Australian taxpayers to fund political parties.

[tozak]

Why do you think voting is compulsory in Australia?

Because the Government is sh!t scared of the truth and that is that every election more people are fed up with the whole system. If voting was not compulsory then the exponential growth of sustained voting would trigger talks of a complete Government overhaul.

It's clear that majority would prefer less Government yet we play a charade of a fair Democratic elections in order to contain the general building sentiment of public anger and distrust in our current system and elected officials.

The illusion of freedom masks the truth that we all have a gun to our heads everyday, forcing us to work, pay taxes and to remain compliant. It does not matter that the gun is not loaded and is at the hands of a trembling scared figure just hoping you still believe that it is loaded.

 

[Shaddam IV]

If we have to pay per vote is there a GST on the payment?

 

[SilverBrumby]

It is not compulsory to be registered to vote. If your not on the roll you dont have to vote. They are not going to get my dollar!

 

[CriticalSilver]

It is not compulsory to be registered to vote. If your not on the roll you dont have to vote. They are not going to get my dollar!

Directly from the AEC:

Who can enrol to vote?
It is compulsory to enrol if you:

are an Australian citizen, or eligible British subject,
aged 18 years and over*, and
have lived at your address for at least one month.
*You can enrol at 16 or 17 but you cannot vote until you turn 18.

http://www.aec.gov.au/enrol/

 

[goldpelican]

I just phoned my local member's office to register my displeasure.

I suggest you do the same.

Several MPs have told Fairfax Media their offices have been fielding calls from voters angry at politicians voting themselves more money.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/po...an-in-chaos-20130529-2nc8p.html#ixzz2UgXZTSPz

 

[Big A.D.]

Why do you think voting is compulsory in Australia?

We don't have compulsory voting, we have compulsory attendance at a voting booth.

If you choose to fill in the ballot paper you're given, that's your business.

 

[mmm....shiney!]

LMAO we've had this semantical debate before. Groundhog Day anyone?

 

[Old Codger]

Big AD,

Correct.

Actually that extends to fronting the clerk and having your name crossed off the roll. Then you can walk out of the polling station.

 

[tozak]

Why do you think voting is compulsory in Australia?

We don't have compulsory voting, we have compulsory attendance at a voting booth.

If you choose to fill in the ballot paper you're given, that's your business.

Agree with you on the ballot paper you can put down what ever you want.

However;

Unless there is the box on the ballot paper that says "Sustained" and the Sustained votes are all counted and reported then it is compulsory voting. Your 3 choices of voting is to vote for a Party, Donkey Vote or Informal Vote. If you think the only obligation is to attend the booth then next time you go try taking the blank ballot paper and folding it up and put it in your pocket and walk out the door and see how you go!

 

[CriticalSilver]

You will all be glad to know that St. Tony has saved the day and scuttled the proposed legislation...

It would be troubling enough, if Tony Abbott's shilly-shallying on electoral reform had merely killed off hopes of making overdue changes to the nation's electoral laws.

But it has shredded his credibility too. Credibility he had steadily rebuilt since admitting to routinely gilding the lily, to not always telling the ''Gospel'' truth unless he was delivering scripted comments.

As is the Opposition Leader's wont, he struggled manfully through a difficult press conference on Thursday morning, mostly avoiding questions, all while wearing what he once stylishly characterised in Julia Gillard, as a ''shit-eating grin''.

But spare your sympathies. This was entirely self-generated discomfort.

The package was never going to be popular, particularly because it was headlined by a massive $20-million-a-year allocation of public funding to the major political parties via a $1 per vote formula.

On the plus side though, it contained improvements including greater campaign funding transparency, more frequent and rigorous reporting of donations to parties, and new rules prohibiting foreign donations in cash and property.

Thanks to Abbott's double-dealing, all of that has gone.

:lol:




Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/doubledealing-reveals-abbotts-failings-20130530-2ndhc.html

 

[Emanance]

You will all be glad to know that St. Tony has saved the day and scuttled the proposed legislation...

It would be troubling enough, if Tony Abbott's shilly-shallying on electoral reform had merely killed off hopes of making overdue changes to the nation's electoral laws.

But it has shredded his credibility too. Credibility he had steadily rebuilt since admitting to routinely gilding the lily, to not always telling the ''Gospel'' truth unless he was delivering scripted comments.

As is the Opposition Leader's wont, he struggled manfully through a difficult press conference on Thursday morning, mostly avoiding questions, all while wearing what he once stylishly characterised in Julia Gillard, as a ''shit-eating grin''.

But spare your sympathies. This was entirely self-generated discomfort.

The package was never going to be popular, particularly because it was headlined by a massive $20-million-a-year allocation of public funding to the major political parties via a $1 per vote formula.

On the plus side though, it contained improvements including greater campaign funding transparency, more frequent and rigorous reporting of donations to parties, and new rules prohibiting foreign donations in cash and property.

Thanks to Abbott's double-dealing, all of that has gone.

:lol:




Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/doubledealing-reveals-abbotts-failings-20130530-2ndhc.html

Cant believe this jorno quotes Abbott's 'shit eating grin' reference to Gillard, then finishes his argument up by saying there was also some good things like transparency in this 'shit sandwich' deal for Australia's tax payers. If it had some good things in it why the turtle do they have to lace it with poison. If the libs have had a midnight epiphany and have decided to withdraw support from this 'package', then that will be enough to win some (free) votes from Australia's taxpayers. I suppose I should thank those who took the time to bring their disdain for this policy to the attentions of their local MPs, bloody well done.

 

[CriticalSilver]

Good thing in new legislation? :lol: Unfortunately people still get duped into believing that the community "needs" anything these clones dream up!

Australia's political parties are experiencing their own budget emergencies, with donations dwindling as the costs of campaigning climb ever higher.

Returns lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission show federal, state and territory divisions of the Liberal Party were $15 million in debt at the end of last financial year, while Labor branches owed almost $12 million.

Income for all political parties for the year was $125 million, down from $228 million the previous year


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/po...ng-own-budget-emergencies-20130531-2nfkv.html

Society can't afford to donate to these people any more, so they seek to create new laws to take what they want. It's as simple as that and it's always that simple.

Why the NDIS and why now? So they can replace the welfare jobs in the failing Auto sector with welfare jobs dishing out more welfare!

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has pledged to help create jobs in Geelong should he become prime minister, stressing that people, not big government, will save the city post-Ford.

Some 510 jobs will be gone in Geelong by the time Ford stops making cars there in three years time.
...
"If the right decisions are made about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), it could be a city of administration too."

The Victorian government is lobbying the commonwealth to headquarter the NDIS in Geelong, which would create an estimated 500 jobs.

Read more: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abbott-pledges-to-work-for-geelong-20130525-2n3c4.html

And he's anti big government? :lol:

There is no limit to what they can do, no accountability for what they do or say and hence they operate under no restraints except those self-imposed.

He wants the tax payer to fund his party because its in debt, then he doesn't. He is against big government saving Geelong, then he's for it. What a joke. Yet people want to believe he is somehow better than Gillard, Swan, Rudd, or whoever. They call it "suspending disbelief" when in fiction human interest and a semblance of truth" (is infused) into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative.

But what disbelief is being suspended when it comes to these lying, cheating, no-good, public purse consuming, trough swilling, self-aggrandising, narcissistic, sociopathic politicians? We suspend the disbelief in their claimed altruistic motives and forget that they are lying, cheating, no-good, public purse consuming, trough swilling, self-aggrandising, narcissistic, sociopathic politicians.

 

[Big A.D.]

Why do you think voting is compulsory in Australia?

We don't have compulsory voting, we have compulsory attendance at a voting booth.

If you choose to fill in the ballot paper you're given, that's your business.

Agree with you on the ballot paper you can put down what ever you want.

However;

Unless there is the box on the ballot paper that says "Sustained" and the Sustained votes are all counted and reported then it is compulsory voting. Your 3 choices of voting is to vote for a Party, Donkey Vote or Informal Vote. If you think the only obligation is to attend the booth then next time you go try taking the blank ballot paper and folding it up and put it in your pocket and walk out the door and see how you go!

Sounds more like enforced use of a recycling bin than anything else. Okay, the receptacle has "Ballot Box' written on it rather than "Paper Recycling" but were you hoping to keep your unused ballot paper as a souvenir?

FWIW, I have great respect for event organisers who provide on-site rubbish disposal facilities. That stupid theory that people will just take their rubbish with them if you remove all the garbage bins always results in huge piles of crap being left behind on the ground.