Forum awards 2007.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Time to make it real. I suggest you start the locusts with the moderators who have so far failed to respond.

Followed by the boils.

[John Dolva]

Stephen, apparently no one takes your threat of bodily harm seriously. No one has added to your poll since you first issued your threat.

Time to make it real. I suggest you start the locusts with the moderators who have so far failed to respond. Of the moderators, only Kathy has responded to date I believe.

To explore the election system in Oz, a friend of mine and I formed a party we called the Christmas Party in 92'. He changed his name to O. Santa Claus and ran on a ticket with Lord Bloody Wog Rollo, professional alarmist. Out of a field of about 72 (NSW senate) many far more deserving, we came about 16th with only 1700 or so primaries. We were allied with Godfrey Bigot who ran against Hanson, In the process we found that the flow of preferences as directed by parties, not the voter, got a number of candidates past the post in a way that did not reflect the voters intention. It's better than the past gerrymanders, but there is still a measure of a vote rigging where an overtall preference is not reflected in the result.

All that aside, yes Howard. ... Again, as in the US the media distorts reality. I think if all things were equal, the right wing would not have b.een in power hardly at all in the last 40 years.

Santa choose O Santa Claus because otherwise the ballot paper would have read St Claus. Apart from falling off our chairs gripping our sides to stop laughing as the head Federal Government Ballot Officer struggled to read O Santa Claus as the ballot for voting postion was drawn and announced to candidates and media. O = Christian or first name. Santa Claus = Surname.

Unfortinately the Honorable (truly, great guy.) Lord Bloody Wog Rolo was deemed inappropriate and became swomething innoccuous as L. Rolo.

[Greg Parker]

Mmm. A "compulsory democracy"... doesn't the concept of the right to vote inherently contain the right not to vote as a means of expressing an objection about the fraud of democracy?

David, I chose the wording carefully. Voting itself is not compulsory. Casting a ballot is - but no law says it has to be a valid one.

Belgium has a similar system - but much harsher potential penalties. Here, if they bother to follow up on it all, an amusing excuse will usually see you avoid the $20.00 fine. In Belgium, you can be fined, banned from voting for 10 years and be barred from public sector employment.

I never vote for political parties.

Nor would I would vote for organised crime families to guard Fort Knox.

Don't they already own it?

[John Dolva]

Yes, we have compulsory "democracy", but it's not very effective. I've never voted, never enrolled to vote, and have never been fined. I'm on a one man crusade to reinstate non-compulsory apathy in the land that invented the ballot box.

And Tim, one of the candidates in the recent election here was listed on the ballot as "Above, None Of The".

This person/s made the mistake of not naming themselves "of the above None"