Talk:Electoral system of Australia/Archive 2014

Controversy of compulsory voting
Firstly this section needs splitting between the philosophical debate about whether the law should require citizens to go to their polling station & do something, and the legal debate about just what they have to do.

Secondly the latter section is confused and at times presenting one opinion as gospel. It's also not clear if "Barwick's opinions" are from the judgement in an unspecified case or if this was the personal opinion of someone, even if they did happen to be the Chief Justice. If they are from cases then can we have them cited please?

The latest I've seen is that it's a requirement to actually cast a valid vote but it's impossible to enforce unless somebody makes a huge fuss and shows their blank ballot; however any move to electronic voting machines will require a clarification (and with nine jurisdictions the law varies between them). Timrollpickering (talk) 11:55, 14 June 2013 (UTC)


 * In the course of copyediting, I decided to remove some content which depended on the citation of this defunct (Fairfax newspaper) link. It should go without saying that it is a waste of our time to rely on comparatively trivial web content which is either of short life or available only on a pay-per view basis. (I accept that pay-per-view may be better than nothing in cases where the source is of significant importance and not matched by any accessible alternative.) If we cite such a newspaper, we need to include both the date of issue and the page number to allow future users to look for the reference in hard copies or reliable online versions as and when they eventuate. I also note that this particular subsection points to a main article, Compulsory voting, which would surely be the preferred repository for well-sourced and notable detailed material. Bjenks (talk) 07:11, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Just jumping in to say that this section should be deleted. The controversy does not exist, at least not beyond a few politicians who were particularly bad losers (namely Mark Latham). Every reliable survey (first among them being the 2013 Australian Election Study: http://aes.anu.edu.au/) has found overwhelming public support for compulsory voting, and suggestions to abolish it have invariably been condemned (eg: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23810381). The idea that there is any controversy is an illusion - probably one created by non-Australians who don't fully understand it and who's concerns belong on the main compulsory voting article. Controversy about compulsory voting is not a notable phenomenon in Australia, and this section should not be in the article. 130.56.117.154 (talk) 11:15, 7 August 2014 (UTC)