When is the election due?

http://news.com.au/


Sorry, I couldn't find a place to put Au election details. Asian politics will have to do.

The election date seems to be PM&C's biggest secret for years - watch out for the "Tampa" style event during the campaign - something like a "Terror" cell unearthed in Lekemba perhaps...

Australians are expected to vote are they not, with those failing to vote being fined?

I think the idea of a moderately coercive democracy is a good idea, you can hardly criticise your government if you didn't bother to vote.

Monsieur LT,

Yes, by law all eligible Australians are required to vote. The penalty for not doing so incurs a fine of roughly $30 (I think), although electoral fine defaulters (there's a famous case where a well known Canberra Journalist took it upon himself to "make a stand" on this issue and was sent to jail, for a day or so) can be tried in a crimminal court.
My personal view is akin to your own, I believe that to have healthy democracy, and thus a healthy society, it is every citizens (I should say subject here, for Australia much to my fury is still a dominion state of the Commonwealth/Crown) duty to play a part, even if it is only to walk into the voting booth and vote 'donkey' (informal) - a stance that about 5 - 8% of Australian voters take each year (whether this is on purpose or accidental is something the government and AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) strangely have never revealed).
Australia, it could be easily argued, is one of the most "over governed" nations in the world. We have a Federal Government, State and Territory Governments and Councils who all work hard to spend our tax money in their own best electoral interests. Many Federal Governments (of both political persuasions) have tried to 'Centralize' or 'Streamline' the system but all to no avail.
Perhaps the most scandolous part of the Australian political system is the widespread ignorance (fostered by the powerful...) about politics and how it vitally effects every citizen's life in this country. It seems that the blue skies, beaches, football and good food (+ reasonably high standards of living) means that Australians generally believe that "politics will look after itself - don't bother me, don't know - don't care", this of course downright idiotic, but to quote a famous saying..."You don't know how good something is until its gone...".

Being a One Nation member I will be voting for One Nation.

The latest reports have Sept. 18 as the date...

drewshocks,

Pauline eh?
What do you think about Abbot, Dutton (the member for Dickson) and Terry Sharples?
The Minister for Health is the only guy in Australia I know of who can get lawyers to work 'pro bono'!!!
I spent a few years in QLD, living on an island just near Straddie, so One Nation isn't new to me...how does it feel to have the Liberals steal all of the party's social/immagration policies!

I love Pauline Hanson with a passion.

drewshocks,

With that whinny voice...no thanx

The uber babe of Aussie politics is

Natasha Stott Despoja

The super sexy warrior princess

I joined One Nation right at the very beginning in may 1997. I am the secretary of the Ryan Branch of One Nation. I used to be the Qld state policy co-ordinator until I got dumped by the state executive of the party for being too radical. I am also a foreign member of the British National Party.

"Please explain?"

She exposed the politically correct morons in the Liberal, Labor and National parties for what they are. Nothing like a dose of reality to get people stirred up.

C'mon drewshocks, all that anti immigrant stuff is simply absurd, we've got a whole continent underneath our feet...

And anyway, who wants to go back to 60/70's Australia, the food was AWFUL!

Does good ol pauline have her old fish n chip shop back? what is she doing now days?

I remember working in Singapore during the initial stages when the press got a hold of her. Every taxi driver, every bar staff member and the average Joe (Choe) on the street knew about her and thought all Aussie hate asians.
It was hard to explain that what the press portrayed is not what she was really about.
She made some unfortunate comments (perhaps poorly phrased) and that was it, she was burned at the stake.

John Howard has agreed to only doing 1 live televised dabate during the elections!
What a joke!!!

Asian people should live in asian countries where they belong. This seems a reasonable proposition to me.

I doubt very much you are decended from a Celtic tribe, so why don't you go and sod off back to Norway or France...! Bloody Immigrants

I guess all of those Americans should sod of back to Britain so that the Native Indians can have America back as well?

Immigration is essential for economic prosperity... deal with it..

I agree that we need to do more to ensure assimilation of our values, culture and language though...

Anyway back on with the topic...

lets hope they ( the ockers) have the sense to vote out the greasy arse licker , who went against national opinion and sent aussie troops on an ILLEGAL invasion in order to gain trade benefits with the americans . when will the world listen to the UN ???

Howard has just revealed that he will return to Canberra tomorrow!

Stay tuned...he may take a trip over to see the GG at Yaralumla

The PM has just held a press conference over at the Parliament outlining his tactic for the ELECTION that will be held on OCTOBER 9th.

the Coalition parties will run on a platform of...

Low Interest rates
Anti terror defence
Non union affiliation

Latham is to give his reply in little under half an hour from now, stay tuned

Mark Latham has just issued his reply from Sydney, Labour will run on a platform of

Health
Education
Truth in Government

I recently visited Sydney and was appalled to see that the city had been swamped with immigrants of a non english speaking background. I got on a train at Central to go to Sydenham and felt like a foreigner in my own country.

On election day aussie voters will express their contempt for the immigration sysytem.

There are some truly excellent Chinese restaurants in Sydney...I LOVE Chinese food...it's so much better than that anglo crap - and hey, I'm a fifth generation anglo aussie!!!

There are too many asian people in Sydney. They should spread out around our vast country.

The Australian election campaign continues...

The same two, tired and compromised parties saying the same tired, rehashed policies...

Two children fighting for an apathetic public's attention.

Who will win 6 weeks from now?

It certainly wont be the farmers suffering in the drought.
It certainly wont be the kids who sleep rough in the big cities
It certainly wont be the hardworking small business people who keep paying tax.

It will be the same Liberal/Labour political elites.
With their parliamentary superannuation schemes
With their taxpayer funded junkets
With their "golden handshakes" when it all goes wrong...


It's enough to make you cynical
Very cynical.

I will be both campaigning for and voting for a local One Nation candidate. I will also be outsde the Brisbane Convention Centre on September 26 protesting against the Liberals who are having their national election campaign launch there.

As many as 10,000 protestors will be outside the Brisbane Convention Centre on September 26 when the Liberals have their national election campaign launch. I will be there protesting against the nondiscriminatory immigration system.