Good piece, Ian. As an Australian (now emigrated to the Netherlands but still engaged with its politics), I thoroughly agree with that analysis. Both preferential and compulsory voting are undoubtedly major contributors to the relative sanity of Australian politics.
First past the post is an astonishingly undemocratic system, and essentially indefensible in any enlightened society. Australia's form of preferential voting is only one of many incarnations that allow for more representative democracy and it's absurd that the UK hasn't implemented one.
Many folk looking at Australia’s compulsory voting consider it anathema to ‘freedom’—for the reasons that you outline—but I would argue that they are looking at it from the wrong perspective. On a trivial level, you are not forced to actually vote. You are required to turn up to the voting station, take your ballot papers and have your name ticked off the roll. You can, if you like, draw elaborate penis and testicles on the ballot paper, or you can “donkey vote”, should the mood take you—just numbering the candidates 1 to n without thought. It’s a time-honoured form of protest at the politicians on offer, or indeed, the response of the politically disconnected or contemptuous. Every society has them.
More crucially, though, compulsory voting places the onus on making voting accessible to all onto the state. It is essentially the antithesis of what is happening in, for example, the USA, where the state can actively limit the capacity of the voters they don’t want voting to get to a voting booth. Australia is famously huge, with massive distances between outback towns. Yet the Australian Electoral Commission ensures that everyone, no matter how remote, is able to vote.
Voting in Australia has become a social event. Everyone is involved, and that creates its own momentum. Because public schools are usually where election booths are set up, the school communities take advantage and set up fundraising stalls, selling cakes and drinks and of course, the magnificent democracy sausage, cooked on bbqs and devoured by all. People actually time their voting around eating. You don’t see people complaining about having to go and vote (not many, anyway). Instead you see communities coming together to decide their country’s future. It’s a real delight, and frankly unique.
Yes last election I was in hospital but they still came around and made sure I had a chance to vote 🗳️ my uncle used to turn up and fill each square with the letters BULLSHIT 💩 he loved it and enjoyed getting his name on the roll ticked off and finding how many candidates were on the ballot paper. If there were 8 no worries. If there were 7 his favourite was BIGARSE. Whatever, he made his statement his way. And he loved a Democracy Sausage with extra fried onions and NO sauce thank you!!☺️
It’s good to see the Australian electoral system get some overseas love. In The Lucky Country, Donald Horne argued Australia was lucky because it was derivative. It inherited a democratic system from the UK and blended it with the US. The Washminster model, it was later dubbed. But that missed how homegrown it was. Compulsory voting, preferential voting, women allowed to stand for parliament, the secret ballot, weekend voting etc. Australia is a leading democratic innovator. Maybe the democratic innovator. I’m a massive convert to compulsory voting. I used to think it was part of the punishment culture - lots of rules strictly applied and surprisingly meekly obeyed (I’m a meekly obedient myself). But it’s a big democratic safeguard. Much prefer the democracy sausage to the democracy hot dog.
Too true Nick. Enjoy your show on RN. Saturday mornings are my favourite time also. Compliance is not always a bad thing .... does anyone in the US who whinges about the government get asked "Did you get off the couch and vote?"
I’m a Brit who has been living in Australia for 13 years and I agree with everything you’ve said here. In addition, I wonder if compulsory voting helps keep the politics here beautifully boring because the preferences of all the average, not particularly politically engaged people are taken into account. It helps prevent the polarisation and alienation seen with populism by making sure people don’t disengage and so the central ground remains fairly stable.
Mr Dunt, I was born and raised in England and came to Australia in 1972 aged 24, planning not to stay very long. They gave me permanent residence five minutes after I first set foot on the wharf at Fremantle. When the British economy was falling apart (Middle East Oil Shock, late 1973) I decided to stay instead of return. 53 years on, still here, almost 50 years a Sydney resident. Congratulations on absolutely nailing it in this remarkable article.
Thank you for saying what I have been saying, far less eloquently, for over 30 years (since I read "The State We're In" by Will Hutton and realized only swing voters matter under FPTP).
The UKs fate was sealed when Blair reneged on the PR deal with Ashdown in 1999 by not facing down Old Labour. And when Farage wins because of the dynamic you explain, Labour - as the supposedly progressive party - will have to shoulder the blame.
One correction though - Australia isn't the only country that has managed to keep the populist right mostly at bay. Just across the ditch we've done pretty well at it in New Zealand too. Different PR system (MMP), but has the same result of deciding the election based on peoples preferences, not their attempts to second guess who has a chance to win.
And yes, politics is also boring here compared to the UK.
Another reason compulsory voting is good; Australia is a country of immigrants, and many do not speak English and live in tight knit communities. They may not be inclined to vote, but because they have to they are educated by the government and their friends and neighbours and it makes them part of the broader community.
Another important factor is the Australian Electoral Commission, an independent statutory agency which is held in high regard.
Well written Ian. I think compulsory voting is a small price to pay for a fairer result. I find it astonishing that a person may be elected with in effect only minority support.
Q
Election day here in South Australia tomorrow. Not only will the voting sites have the usual bbq’ed sausages and cake stalls but there’s a website ( democracysausage.org) that lets you know who has coffee, egg and bacon rolls or even vegan and gluten free options. So the politics might be boring but the food choices are getting better.
About 30 years ago as a form tutor in a secondary school I noted that the 'first past the post' system of electing a form captain had produced in my class a series of form captains who were very obviously anti-school and disinclined to do any of the jobs that form captains traditionally carried out. I was well aware of this faction in my class but did not think they were anywhere near a majority.
I was very interested in voting systems at the time so decided to experiment with a single transferable vote...i.e. putting all candidates in order and transferring the votes of the lowest candidate to the second (or next) preference of these voters until someone had a majority. I was (very wrongly) convinced that first-past-the-post would soon be abandoned for parliamentary elections so I considered this exercise a useful part of the education of my pupils into alternative systems.
To my surprise (and relief) they understood the system very quickly and, after the first supervised run through, there were always volunteers to operate the count. The individuals chosen suddenly began to be drawn from the majority of enthusiastic and helpful pupils in the class and it was definitely a huge relief for me as their form tutor to have their assistance and suggestions.
Federal elections also happen on Saturdays which makes it easier to deliver mandatory voting. The idea I hear more often in the UK is proportional representation, which is not quite the same, and wish we talked more about the option to keep the system of electing your own local MP but offering more ways for choices to be reflected. I really hope we implement ranked choice voting, though I think there would be outrage at making it mandatory.
Yes famously the US hold their elections on a Tuesday, often requiring folks to take some time off to vote, which I imagine is hardly respected by bosses. Saturdays at the electrol booths in Australia are always crowded with kids, dogs, walking frames, wheelchairs etc. etc.
Of course in Scotland we have preference voting in multi member wards for council elections which gives some degree of proportionality while maintaining local representation.
It's blindingly obvious the UK needs to modernise it's voting system (there is a growing debate that we need to change the voting system for the Scottish Parliament to make it more proportional too and they have changed the system for Wales this year) but also blindingly obvious that the labour government, like many before them, won't as they believe the current system works for them
Thanks for writing what we keep impotently yelling in the UK's general direction. FPTP seems so obviously insane. The best thing here is that elections are won in the middle, not at the extremes - yet our imbecilic US-obsessed Sky News-addled right managed to forget that - plus the masses of money and effort you save not having to get out the vote, oh and the bullshit you don't have to hear about the "silent majority". Also the independent electoral commission so we don't get gerrymandered and no one questions the validity of the count.
Strangely, I always find reading about voting systems in other countries fascinating, possibly because I've never found that the first past the post system in UK satisfies my needs or that of the country. I work as a presiding officer in a polling station, and I remember one very elderly gentleman saying to me with a smile that he 'has voted in every election I have been eligible, but have not once voted for a winning candidate', which with our system basically means that his vote had never counted. He clearly wasn't a tactical voter, but I find it very sad that our system makes people feel compelled to vote for someone they would not choose if they were able to make a completely free choice.
I find the question of mandatory voting interesting. Part of me objects to mandating people to do something they would not otherwise choose to do, but I hadn't previously considered the impact on the outcome of an election when only those with strong views choose to use their vote. There is also part of me that wonders whether having the rare and immense privilege of living in a democracy with free and fair elections (albeit using a flawed voting system) does confer the responsibility to use this right to vote and not waste it.
I also sometimes wonder whether the black and white interpretation of the Brexit referendum result would have been a little more nuanced had we not become so accustomed to a winner-takes-all electoral system.
I’ve loved the results of your sojourn in Australia, Ian. You join dots no one else perceives, let alone elaborates upon. As insightful and humane as always, with glimmers of hope for the future. Thank you.
Good piece, Ian. As an Australian (now emigrated to the Netherlands but still engaged with its politics), I thoroughly agree with that analysis. Both preferential and compulsory voting are undoubtedly major contributors to the relative sanity of Australian politics.
First past the post is an astonishingly undemocratic system, and essentially indefensible in any enlightened society. Australia's form of preferential voting is only one of many incarnations that allow for more representative democracy and it's absurd that the UK hasn't implemented one.
Many folk looking at Australia’s compulsory voting consider it anathema to ‘freedom’—for the reasons that you outline—but I would argue that they are looking at it from the wrong perspective. On a trivial level, you are not forced to actually vote. You are required to turn up to the voting station, take your ballot papers and have your name ticked off the roll. You can, if you like, draw elaborate penis and testicles on the ballot paper, or you can “donkey vote”, should the mood take you—just numbering the candidates 1 to n without thought. It’s a time-honoured form of protest at the politicians on offer, or indeed, the response of the politically disconnected or contemptuous. Every society has them.
More crucially, though, compulsory voting places the onus on making voting accessible to all onto the state. It is essentially the antithesis of what is happening in, for example, the USA, where the state can actively limit the capacity of the voters they don’t want voting to get to a voting booth. Australia is famously huge, with massive distances between outback towns. Yet the Australian Electoral Commission ensures that everyone, no matter how remote, is able to vote.
Voting in Australia has become a social event. Everyone is involved, and that creates its own momentum. Because public schools are usually where election booths are set up, the school communities take advantage and set up fundraising stalls, selling cakes and drinks and of course, the magnificent democracy sausage, cooked on bbqs and devoured by all. People actually time their voting around eating. You don’t see people complaining about having to go and vote (not many, anyway). Instead you see communities coming together to decide their country’s future. It’s a real delight, and frankly unique.
Yes last election I was in hospital but they still came around and made sure I had a chance to vote 🗳️ my uncle used to turn up and fill each square with the letters BULLSHIT 💩 he loved it and enjoyed getting his name on the roll ticked off and finding how many candidates were on the ballot paper. If there were 8 no worries. If there were 7 his favourite was BIGARSE. Whatever, he made his statement his way. And he loved a Democracy Sausage with extra fried onions and NO sauce thank you!!☺️
That's very... creative!
I love the idea of the democracy sausage even as a vegetarian
Oh, you can get vegan sausages these days!
Well said 👏🏻👏🏻
The best observations are, I think, made by an outsider and, crikey, I have to say Ian has nailed it. Thanks Mr Dunt, hope you enjoyed your visit.
It’s good to see the Australian electoral system get some overseas love. In The Lucky Country, Donald Horne argued Australia was lucky because it was derivative. It inherited a democratic system from the UK and blended it with the US. The Washminster model, it was later dubbed. But that missed how homegrown it was. Compulsory voting, preferential voting, women allowed to stand for parliament, the secret ballot, weekend voting etc. Australia is a leading democratic innovator. Maybe the democratic innovator. I’m a massive convert to compulsory voting. I used to think it was part of the punishment culture - lots of rules strictly applied and surprisingly meekly obeyed (I’m a meekly obedient myself). But it’s a big democratic safeguard. Much prefer the democracy sausage to the democracy hot dog.
Too true Nick. Enjoy your show on RN. Saturday mornings are my favourite time also. Compliance is not always a bad thing .... does anyone in the US who whinges about the government get asked "Did you get off the couch and vote?"
I’m a Brit who has been living in Australia for 13 years and I agree with everything you’ve said here. In addition, I wonder if compulsory voting helps keep the politics here beautifully boring because the preferences of all the average, not particularly politically engaged people are taken into account. It helps prevent the polarisation and alienation seen with populism by making sure people don’t disengage and so the central ground remains fairly stable.
That is such a great point
I lived in Perth and politics really wasn't as hysterical as in uk
Mr Dunt, I was born and raised in England and came to Australia in 1972 aged 24, planning not to stay very long. They gave me permanent residence five minutes after I first set foot on the wharf at Fremantle. When the British economy was falling apart (Middle East Oil Shock, late 1973) I decided to stay instead of return. 53 years on, still here, almost 50 years a Sydney resident. Congratulations on absolutely nailing it in this remarkable article.
Thank you for saying what I have been saying, far less eloquently, for over 30 years (since I read "The State We're In" by Will Hutton and realized only swing voters matter under FPTP).
The UKs fate was sealed when Blair reneged on the PR deal with Ashdown in 1999 by not facing down Old Labour. And when Farage wins because of the dynamic you explain, Labour - as the supposedly progressive party - will have to shoulder the blame.
One correction though - Australia isn't the only country that has managed to keep the populist right mostly at bay. Just across the ditch we've done pretty well at it in New Zealand too. Different PR system (MMP), but has the same result of deciding the election based on peoples preferences, not their attempts to second guess who has a chance to win.
And yes, politics is also boring here compared to the UK.
Another reason compulsory voting is good; Australia is a country of immigrants, and many do not speak English and live in tight knit communities. They may not be inclined to vote, but because they have to they are educated by the government and their friends and neighbours and it makes them part of the broader community.
Another important factor is the Australian Electoral Commission, an independent statutory agency which is held in high regard.
In comparison, when a lot of Muslims voted in the recent by-election in the UK, this was deemed to be somehow illicit...
Well written Ian. I think compulsory voting is a small price to pay for a fairer result. I find it astonishing that a person may be elected with in effect only minority support.
Q
Election day here in South Australia tomorrow. Not only will the voting sites have the usual bbq’ed sausages and cake stalls but there’s a website ( democracysausage.org) that lets you know who has coffee, egg and bacon rolls or even vegan and gluten free options. So the politics might be boring but the food choices are getting better.
About 30 years ago as a form tutor in a secondary school I noted that the 'first past the post' system of electing a form captain had produced in my class a series of form captains who were very obviously anti-school and disinclined to do any of the jobs that form captains traditionally carried out. I was well aware of this faction in my class but did not think they were anywhere near a majority.
I was very interested in voting systems at the time so decided to experiment with a single transferable vote...i.e. putting all candidates in order and transferring the votes of the lowest candidate to the second (or next) preference of these voters until someone had a majority. I was (very wrongly) convinced that first-past-the-post would soon be abandoned for parliamentary elections so I considered this exercise a useful part of the education of my pupils into alternative systems.
To my surprise (and relief) they understood the system very quickly and, after the first supervised run through, there were always volunteers to operate the count. The individuals chosen suddenly began to be drawn from the majority of enthusiastic and helpful pupils in the class and it was definitely a huge relief for me as their form tutor to have their assistance and suggestions.
You go girlfriend
Federal elections also happen on Saturdays which makes it easier to deliver mandatory voting. The idea I hear more often in the UK is proportional representation, which is not quite the same, and wish we talked more about the option to keep the system of electing your own local MP but offering more ways for choices to be reflected. I really hope we implement ranked choice voting, though I think there would be outrage at making it mandatory.
Yes famously the US hold their elections on a Tuesday, often requiring folks to take some time off to vote, which I imagine is hardly respected by bosses. Saturdays at the electrol booths in Australia are always crowded with kids, dogs, walking frames, wheelchairs etc. etc.
Thursday. (I think it's Tuesday in the USA.)
But I agree with your main point: In 🇩🇪 , it's Sunday. It's so nice: vote about 11- ish , then go for brunch with the neighbours.
Of course in Scotland we have preference voting in multi member wards for council elections which gives some degree of proportionality while maintaining local representation.
It's blindingly obvious the UK needs to modernise it's voting system (there is a growing debate that we need to change the voting system for the Scottish Parliament to make it more proportional too and they have changed the system for Wales this year) but also blindingly obvious that the labour government, like many before them, won't as they believe the current system works for them
I will predict that Labour will be wheeling out the "don't vote Green/Lib Dem, or you'll let Regorm in" argument, as elections approach.
As you say, a preferential system would totally neutralise that argument.
Thanks for writing what we keep impotently yelling in the UK's general direction. FPTP seems so obviously insane. The best thing here is that elections are won in the middle, not at the extremes - yet our imbecilic US-obsessed Sky News-addled right managed to forget that - plus the masses of money and effort you save not having to get out the vote, oh and the bullshit you don't have to hear about the "silent majority". Also the independent electoral commission so we don't get gerrymandered and no one questions the validity of the count.
Strangely, I always find reading about voting systems in other countries fascinating, possibly because I've never found that the first past the post system in UK satisfies my needs or that of the country. I work as a presiding officer in a polling station, and I remember one very elderly gentleman saying to me with a smile that he 'has voted in every election I have been eligible, but have not once voted for a winning candidate', which with our system basically means that his vote had never counted. He clearly wasn't a tactical voter, but I find it very sad that our system makes people feel compelled to vote for someone they would not choose if they were able to make a completely free choice.
I find the question of mandatory voting interesting. Part of me objects to mandating people to do something they would not otherwise choose to do, but I hadn't previously considered the impact on the outcome of an election when only those with strong views choose to use their vote. There is also part of me that wonders whether having the rare and immense privilege of living in a democracy with free and fair elections (albeit using a flawed voting system) does confer the responsibility to use this right to vote and not waste it.
I also sometimes wonder whether the black and white interpretation of the Brexit referendum result would have been a little more nuanced had we not become so accustomed to a winner-takes-all electoral system.
Good one Ian despite your being repelled slightly by our way of life we enjoyed having you here. Come back soon 😉🇦🇺🦘🐨🏉
I’ve loved the results of your sojourn in Australia, Ian. You join dots no one else perceives, let alone elaborates upon. As insightful and humane as always, with glimmers of hope for the future. Thank you.