‘Former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer calls for compulsory voting, says democracy “in crisis”
New Zealand should adopt Australian rules and make it illegal not to vote, former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer says.
Palmer, who ran the country as head of the Labour Party from 1989 to 1990, told Radio NZ’s Guyon Espiner that voter apathy had led to Trumpery and Brexit….’
bold mine.
On the other hand,with compulsory voting, Australians gave Abbott a 13 seat majority – and then trimmed it back to 1 seat for Turnbull.
Palmer has exactly ZERO interest in the health of democracy. He’s a closet totalitarian trougher.
His idea of a healthy democracy would be Cuba or Venezuela.
Voting is a right. A right made compulsory is no right at all, but tyranny.
Yep. Palmer is a dour man who thinks he’s super smart because …
Democracy in crisis?
If there is anything in crisis I’d say that it’s **common bloody sense!**
There’s not much of *that* around.
Too right, Tranquil.
Fuck off Palmer, you’ve done more than your share of damage.
” . . . in accordance with the principles of the Treaty Of Waitangi” and the precursor to the RMA
In other news, I see that Key has called Winston Peters “the Nigel Farage of New Zealand”.
That is Key’s idea of “scathing criticism”!
It’s actually one of the highest *compliments* that anyone could get!
You can tell the totalitarians. They know the flaws in democracy and want every single digit IQ idiot to vote for their “free stuff” paid for by the producers. Personally, I like Heinlein’s suggestion. Every voting booth should be equipped with a computer that presents the voter with a quadratic equation. If the voter solves it he can vote. If not, the society is better off without his input.
O/T and very cool:
‘Cockatoo gets feather transplant made of superglue and matchsticks..’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4389028/Perth-bird-wings-replaced-glue-matchsticks.html
Strictly speaking, it’s not “imping” as falconers know it, but it’s still pretty good.