2 July 2016 / leggypeggy

Australia votes—where will it end?

Unless you are Australian or living in Australia, you probably didn’t know that our country had its federal election today—sort of like voting for the USA president, yet totally different.

The biggest difference is that our campaign lasted for eight weeks. That was the longest campaign we’ve had in many decades. Most campaigns run for about three weeks.

As I write it is almost 11pm. We don’t yet know all the winners. The results are close. We don’t even know who will govern the country—Liberal or Labor or a hung Parliament (meaning a grouping of those willing to work together).

But we do know the outcome will be fair and a reasonable reflection of what the people want (or think they want).

Let me explain. And I’ll try to keep this simple. Pull me up if I make a mistake or if you have a differing opinion.

Australia has two main seats of government—the House of Representatives (the Lower House) and the Senate (the Upper House).

Australia operates on what is called the Westminster system. Put simply, it means every votes counts.

When I vote for the House of Representatives, I have to number all the candidates in the order of my preference for them. My electorate had four choices, so I numbered the candidates from 1 to 4.

For example, if the person I put at number 1 doesn’t get many votes—certainly not enough to be considered—my vote then spills over to the candidate who my first choice person likes best (so it pays to know who your first-choice person likes most). And so on. My vote might actually end up going to my 4th choice, but only after and because my three previous choices didn’t get enough votes to be considered. This rarely happens, but it can. (It’s more complicated than this, but I hope you get the idea).

An important addition
My friend Carol found a great explanation of how votes are distributed so here it is (it’s also in her comment below):

‘When it comes to the count, all the number “1” votes are added up first, and if any candidate has more the 50 per cent of the votes, they win straight away.

‘If no candidate has more than half of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded, and all the ballot papers that had that candidate as “1” are transferred to the voters’ second preferences.

‘If there’s still no candidate with more than half the votes, the candidate who now has the fewest votes is excluded and the votes are transferred to the next preference shown.

‘This process continues until one candidate has more than half the total number of formal votes and is elected.

‘So if you voted “1” Greens, “2” Nick Xenophon Team, “3” Labor and “4” Coalition, your vote might flow to Labor if Greens and NXT were excluded before anyone had more than half the votes.’

The Senate is a little different. Every state elects 12 senators, while the two territories (the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory) can elect only two.

Huge numbers of people run for the Senate. My ballot (in New South Wales) was the size of a table runner. Without going into huge detail, I had to number my choices from 1 to 6 above the line (or 1 to 12 below the line). If you are interested, you can look up the intricacies of above and below the line voting.

I won’t say how I voted.

But I will say that I vote in the seat of Gilmore. Poor John and I usually live in the seat of Fenner, but we have a beach house in the seat of Gilmore.

We could vote in Fenner, but it is a seat with such a predictable electoral outcome that we thought we’d put our vote where it might make more difference. Turns out it didn’t make a difference this time, but maybe in future.

But a few comments about Australia’s amazing voting system, and this is from the man who is America’s current ambassador to Australia. Our local radio stationed interviewed him earlier this week. He said there are three things he wants take back to America. They are:
• compulsory voting—Australians over the age of 18 are obliged to vote
• an independent body to draw the electoral boundaries
• a campaign of no more than 60 days.

If electoral practices ultimately change in the USA, maybe it started here.

So how would you change the voting system in your country?

Another important addition
I completely forgot to tell you about the cake stalls and sausage sizzles that are a major part of every Australian election.

Elections are always on a Saturday and most primary schools serve as polling stations. This provides a perfect chance for the P&C (Parents and Citizens) group at a school to fundraise. Mums and dads volunteer to make treats (ingredients have to be listed on the outside of the packaging), butter slices of bread, fry onions and sausages, and collect a fair whack of money for the school coffers.

I was vice president of our local P&C for two years in the late 1980s, which meant I was in charge of fundraising. I twisted a lot of arms those two years and we made a lot of money for frills at the school. I remember neighbour, Peter, taking the challenge to slice something like 10 kilos of onions. He wore goggles to do the job.

So if you’re ever ‘recruited’ to bake or slice or fry for a ‘cake stall’ event, here are two page-32 recipes that should make your task easier.

Apricot squares, which my daughter’s work colleagues call ‘apricot crack’.
and
Lamb, rosemary and apple sausage rolls, the most visited recipe on my cooking blog.