THE DONKEY VOTE

Here I am, I have finally decided I have to update my details with the AEC, the Electoral Comission.

Usually I am lazy enough to let it slide and vote in my previous electorate, because I’m going to move back and I still stack my flag there. Yea I’m a bad boy, but welcome to reality.

People are lazy, people have better things to do, people generally phase out to what is happening in politics until an Election is called.

But the only thing that has fired me into action is the fact that my old seat is a safe Labor seat, Lilley. Ah good old Lilley…I miss Lilley.

But now I live in the barbaric confines of the Forde electorate. And it is a Liberal nest. In the 2004 Federal Election the seat was won by Kay Elson for the Liberal Party 62.98 to 37.02.

So I am moving my Labor vote and I am now printing off the form to change my address details.

But I am forced to do this now because of some dirty work from PM John Howard!

He changed the laws last year making it harder for people to enroll and be part of the election process. Get that, he made it HARDER.

Thousands of Australians will be unable to vote in the upcoming Federal Election because of the “Electoral Integrity Act”. As a result of this Act the Electoral Role will close on the day the actual election is called!

Usually when we lived in a more democratic country, we had a five day grace for everyone to organise getting enrolled or updating their details. Probably over 100,000 people are going to be shut out, that is about 800-900 per seat. This period of grace is imperative and it is the period that people truly begin to switch on after the Phoney War is over and the real Election campaign begins. Infact in 2004 over 130,000 people used that five day period to enrol!

People have better things to do then wait for John Howard to call an Election. It is bad enough that he has the power to keep the nation hanging on his whim, when it politically suits him to time andelection to his advantage. But to add insult to injury, he is giving us one day, the very day he calls the election to enrole. Some of us have real jobs and lives John.

This isn’t an issue that gets much air but I and many others believe this is just a move to shut out voters who wouldn’t traditionally vote for the Liberal Party. The youth, migrants, people in isolated communities, indigenous people, low income earners, unemployed and the most important minority group in this country, me.

These new laws also make it far more difficult to enrol in the first place!

What a sickening move aimed at eroding true democracy in this country. One of the best things in Australia is compulsory voting, everyone as possible should be encouraged to be part of this process. And it sickens me that John Howard has gone out of his way to stamp on this nation’s electoral tradition and spirit.

I’m really pissed off as I fill out this form…

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