Elections, etc.

So I might have heard a thing or two about an election going on at home (wink!), and that made me think it could be interesting to share what I've learned about Australian elections and politics to-date. To be honest, I haven't immersed myself into the system here very much or done too much reading on it, but I have observed and heard a few things that are pretty interesting. Also, several people have started talking to me about politics when they've found out I'm American, so I've gotten some firsthand insight into Australian politics and mindset.

Elections & voting

Town Hall

One of the most interesting things about elections here is that Australians have to vote. If your name isn't recorded as casting a ballot at a polling place on an election day, you get a $20 fine in the mail. As an American, this seems completely crazy! However, Australia equates voting to other civic duties like paying taxes or serving on a jury, so they use the fine system to ensure citizens participate. There are lots of debates about the system in the country, but people generally agree that the system - good or bad - is effective since turnout is usually over 80% of elgible voters.

Elections are also held on Saturdays to make it easier for people to vote. Now that definitely seems like a good idea to me!

Politics

There are two main parties in Australia: the Labour Party and the Liberal Party. Interestingly, though, the Greens party, which is based on environmental policies, usually gets over 10% of the votes in elections, whereas the other fringe parties are much more on par with US fringe parties percentages.

The Liberal party is actually the more conservative party (pretty much the same as the Republican party but somewhat more moderate) and the Labour part is about on par with Democrats. From what I've heard (and been told once!), Australians tend to be hesitant to embrace comparisons between their parties and American parties since the American political system is looked on with a lot of disdain. Most Australians seem to feel that the American democratic process is broken and creates a perpetual impass that prevents anything from getting done. They also seem to agree that the tone and rhetoric of American politicians is creeping into Australian politics, and that causes a lot of distress and debate iteself.

However, as much as Australians bash the state of American politics, they still very closely follow the election. It's fairly prominent in the news here, and the people from work that I've heard talking about it seem pretty well informed. I even heard some people discussing the last debate they watched on replay the day after. And, like most of the rest of the world, Australians are huge Obama fans and, interestingly, seem to be pretty familiar with his policies and him as a person. They did a poll here last month and 74% of Australians would vote for Obama and only 5% would vote for Romney. (Not sure who all got those other percentages!) Quite interesting!

Anyway, it's been eye-opening to see a little bit of how another democratic country loves/hates the American political system.

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