Why I Built This Site
A personal journey through Australia's democracy
This site took weeks to build, partly because I don't know what I'm doing but also it's not a trivial endeavour. I didn't stop though because I would say like a majority of Australians I'm fed up with, even horrified with the state of this country. It's gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. We are one of the richest nations on earth with what was a stable, tolerant system. WTF happened?
I love my country, I was born here, my ancestors fought to keep her free from the barbaric Japanese. (More bombs fell on Darwin than Pearl Harbor)
My heart is in this country. I have a deep spiritual connection with it, it's my home.
The site details some of the major problems we are facing as a nation and tries to unravel them to make sense of it and see where we can make changes. We CAN make changes, this is a democracy. The ballot box is our voice.
I worked for the AEC one election, mobile polling in the NT. We spent two weeks travelling to remote communities and setting up voting booths. In town halls, sheds, even under marquees. And the people would come! We could be in the middle of nowhere and people would arrive, lining up ready to vote. A lot of indigenous Aussies. It could be hard, some didn't even speak english, others were illiterate and couldn't read or write. We had to explain how to fill out both papers. There were unintentional invalid votes made. We couldn't mark the papers for them, and the scrutineers could be like hawks, literally hanging over our shoulder to see we weren't 'coaching' them to vote for the other party.
BUT they all wanted to vote, they all wanted to be a part of the process, to have their voice heard. It was an amazing experience. The AEC do an amazing job, they get to every corner of this country to help people vote.
In one community we heard there was an elderly man who was housebound. At the end of the day I went there to help him vote. He was old, frail and quite blind. He marked his papers and unfortunately they were both invalid as he hadn't filled them out correctly. It sounds unfair but it's in our constitution we have to mark paper ballots with a pencil, and I can't do it for him. But I'll never forget the look on his face, of gratitude that he was able to vote. Have his say, feel a part of the greater community.
A lot of people feel they are wasting their vote if they don't back one of two 'winning teams', do you feel that way about your football team? No, you back who you believe in. That's the way it should be when voting, hopefully this site can help some people decide who they want to vote for with an educated conscience.
Even if your candidate doesn't win and one of the corrupt muppets gets in instead, you can say you didn't put them there, it's not your fault.
Its also not a wasted vote because the candidate you voted for gets strength and hope from your vote, they hear your voice and are very grateful that you believe in them. :)
Technically that lovely old man's vote was wasted as it wasn't counted. But it wasn't wasted. I saw the satisfaction in his eyes, and I heard his voice. May God bless you and our country. 🇦🇺
(He was a local artist and I bought one of his paintings, click here to see it)
