Unlock the mysteries behind the curtain of Australian politics with us! Our latest episode delves into the intricacies of how elections down under translate the people's will into the halls of power. With an eye-opening discussion about the Australian Electoral Commission's role and the dance of democracy that decides who gets to sit in the 151 seats of the House of Representatives, we offer a comprehensive look at the systems that shape the nation's future. And for those who've ever scratched their heads at the preferential voting method, our breakdown simplifies this ballet of ballots into an understandable choreography, illuminated further by the ever-vigilant scrutineers who keep the integrity of each step in check.
But there's more; we're not just tallying votes here. You'll come away with a newfound understanding of the political leadership's path to power—a journey not determined by public vote but by the parties themselves as they choose their Prime Minister and deputies from within. So whether you're a seasoned political aficionado or just curious about how democracy operates in the land of kangaroos and Queensland politics, this episode promises to equip you with knowledge and perhaps even inspire you to strive for personal excellence, just as we do every day. Join us to unravel these political threads and more, leaving you better informed and ready to engage with the political process.
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Pete: Hi and welcome to this episode of the Pete George
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Experience where we go into part two of how the Australian
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political system works. And today's episode is all about how
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Australia runs its elections Very much similar to the British
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, I think. And it's all conducted by an independent body
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called the Australian Electoral Commission. So in Australia, to
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win power in the House of Representatives, which is the
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lower house that makes all the decisions and comes up with the
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good and bad ideas, as I mentioned in the previous
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episode, there's 151 seats and to form government you need half
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plus one, so that's 76 in total. So how is all of this conducted?
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Well, every three years, the sitting party or parties go and
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have parliament dissolved and call an election, and it's
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normally six weeks out before the date. And our elections are
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always held on a Saturday and you can vote in three manners.
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So that's vote on the day, do a prior vote leading up to the
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election, so you can go and vote at a different location if you
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have a valid reason. And three is postal and absentee. So
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absentee is where you're not going to be in the country, so
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you can do that. Prior to leaving is where you're not
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going to be in the country so you can do that prior to leaving
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, and postal is where you're going to be interstate and you
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post it back in and then they're counted. So there's a lot of
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misconceptions about our elections, how they can be
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rigged and everything. Now there is only in my experience and I
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have worked on an election there is only one flaw that is in our
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system. Compared to other places around the world, and from what
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I've seen, learnt and understood , america is a shocker for it.
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So who can vote? Any Australian citizen over the age of 18. So
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you must be 18 or older and it is compulsory, and if you do not
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vote you can be fined. So, um, that's the the first thing that
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changes us from that wonderful, wacky, um strange place called
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america, where it is compulsory. Here it's a on a given day. If
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you and, as I said earlier, if you have a valid reason, you can
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vote prior to, and that's there for people that work, weekends
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and and travel and things like that. So it's a good system and
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more and more people are doing the pre-poll voting. So what
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happens on the actual day? Well, you go to a polling booth and
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they're normally at a state school or high school anywhere
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in the given areas of your electorate and then from there
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you mark your name off and then if there's a Senate, which is
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the upper house, if they're both doing a part. Vote for the
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Senate, then you'll receive two papers. Vote for the Senate then
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you'll receive two papers. You mark them, one to however many
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is on the sheet, because it's not first across the post.
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Here in Australia it's what's called a preferential system,
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where you mark the ballot paper, as I said, from one to how many
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is on the sheet. So it's in order of your preference. And
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this is where it all gets a little bit dodgy and hard for a
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lot of people to understand. So what do we mean by your
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preference? So say, for instance , you wanted to vote Liberal but
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not have Labor get many votes and vice versa. You would select
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whichever party you prefer and then you would put the party
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that you least prefer as the higher number. So the trick is
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in this system is to get 50% or higher. So what we call the
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first preference is counting, and I'll get into a little bit
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more detail about counting. To shut a few people up is that
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they'll do the first round of counting, um, and then they work
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out who's had the most votes, who's had the second most, and
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then from there on they take say , for instance, there was four
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whoever came fourth. They would grab their ballot papers and
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count again and then start distributing their preferences
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to the count and if that gets the party with the highest votes
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over the 50, well, that's the winner. If not, then they go to
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the next number, so on and so on until they get that 50. So there
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is a coalition here in Australia it's called the Liberal National
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Party, and there is a soft what I call a soft coalition between
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Labor and the Greens. At the moment the Labor Party is in
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power and they do hold majority, and the worst case scenario is
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that you end up with a hung parliament and that's a topic
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for a different talk. So what happens on the day and
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voting starts at eight, finishes at six and then from six o'clock
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in that particular state, the people that worked on the
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polling booths for the Australian electoral commission
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they start counting the votes at that booth and there's different
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locations also for the pre-poll, postal and absentee votes. And I
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can tell you from experience there is no way the system can
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be cheated in this part of the process with the counting, there
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are people called scrutineers who represent the different
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parties. They oversee and if they think that that's a valid
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vote then they'll dispute it. And then you get the head of
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your polling booth or whomever to check it and they have the
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final say. So if that person says no, it's not. The funny
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thing is that it can be a discrepancy of a number. So if
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you don't clearly number them and if they can't clearly
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determine the numbers, that becomes invalid. If you only put
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one number and that's an invalid vote.
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But that's for federally. In some states and some cancel
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elections it's first past the post, so you don't have to do
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the preferential voting. So that's pretty much how we do it
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here and in summary, summary, it is compulsory. It is done on one
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day, on a weekend, and you must get 76, a half plus one to win
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federally. Very similar from state to state, and there's not
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many states now that do have first across the post in council
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elections. I know in Queensland that is the case where you can
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just mark one. But it's a fair system and the
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only other thing I'll say about our electoral process. So,
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people, you'll see our Prime Minister and Deputy Prime
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Ministers. The people of Australia don't vote for them.
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The people in their electorate vote for them and it's the
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political parties that elect their leaders, not the people of
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Australia that elect the leaders . So that's how it all works.
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Thank you for listening to episode two of this series. The
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next one, hopefully, will be a little bit of nitty gritty and a
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look at Queensland, because that's where I'm from. Then
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we'll break that down and have a little bit look at the history
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of Queensland politics and make sure of two things One, that you
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subscribe to the show. Push the little subscribe button on your
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podcast preferred podcast platform, because we're on them
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all. And, as I always say, whether it's a video episode or
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a podcast episode, just wake up and be the best version of
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yourself.