Dear Gormless Youth of Canberra. Get registered to vote you fools

Sign up, have my name and address details available for all to see, just so I can contribute to a decision between 2 douchey ACTORS and their policy-mercernary mates.

Or not.

steele_blade said :

LSWCHP said :

neanderthalsis said :

arescarti42 said :

So get down to the post office and get registered or you’re going to get screwed.

The wrinklies are going to screw us either way, they have sheer numbers on the side.

The fact that so few young people are enrolled is evidence of the stupidity of compulsory voting IMO. If you’re so disinterested in the system that you can’t even be bothered enrolling to vote, even when it is compulsory, then you really shouldn’t be engaging with it.

I agree that it is hard to reconcile compulsory voting with a true democracy. However, if voting were optional, the fringe dwelling loonies on either side would be those who are most likely to vote. Political parties would drift further to the fringes to accommodate the loons and we end up with people like Pauline Hanson or an Australian version of Mitt Romney running the show.

I agree with this 100%. Everybody should have a say.

Still, and I know this will sound elitist but what the hell, I honestly think that some votes are worth more than others. I have seen interviews with people who clearly have no understanding of the political system at all. The common perception that people “elect” the PM in some manner is evidence of this.

I would like to see some sort of system that weights votes based on education, or having passed a knowledge test on how our electoral system works, or some other reasonable set of criteria.

Quick, get over to the USA – Mitt Romney needs your vote. The 1% would love to adopt your ideas. Are you not aware of how disenfranchised people are the world over simply because they are too poor to afford an education? But you think they don’t deserve a vote. Read Bob Gosford’s latest article here http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/ for evidence of Australians cheated out of their vote.

Read. Then think. Then respond. I didn’t suggest anyone should be disenfranchised. I posited the idea of using education or some other reasonable criteria to weight the value of a vote. This means that everybody gets a vote, but some people’s votes would be worth more than others. I don’t think that sounds totally crazy, unlike Mitt Romney who does sound totally crazy.

And for an example of how not to do vote weighting, consider our current system that applies drastic weighting to your vote according to where you live. Tasmania has a population of around 500,000 people represented by 12 senators. The ACT with a population of around 360,000 has 2 senators. This means that a Tasmanian’s senate vote is worth around 4 times that of an ACT resident. All fair and equitable, hey?

Deref said :

poetix said :

What is gorm, anyway?

Whatever it is, there should be less of it.

Now that is really excellent work. I dips me lid. 🙂

Masquara said :

Truthiness said :

Wasn’t he saying that possession of child porn isn’t the same thing as actual sex with children? .

Breathtaking in your avoidance of responsibility. If you’re typical of the internet “freedom fighters” then bring on censorship, say I. Possession of child porn means some child has been abused and exploited. The children in those images. If you possess those images, you are complicit.
It is highly unlikely that unsolicited child pornography will “find its way into your inbox”. I expect it is expensive (being risky) to purchase. I expect police forensic scientists could discover on your behalf whether you had actually clicked on that child porn. I expect that would be a defence if you ended up in court.

Masquara is correct. Looking at this stuff makes you complicit.

And unfortunately, child porn is readily available for free on the internet in large quantities. There’s a special level of hell reserved for the scum who engage in those acts, take the pictures and make it available, no matter what the price.

milkman said :

Youth shouldn’t vote. They vote for retards.

Shhhhhh, the public aren’t meant to know they’re all retards!!!

LSWCHP said :

neanderthalsis said :

arescarti42 said :

So get down to the post office and get registered or you’re going to get screwed.

I would like to see some sort of system that weights votes based on education, or having passed a knowledge test on how our electoral system works, or some other reasonable set of criteria.

Would you be satisfied by a reversion to the system for electing the English Parliament prior to the Reform Act of 1832? This would disenfranchise Roman Catholics, as was formerly the case in the UK. That should help rid us of both the Labor detritus AND Zed Seselja.

Also, it seems most appropriate, indeed euphonic, for Mr Rattenbury to preside over the Parliament as the representative of a rotten borough!

LSWCHP said :

neanderthalsis said :

arescarti42 said :

So get down to the post office and get registered or you’re going to get screwed.

The wrinklies are going to screw us either way, they have sheer numbers on the side.

The fact that so few young people are enrolled is evidence of the stupidity of compulsory voting IMO. If you’re so disinterested in the system that you can’t even be bothered enrolling to vote, even when it is compulsory, then you really shouldn’t be engaging with it.

I agree that it is hard to reconcile compulsory voting with a true democracy. However, if voting were optional, the fringe dwelling loonies on either side would be those who are most likely to vote. Political parties would drift further to the fringes to accommodate the loons and we end up with people like Pauline Hanson or an Australian version of Mitt Romney running the show.

I agree with this 100%. Everybody should have a say.

Still, and I know this will sound elitist but what the hell, I honestly think that some votes are worth more than others. I have seen interviews with people who clearly have no understanding of the political system at all. The common perception that people “elect” the PM in some manner is evidence of this.

I would like to see some sort of system that weights votes based on education, or having passed a knowledge test on how our electoral system works, or some other reasonable set of criteria.

Quick, get over to the USA – Mitt Romney needs your vote. The 1% would love to adopt your ideas. Are you not aware of how disenfranchised people are the world over simply because they are too poor to afford an education? But you think they don’t deserve a vote. Read Bob Gosford’s latest article here http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/ for evidence of Australians cheated out of their vote.

Voting isn’t compulsory, enrolling to vote is.

Rock up on the day, put a line through the paper, then place it in the box.

Deref said :

dtc said :

One (or the main) benefit of compulsory voting:

– with voluntary voting, the key is to get people to vote. So you appeal to the basest instincts, the radical people who have strong views about something (usually being something relating to tax or ‘morality’) and who want their views enforced across society. Hence abortion being a major issue in US politics and a nothing issue here

– with compulsory voting, you are appealing to the people ‘in the middle’ ie who dont have strong views one way or the other and are willing to swing vote. So all politics get moderated, because you are after the ‘moderates’.

Dont know about you, but I like having politics arguing about the middle ground. Can you imagine Tony Abbott if he had to spend his time appealling to the extremes of his party?

I thought he already was.

Still, I agree. One of the reasons that the US is in the mess it’s in is because most of the people at the bottom of the heap don’t vote. Here, at least there’s a culture of voting and even people who feel disempowered probably give at least a tiny bit of thought to who they’re going to vote for, even if they vote above the line.

That for mine is the main benefit of making volting compulsory and something of which we can, as a society, be proud. It encourages some level of engagement by the governed.

Also, knowing that we will all be voting means it has to be planned for. In other counrties, they have no idea what the turn out is going to be. Polling stations have to be rented and can be hard to get into for those that wish to vote and many people who want to end up not able to vote. They don’t use school buildings on weekends like we do. When overseas people realise how easy we make the process, a lot of their objections disappear.

Furthermore! Back in the late 1980s paedophiles used unwitting, perfectly kind “men’s movement” folk as a vehicle for their platform to “allow men to love boys”. It was a sad mess.
Please don’t allow paedophiles to attempt to hijack the internet freedom debates.

Truthiness said :

Wasn’t he saying that possession of child porn isn’t the same thing as actual sex with children? .

Breathtaking in your avoidance of responsibility. If you’re typical of the internet “freedom fighters” then bring on censorship, say I. Possession of child porn means some child has been abused and exploited. The children in those images. If you possess those images, you are complicit.
It is highly unlikely that unsolicited child pornography will “find its way into your inbox”. I expect it is expensive (being risky) to purchase. I expect police forensic scientists could discover on your behalf whether you had actually clicked on that child porn. I expect that would be a defence if you ended up in court.

dtc said :

One (or the main) benefit of compulsory voting:

– with voluntary voting, the key is to get people to vote. So you appeal to the basest instincts, the radical people who have strong views about something (usually being something relating to tax or ‘morality’) and who want their views enforced across society. Hence abortion being a major issue in US politics and a nothing issue here

– with compulsory voting, you are appealing to the people ‘in the middle’ ie who dont have strong views one way or the other and are willing to swing vote. So all politics get moderated, because you are after the ‘moderates’.

Dont know about you, but I like having politics arguing about the middle ground. Can you imagine Tony Abbott if he had to spend his time appealling to the extremes of his party?

I thought he already was.

Still, I agree. One of the reasons that the US is in the mess it’s in is because most of the people at the bottom of the heap don’t vote. Here, at least there’s a culture of voting and even people who feel disempowered probably give at least a tiny bit of thought to who they’re going to vote for, even if they vote above the line.

pirate_taco said :

c_c – you are obviously referring to the following articles written by Falkvinge
http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/07/three-reasons-child-porn-must-be-re-legalized-in-the-coming-decade/
http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/11/child-porn-laws-arent-as-bad-as-you-think-theyre-much-much-worse/

Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, which was the first Pirate Party worldwide.
He is no longer involved in the Swedish Pirate Party.

Pirate Party Australia does not advocate the legalisation of child pornography,
Rick Falkvinge is not a spokesperson or representative of any Pirate Party.

Pirate Party you need to go further than simply distancing yourselves from Falkvinge. You would be wise to let the Canberra community know, unequivocally, that you draw the line on internet freedom at kiddie porn. Otherwise I, and no doubt many others, will assume that you may be inclined to make exploited, abused children collateral damage in the freedom debate.

Wasn’t he saying that possession of child porn isn’t the same thing as actual sex with children? In an age where any image can be hidden in practically any file, how can we be sure that merely having a banned file is really evidence of guilt? How can anyone who downloads porn be sure that all of the “models” in a given collection are over age?

Seems like our current child porn laws were written by people who are scared of technology and don’t understand the medium they are regulating. I mean, A cups and female ejaculation are banned, even porn comics about the Simpsons are banned. All of this fails to recognise that any individual could come into possession of this stuff without even knowing.

Let’s say I go to a friend’s place and trade hard drives, firstly the entire concept of sharing is illegal, which is ridiculous. Secondly, if I grab a directory of comics without vetting them, the same thing my friend did when she downloaded them, suddenly I could be a child pornographer too?

Let’s say I’m looking for a PDF for online study, I find a torrent with a zip with the right name and download it, suddenly I get distracted and never open or look at that file again. That file could be overflowing with child porn and I wouldn’t know, and since torrents seed auto magically, within a few weeks I am guilty of distributing child porn to thousands of people.

What if I’m browsing along, when a wild child porn pop-up appears, I close it as quick as I can, but it is too late, the image is in my browser cache and I am now unknowingly in possession of child porn.

I put it to you that it is unreasonable to assume the average person has any idea what is or isn’t on their own computer at any given time. The vast majority of people have no idea how their computer works nor what it contains.

It seems to me politicians are trying to whip up fear about virtual pictures on the internet to distract us from their “secret” international child sex rings.

Why Glen, are you upset that you’re been negatively viewed in light of the founder’s comments?

Love the irony. You see if you want to subvert copyright, then the original owner has no control over how their work is adapted or used.

A person could come along, take someone’s work and adapt it for use in hate speech, or in a manner that otherwise reflects poorly on the original creator.

Hence if I now wanted to use Creative Commons to take and adapt the branding of ‘Pirate Party ACT’ and use it to advocate for something society finds untoward, you would no doubt be displeased with me. And yet you couldn’t do anything about it.

Logic is the ultimate downfall of libertarians and anarchists alike.

One (or the main) benefit of compulsory voting:

– with voluntary voting, the key is to get people to vote. So you appeal to the basest instincts, the radical people who have strong views about something (usually being something relating to tax or ‘morality’) and who want their views enforced across society. Hence abortion being a major issue in US politics and a nothing issue here

– with compulsory voting, you are appealing to the people ‘in the middle’ ie who dont have strong views one way or the other and are willing to swing vote. So all politics get moderated, because you are after the ‘moderates’.

Dont know about you, but I like having politics arguing about the middle ground. Can you imagine Tony Abbott if he had to spend his time appealling to the extremes of his party?

c_c – you are obviously referring to the following articles written by Falkvinge
http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/07/three-reasons-child-porn-must-be-re-legalized-in-the-coming-decade/
http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/11/child-porn-laws-arent-as-bad-as-you-think-theyre-much-much-worse/

Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, which was the first Pirate Party worldwide.
He is no longer involved in the Swedish Pirate Party.

Pirate Party Australia does not advocate the legalisation of child pornography,
Rick Falkvinge is not a spokesperson or representative of any Pirate Party.

pirate_taco said :

Perhaps you’d be interested in some of what we have to say.
Pirate Party Australia and by extension Pirate Party ACT has plans to enhance democracy, at least through it’s own membership base with what we call Liquid Democracy – a blend of the best bits of direct and representative democracy. Work on the system is still in the very early stages, but it will be very exciting if we can implement it successfully.
We also have a policy of supporting e-petitioning to help the public directly force issues into the spotlight.

A speedway for electric cars? It’s not on our policy list, but I’d personally love to see one, as long as they allow electric bikes too 🙂
3D printers? Yes please. Pirate Party Australia is trying to make sure that the law allows them to flourish when the technology is ready to go mainstream.
Australian Independence on a global scale? That’s one of the reasons why Pirate Party Australia has been pushing back on things like TPP and ACTA which threaten to remove our ability to set our own laws.

Pirate Party ACT seeks to break the status quo.
Why don’t you give us a go?

Stuart Biggs for Molonglo
Glen Takkenberg for Ginninderra
Mark Gibbons for Brindabella

Glen Takkenberg
Pirate Party ACT

No party is more in touch with issues affecting youth than Pirate Party.
Particularly their founder, who advocates legalising child pornography.

(Something the ACT Branch has distanced itself from, but which speaks much to the warped, schizophrenic ethos on which the party is built and will no doubt be sustained.)

Truthiness said :

There aren’t candidates saying we’re ruled by a banking Plutocracy, that our representatives are perpetuating and supporting. There aren’t candidates trying to implement direct democracy, or pointing out Australia’s role in the ongoing economic oppression of most of the world.

There aren’t candidates who admit we can’t fix climate change, or even acknowledge the true scale and severity of what is happening. There aren’t candidates who want to overhaul our entire society before we careen into a future of our own making.

Who do you vote for if you want a speedway for electric cars? Who do you vote for if you want driverless cars, public 3D printers and telecommuting? Who do you vote for to expand the dole to everyone who wants it? Where is the party which stands for Australian independence on the global scale?

These candidates represent a very small slice of our available options, and most of them cater only to rich, white consumers with a vested interest in the status quo. Strangely, some people think that is not good enough, and that every option is just more of the same.

Half the world is going through revolutions, and we get stuck choosing between tweedledum and tweedledumber.

Perhaps you’d be interested in some of what we have to say.
Pirate Party Australia and by extension Pirate Party ACT has plans to enhance democracy, at least through it’s own membership base with what we call Liquid Democracy – a blend of the best bits of direct and representative democracy. Work on the system is still in the very early stages, but it will be very exciting if we can implement it successfully.
We also have a policy of supporting e-petitioning to help the public directly force issues into the spotlight.

A speedway for electric cars? It’s not on our policy list, but I’d personally love to see one, as long as they allow electric bikes too 🙂
3D printers? Yes please. Pirate Party Australia is trying to make sure that the law allows them to flourish when the technology is ready to go mainstream.
Australian Independence on a global scale? That’s one of the reasons why Pirate Party Australia has been pushing back on things like TPP and ACTA which threaten to remove our ability to set our own laws.

Pirate Party ACT seeks to break the status quo.
Why don’t you give us a go?

Stuart Biggs for Molonglo
Glen Takkenberg for Ginninderra
Mark Gibbons for Brindabella

Glen Takkenberg
Pirate Party ACT

Masquara said :

Why are drugs a “youth issue”? Druggies all seem to look at least 25 years older than they are! Most druggies I know are cosmic waste aged around 40 and looking like they should be in the Ozanam care facility …

The company you keep my dear…