After the hype

QUESTION: What do the following countries have in common: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Honduras, Philippines, Singapore, Uruguay and Venezuela?
ANSWER: Compulsory voting.

Voting has been compulsory in Australia since 1924. It was initiated when only 59% of eligible voters turned out for the 1922 elections. (Which was, incidentally, the exact same percentage of those who voted in the 2004 US elections, where voting is optional.) In last Saturday’s Australian federal elections there were 13.6 million enrolled to vote. Based on previous years, some 95% of those would have made it to a polling booth. I went to the embassy in Phnom Penh and this was the first time I have voted from overseas. The process was clear, the lines weren’t long and I agreed with a stranger I overheard talking to her friend on the way out when she exclaimed, “I love voting!”

There’s something cool about that hit of empowerment that comes with checking the box and numbering the preferences. Hopefully it helps us to realise that we have a voice in the ongoing political process. Advocacy can continue after the hype of the election is over. Being involved doesn’t have to be a once-every-four-years event.

When I read that Bronwyn Bishop was re-elected as my local member for Mackellar, I did some research and read her first speech to parliament in 1987. She opened with a statement that being elected to parliament was “the fulfillment of a schoolgirl aspiration”. Bishop continued by speaking of why she chose politics:

History showed me that the world had two groups of people: firstly it had those who were part of the decision-making process and actually had some say in the direction of the nation in which they lived took. The second group of people were those who had decisions made for them. I determined that I wished to be a part of the decision-making process.

On one level, I congratulate the Hon Bronwyn Bishop for fulfilling her personal ambitions and for remaining the member for Mackellar for over a decade. However, I think that if this statement still sums up her view of politics then it is essentially wrong. The point of a liberal democratic system of government is that we all make decisions. Our political process is grounded in the belief that individuals are rational beings, capable of choice. A liberal democracy views society as being able to work in an orderly and co-operative manner (rather than barely functioning in a state of disorder and conflict). It is suspicious of concentrated forms of power. It recognises that politics is the art of compromise. Politics is about power. However, it should be about legitimate, shared power within a framework of justice and freedom. Respectfully, Bronwyn Bishop, you’re not the only local who is part of the decision-making process. I love voting and I love making my voice heard between elections too.