why did australia decide to use compulsory and preferential voting ?

Answer 1

Despite what many people now believe, the beginning of Australia's democracy was NOT an egalitarian affair, with people of all classes joining together to form a commonwealth.

The overwhelming majority of Australia's prominent politicians at the time of Federation (1901) were rich and powerful men of business, many of whom dabbled in international trade and ALL of whom had an eye for their own interests!

The early 1900s were a period of fervent nationalism in Australia, and also great social turmoil.

The electorate was sharply divided along social and religious lines, with a large 'conservative' protestant population generally at odds with pre-socialist and catholic voters on the other side. Due to Australia's world first secret ballot system, it was impossible to control these voting patterns directly.

Politicians and their supporters were keen to ensure their own 'brand' of Australian-ness stuck, and took no prisoners in their efforts to use propaganda, sentiment, voter inducement and persuasion to gain the advantage.

Looking at other new democracies around the world, they soon noticed that proportional representation and 'simple majority' voting (as practiced until then in State elections) led to the rise of many small or 'minority' parties, which needed to form alliances, often with some difficulty, to ensure government. When these alliances broke up, so did the government, resulting in unrest and disturbance to civil services.

A 'Preferential' system (in which votes cast in favour of those who did not achieve outright victory are attributed to the candidate with the most 'primary' votes in an electorate), would clearly hamper the rise of minority parties, ensure the development of a strong two party system and provide stability of government.

Introduced at Federal level in the 1919 general election, Preferential voting is now used in Federal elections for the lower (legislative) house of Parliament.

Another voting system, Proportional Representation, is used for the upper (review) house, which is known as the Senate. This system fosters the election of minority parties and although most Senators do belong to one of the major parties, a number of minority Senators are generally elected and ensure an even spread of interests are represented at the most senior level of Australian government.

Compulsory voting was first used in Federal elections in 1925, resulting in a turnout of more than 90 per cent of eligible electors.

The reasons for its introduction were almost certainly entirely political. It is said that the then government introduced compulsory voting in the hope of gaining additional votes, and this may be true.

Whatever the original reason, compulsory voting is extremely popular in Australia.

Despite a tiny group of people who argue it is somehow an infringement on individual liberty to 'force' people to vote, the fact is, the small fine (about $100 Australian) would not be likely to 'force' anyone who truly objected, yet over 90 per cent of voters continue to attend the booths and register themselves as having done so, at every Commonwealth (Federal) election.

For most peple, attendance at a polling place (what they write on their ballot will never be known as it is secret) is the minimum standard of adult participation in our peaceful, diverse and respresentative democracy.

Cheers :-)

Answer 2

To its great credit, Australia was first to use secret voting: known internationally as the Australian ballot.
Also to its credit it has advanced the system of preferential voting where votes cast on one losing candidate can still be transferred over to a second preference whereby the voter might have a second chance of getting someone elected. (Note: preferential voting doesn't guarantee that all votes count. In single member systems approx. 50% of the votes are still wasted.)
Unfortunately when it comes to compulsory voting, Australia has not done itself any grace by keeping this turkey.
It was introduced by a conservative government to counter what they thought was the opposition's advantage in having more dedicated followers in getting the vote out!
Over the 90 years since then the reasons for keeping it have not improved to any degree in the integrity stakes. The major parties keep it so they don't have to go to the trouble of 'getting the vote out' on election day. Also it maintains minority parties' miniscule representation in parliament rather than a larger (although still small) representation block they would gain if only concerned people voted.

Answer 3

The answer above explains it very well. The compulsory nature of our participation in the electoral process ensures that the Government is a true representation of the majority of the people. In Australia it is considered to be right and proper that we take an interest and a certain degree of responsibility for the people we elect. The preferential voting system ensures that every vote is used and no vote is wasted. It also allows for a diverse and varied political platform which gives people real choice. It is a good system for Australia and it has worked well for many years.

Answer 4

The Australian legislature deemed it right that the compulsory and preferential voting is the right system to their government.

Answer 5

It is significant also because it makes Australians pay more attention to politics. US system actually disenfranchise many of their citizens and lots of politicans work hard to actually dumbed down the citizens to discourage them from participating rather than making them informed citizens. More than 100 million people didn't vote in the last election in America, and when George W. Bush was voted in as Governor of Texas, Only 29% of voting age population of Texas show up to vote that time.