Comments on: On a roll

By: Ozymandias

Ozymandias — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:47:04 +0000

The enrolment form itself seems to have been designed as an impediment to registration; it’s very detailed and hugely complex. One wonders how anyone with limited English could hope to get a vote.

By: Phil Robins

Phil Robins — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:31:58 +0000

You can enrol on election day in Canada, Nigeria and, I believe, the US. No reason why wed can’t do the same here.

By: Graeme

Graeme — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:09:22 +0000

Matthew – don’t mean to quibble, but aren’t the fines for civil offences under ‘WorkChoices’ $33 000 (for unions or for that matter employers) and $6600 (for individuals)?

By: Why

Why — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:02:10 +0000

Local Liberal member for Wentworth – Malcolm Turnbull accused of deceiving directors

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/turnbull-accused-of-deceiving-directors/2007/10/17/1192300858897.html

By: Mathew Cole

Mathew Cole — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:15:01 +0000

(cont’d from Adam @61 – accidentally hit “submit” button)
Free trade unions – don’t make me laugh. You can be arrested and fined $20,000 for striking unless the Government says its OK. Slater and Gordon – lawyers, I presume? No relevance to the civil rights of human beings – the legal system worksfor whoever can afford the most expensive lawyer. There is also the saying about prostitutes having higher professional morals than lawyers – there are some clients that prostitutes won’t take on.

Australia has no effective safeguards – plenty of safeguards, but none with both the ability and the will to take on a (hypothetically) dictatorial government, hence ineffective. Given a restored set of safeguards, the ID Card may well be a good thing for Australia – but a free society must err on the side of greater rights, not lesser. The ID Card, in the present climate, would erode the rights of citizens.

By: Mathew Cole

Mathew Cole — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:10:11 +0000

Adam

@61: Australia does NOT have a Bill of Rights, the only privacy is given to politicians who want to hide their dirt, the judiciary is appointed by Howard (now 6 of 7 Justices), the Ombudsman is a joke, the populace at large is apathetic, there is no such thing as a free press (you pay cash on the barrelhead for every positive headline)

By: Mathew Cole

Mathew Cole — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:37:25 +0000

Adam,

1. Sorry to be so late with my response to this topic.

2. The USSR had a Charter of Rights, guaranteeing among other things the right to free spech, freedom of association, fair trials etc. It was enacted into law in 1936. Stalin ignored it and did what he wanted. You’ve got the cart before the horse, IMO – we need a strong Charter of Rights first, need it to have been there long enough to be universally accepted within the nation – and THEN, after a generation or so, we can be confident that no-one will try to use an ID Card to circumvent it.

“Only the guilty need be scared” – hah! Orwell would have loved that!

By: PD41

PD41 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:16:13 +0000

I doubt either Cadman or Hoare will run. Hoare actually indicated she would accept the result despite her disillusionment with the way she was stripped of pre-selection, if my memory serves me accurately. And I got the impression that Cadman, although not ruling out the option of running as an independent, made it clear that it was only a remote possibility

Even Cadman and Hoare were to run as independents, it wouldn’t strike me as being that interesting as a development. Cadman is a Howard loyalist while Hoare is a solid lefty so their preferences will likely end up flowing back to their respective parties.Even if they were elected to the House of Representatives as Independents -and I think this VERY unlikely -they would likely support their respective parties in the event of a hung Parliament so there’d be no suspense there

By: David Walsh

David Walsh — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:50:19 +0000

Has there been any discussion of this from the APH site? I haven't seen any mention of it here. Gavan O'Connor is apparently set to announce his candidacy as an independent today. According to that list, Alan Cadman and Kelly Hoare might soon follow. Now it probably just means that, when asked, they decided to keep their options open. Still, interesting.

By: Caroline Church

Caroline Church — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:44:24 +0000

There is a precedent for misuse of census data, and the electoral roll could be used for the same purpose. During the first world war the Billy Hughes government sent call up notices to all persons of conscription age on the previous census. It was I believe done before the referendum on the subject, and probably helped defeat it. Both conscription referendums were defeated.

During the period of conscription during the Menzies Holt
Gorton and McMahon governments use was made of university records to identify persons of conscription age, then 20, who had not registered. The age for voting was then 21, so the electoral roll was not much use.

The current age for voting is 18. Should a future government introduce conscription (remember the first government to introduce compulsory military service in Australia was a Labor government) electoral roll data could be used for the same purpose as census data was by the Hughes government during world war one.