the lucky country
A few years ago, it was my birthday wish that the Liberals would lose the federal election. It was a great election day / birthday picnic I had. My favourite gift? A stubby holder a particular friend gave me that day.
Sadly, my birthday wish didn’t come true and the Liberals were returned to power based on promises they made about the economy and national security. Personally, I can’t say that I have felt any more financially secure or safe over the last four years, so it’s lucky that I didn’t waste my vote on a half-baked promise that interest rates would be kept low.
This forthcoming election is once again going to be about the economy and national security. I feel these issues will be important because voters now realise that the “other” issues: water policy, climate change / sustainability, David Hicks’ incarceration, the continuing military involvement in Iraq, all directly influence or resulted from economic and security decisions.
Once again, I’ll be hoping that Labor and the smaller parties (such as the Greens and what’s left of The Democrats) can take charge and do their very best to lead this country forward to a peaceful, sustainable future. After winning power Labor would still need to mop up the mess of IR changes and ensure that health and education opportunities are equitable and of a high quality. It sounds like a tough job. Hopefully the Kevin Rudd – Julia Gillard leadership duo can win the election and govern this country the way it deserves to be.
<dreamsequence>
There are times when I think some large scale political regime change would be good. Something along the line of a revolutionary, utopian future where most cars disappear, and we have awesome bicycle lanes, community gardens and public transport instead of polluted roads. High speed internet connections would unite us all and every individual would be provided with a OLPC computer (let’s change that to One Laptop Per Citizen, not Child). Those who disagreed with the changes would be er, “re-educated” in a pleasant environment doing manual labour building straw bale houses, tending the sick and making even more bicycles in the glorious State[less] Bicycle Factory*. We would have no gods as such, but would look up to figures such as Don Dunstan and Mighty Cyclor.
</dreamsequence>
While it will never produce anything close to my perfect world, this democracy that we take for granted is the very best system that we have to influence political change and ultimately change our society, environment and economy for the better. Democracy is not just about one vote every four years, but that one vote is incredibly important.
As an Australian, I feel so fortunate to live in a country where I can vote, and where I believe my vote counts^. I feel disappointed if the party I vote for doesn’t gain power, but ultimately I know that I exercised my right to vote responsibly.
In 2005, changes relating to enrollment were made to the Electoral Act legislation [pdf]. This reduces the time for many electoral roll changes made after an election announcement from 7 days to just 3. Importantly, those people aged over 18 who are eligible to vote but haven’t enrolled, now only have until 8pm on the day an election is called to make sure they are enrolled and have a political voice.
To enrol, check or update your electoral enrollment details, go to the Australian Electoral Commission’s website. For my expat Australian friends you can check if you’re eligible to vote too.
For more information about many issues to do with the forthcoming Federal election, GetUp! is a lobby group that I support and recommend.
* Ask me about this one day – I have a great crackpot scheme involving a bicycle factory, awesome graphic design and widespread social change.
^ In Adelaide, Federal Election 2004, Kate Ellis (ALP) won the seat from the Liberal incumbent Trish Worth. Maybe my birthday wish did come partially true?
Ok, I may sound like an utter commie here, but I wouldn’t put your hopes in the Rudd Labor party too much.
They’ll get in and nothing will change.
For example, Work Choices works on the whole, much to my chagrin, and like the GST (which still totally sucks for someone on my wage and habits) a Labor government won’t dare touch it.
Like GST, Work Choices simplifies things and makes things cheaper for the government. Do you really think Labor will risk a deficit to rollback Work Choices?
Oh, they may make some small changes, some minor tweaks to make the not-as-commie-as-me happy, but overall it won’t impact too much on their bottom line.
Of course, I’m not saying vote Liberal though
I’m just saying the whole Lib/Lab thing is a farce and needs to be dismantled if you want real change…
(Don’t worry… I’m working on that too… but shhhhh! The feds might be spying…)
As long as Evil Johnnie doesn’t get in again I don’t care who takes over. I think Kev would do a better job than Johnnie (BTW, Kev lives not far from me and I’ve bumped into him on the street a few times. We’re like best mates or something now).
Labor in power would have to improve the education system, especially tertiary, which is a mess after so many years of Liberal pillaging. I benefited from education as a right rather than a privilege – others should too.