Voting Weirdness

I had no idea of the existence of this weirdness, but discovered this morning that since 1984 here in Australia, there has been a special dispensation to allow British citizens to vote in Australian federal elections!

I’m quite amazed at this. I cannot think of a SINGLE good reason to allow this, and there is currently a committee in parliament discussing changing this. What is even more amazing is that there are certain seats around the country which were settled on very fine margins at the last election, and where thousands of non-Australian citizens voted.

I’m sure there is an interesting story behind how this special dispensation came to be, but I think it’s a joke. Honestly, what other country in the world permits non-citizens to vote for their government?!

Curiously, although Australia has passed legislation to allow for dual citizenship, and also the High Court has clarified that British citizens are in fact aliens (in the technical sense!), we have literally thousands of British citizens who have chosen over a 25 year period not to become Australians (even though they could still maintain their British status), and yet still felt quite ok about voting in our elections… doesn’t make sense to me… seems somehow inconsistent. I’m surprised this has continued for so long.

And, yes, I AM a republican at heart… :-)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under politics. You can feed this entry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses

  1. This just proves how poorly Civics have been taught in Australian Schools over the past few decades.

    Including the lack of biblical wisdom with regards to the separation of powers that exists under the current system of Federation, in place due to the wisdom of our forefathers regarding the inherent sinfulness of man [in positions of governance].

    The Australian Federation is basically a functioning Republic already, but without the baggage of a potically elected President as is the case in the USA & France. For more insight, I suggest you purchase “Twilights of the Elites” by David Flint.

    http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2003may31_cover.html

    Servus - June 24th, 2009 at 6:37 pm

  2. nice link… interesting read.

    we may be a functioning republic (although i have questions about that in some areas), and i’m not sure that to formalise this necessarily requires going the US or French route… but, i certainly think it’s a debate that needs to be had, beyond the ridiculous way in which howard framed it for failure last time around.

    ob1 - June 25th, 2009 at 7:38 am

  3. Living in Rocco… that really must get to you !! :)

    Mark E - June 25th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

  4. actually saw a funny stat the other day that said that 50% of all english immigrants to WA live in this area… that’s amazing!

    ob1 - June 25th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

  5. and the other 50% live in Joondalup….hence churches up there are 50% or more composed of south africans immigrants…

    Mark E - June 25th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

  6. well, i can’t complain… i’m a bit of a foreigner myself, but i took the oath to become an aussie as soon as i could.

    ob1 - June 25th, 2009 at 5:11 pm