I did not realize that in Australia it is illegal to not vote.
To steal a line, the state is not your friend. If I were an Aussie, I would probably not vote. It makes a nice statement.
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Privilege. And the Labor party just made the former lead singer of Midnight Oil a parlimentary candidate even though it appeared he hadn't voted in the last few elections.
Voting is a political Right, which is different from a Natural Right. Voting is merely part of the social contract & depending upon the results of that contract it can or can not be that big of a deal.
In theory it's entirely possible to have a free society, or at least as psuedo free as the one we have, w/o voting. In practice this gets much trickier but it's not implausible.
But the way the chips landed over here we all view voting as a Right - something we are entitled to do by nature of our citizenship. Apperetly in Aus they take a more Heinlein-esque view & regard it as a duty. With that I have some issues, but there are more pressing matters in Aus that I take exception to so I just can't get too worked up over their requiring someone to vote.
Hell, I know of some third world countries where you're not only required to vote, but required to vote as specified. Think 100% voter turn out & 100% votes for certain presidente's happen cause people are bored but like the guy?
But for what it's worth i might not vote under suh a system either.