- Re: Abstaining is not civil disobedience unless there are serious consequences for not voting. Archived Message
Posted by dereklane 
on December 14, 2019, 7:14 am, in reply to "Abstaining is not civil disobedience unless there are serious consequences for not voting."
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Last time I was there and not voting, if you don't pay the fine (it was $50 at the time), they revoke your drivers license. In oz, that's often the difference between having a job and not. It would be civil disobedience if no one or few voted, and it was promoted as such. There was no chance of that happening here, because people seemed to believe that if they voted things would change, which ignored the realities of the parliamentary system and the balance of power even within the Labour Party. Saying you weren't planning to vote often ended up with folk who knew what you were about saying you were as bad as the tories. There was no hope of a civil disobedience vote abstention, unfortunately, which in my mind was very media and popular ideology driven. It would have more effect in oz because it would drive the paperwork, fines, collection, and resulting mayhem from sue's quest job loss into overdrive. |