[Linux-aus] The federal election - what ICT policies have been announced? (fwd)

[Anthony Towns]

On Sun, Oct 03, 2004 at 09:17:10AM +1000, Pia Smith wrote:
> > Similarly, as the man was imprisoned for advising voters of their voting 
> > rights, a couple of elections ago (the people are not allowed to be 
> > informed of their voting rights for feral elections, under feral law), 
> > advice of human rights, via the Internet, would also likely be banned 
> > under "mandatory filtering" legislation.
> ? Again a reference would be great, I hadn't heard of that before :(

Albert Langer, 1996. He was advocating voting the candidates you don't
like equal last, as a moral stand / form of protest. Which isn't to spec,
but the vote counters will still use your vote as much as possible, so
your vote won't actually get thrown away. Unfortunately for Mr Langer,
advocating filling out a ballot incorrectly is illegal even when it'll
still get mostly counted. He got an injunction, then three weeks hard
time when he kept distributing his pamphlets anyway.

Amusingly, just a few years later, the Queensland Labor party advocated
the same thing for the Queensland state election (where preferences are
optional, and hence advocating that is entirely legal), to great effect:
Liberal and National voters apparently followed their advice, leading to
the conservative vote getting split and an even bigger Beattie landslide.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/cib/1995-96/96cib14.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1029303.htm

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj at humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
Don't assume I speak for anyone but myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

``[S]exual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.''
      -- US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (http://tinyurl.com/3kwod)
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