and that my favourite thing to do is look at political and voting systems and just politics in general, 99.95% of the time I am met with a look of disdain and total horror; but also skepticism at what I could possibly see in the policy makers and representatives who line the walls of Parliament Houses around the country and world. The first 1000 times I laughed and said, well some people have to love it, in the same way some people have to love solving crimes, fixing people, collecting and storing money and run around fields in the name of national sport. But now I am kinda getting annoyed. Why? I mean, yes I may take my obsession a little too seriously (studying politics on holidays and requesting political books/plane tickets to Canberra for my birthday) but nonetheless the institution of Government and electing our Government is a fundamental part of a democratic society, and as such should be celebrated not given eye rolls and put to the back of peoples minds. 

There is a Federal Election Campaign going on in Australia at the moment (no way! I hear you say!), and for most people, the thought of turning their television sets on at the moment, is met with a sense of dread and is a vastly unpopular past time until about the 10th of September. If you are unlucky enough to have momentary lapses in judgement and do turn the television on, you will be met with vision of baby kissing, hard hat and high-vis wearing pollies and pollie-wannabes sucking up and smooth-talking potential voters in anticipation for the next three-ish years. Nothing we did not already know.  Right? Also what we have been told is that young people have turned off, not interested and unavailable for comment, when it comes to voting/elections/politics/policy ... you get my drift. And a year or two a go I might have said, yeah I am in the minority, 6 in my politics class, 20 in my politics lecture, party signup on the decrease blah blah blah. But something strange is going on. . . Young folk are getting converted. Not in plague proportions or anything, so no need to call the police, but I can see something happening.  People who are studying Biochemical Engineering, Animal Science,  Speech Pathology, Radiology and English have started caring who says what, and why and when. They will post a little rant on Facebook, ask a policy question, YouTube a Politicians' most recent speech or borrow a political textbook to find out an answer. Boom! And suddenly my quota of politically literate friends has gone from about -5 to 30. 

Obviously I am not so naive to think that this has no correlation to the fact in less than 3 weeks they will find themselves walking into a polling booth for probably the first time, nor the fact they have been bombarded with political paraphernalia in their newsfeed and letterboxes since halfway through May. When newly re-elected PM KRudd was sworn in, in late June he called on young people to 'come back' stating that he could see why they had turned away but stressed the importance of government in their lives. Well Mr Prime Minister I think they are coming back. Not necessarily in the form of ALP loving, center-left voters that you were hoping for, but they are joining in the national conversation anyway.   My friends vary from right-wing Fascist's to economically conservative but socially progressive to left wing ecological Greenies campaigning for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. They come from low socio-economic areas and Upper class affluent suburbs and are wanting to contribute. I also have the closet interested political friends, who you would never know could even list the last 3 Prime Ministers much less hold a substantive conversation with, but they are out there.  Watching and absorbing. Ready and waiting for their day to shine. September 7. 

I am not saying that every young person could accurately describe and quote the latest Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook but what I am saying is you probably should not write-off their vote. Most young people will vote above the line in the Senate, vote in accordance with their parents and quite frankly not care 'until the next election' (because that is when I will need a 'real' job and care [no lie!]) but not all. And in the end even 100 votes will not change the outcome of this election but it is a start. Rome was not built in one day, and this election, despite everyone wanting to take the 'moral high ground' will be about slogging the opponent, there are a band of newly educated young people out there who will use the world as their oyster, and September 7 is just the starting place ....    

The week that was not...

Writing a blog is very similar to writing is a diary. The writer, writes (or types) their dreams, aspirations for the future, what happened to them that day and countless other random thoughts that the think might be interesting to look back on one day. Some people are dedicated diary writers, some only write in diaries when they are on holiday or some, like me only write when something happens that is worth sharing or savouring. I mean what is the point in writing something down, when countless other people have said the same thing over and over AND OVER AND OVER!!! The only difference between blogs and diaries that I can think of, is to do with theme and consistency. Most blogs have a theme, cooking, politics, trains, weight loss etcetera and diary entries are more like opening your brain and spilling the content onto a notebook at random invervals.

Everybody, well unless you live under a rock and in which case you probably would not be reading this, would know about this little thing called the Federal Election which is happening on the 7th of September. It is a magical thing really, I mean who knew that we, the people of sorts, all get to go to a similar place and to the EXACT SAME THING is just a few weeks time. Vote. YAY. Since our Prime Minister, Kevin Michael Rudd called the election all hell has broken lose on the streets. Random peoples faces (I mean our local Federal Candidates) are plastered all over stobie poles enticing us to remember to vote for them in a few weeks time. The more posters the better the chances of election or re-election, or so the theory goes. Furthermore our omnipresent Federal Representatives have taken to personally phoning us and coming to our houses to try and persuade us to vote for them. AND don't even think of mentioning television advertisements sponsored by either of the major parties, who by the way claim to be above 'dirty' politics but engage in it at every opportunity. 

So lets have the highlights from the last week or so. The media have been telling us for months (make that since the 2010 election) that the ALP have stood no chance at gaining office again this year and that the leadership tension and message problems were making voters tune out and ignore the hard facts and realities of life. Not anymore hopes Kevin-im-just-here-to-help-Rudd, who is trying to bring relevance back into Australian Politics. Oh, and not to mention that the Opposition Leader would 'stop the boats' at any cost- a favoured saying by my dad currently but really do people really care? Should we take The Greens approach of onshore processing? Maybe, Maybe not. 

One thing people do care about (according to Facebook, Twitter and posters all around university) is Marriage Equality. Tony Abbott this week came out and called the push for Marriage Equality the 'fashion of the moment' and it probably is, but what does that matter? If it has public support and people want it why not say something like 'yeah ok people, I don't agree with it, but what do I care what people do in their own time?" If it is not hurting anyone (which I can NOT see how it would be) and no one will die because of it, just sign a document and move on. Personally I do care either way, but I do believe, that, the way in which Ellen DeGeneres described gay marriage when she wrote a letter to the US Supreme Court says it all "Portia and I have been married for 4 years and they have been the happiest of my life. And in those 4 years, I don't think we hurt anyone else's marriage. I asked all of my neighbors and they say they're fine." Drug abuse rates would not drastically increase nor would the world end due to homosexuals being able to marry. Lets just do it and move on and as Tony Abbott says "get on to more important things."

THE DEBATE! Last weekend the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader engaged in what most describe as a hour in which both leaders gave heavily rehearsed answers to some questions asked by senior political journalists. My favourite part was after the main festivities, when analysts and political journalists and commentators got to discuss every tiny detail and  Channels 7, 9 and 10 all declared someone else the winner. Abbott, Rudd and a draw. The debate did not really see any new information released nor did it really allow for a combative debate between the leaders, and if anyone really thought that their opinions of the leaders would change after watching the debate, they were surely mistaken. 

And on side notes, big speculation has been aroused as to whether or not the Coalition will increase the GST after their tax review comes back, should they win government, is the 'honeymoon' period over for Rudd, should words like 'sex appeal' come out the mouth of the alternative PM and what the heck is going with the Liberals candidate in the seat of Greenway. All perfectly good questions and all of which, I'm sure will be answered very soon but until then folks...