Politics
Snub for compulsory voting
TASMANIAN councils have voted against a push to make voting at local government elections compulsory.
The proposal again surfaced at today’s (Wednesday) Local Government Association of Tasmania Annual General Meeting in Hobart.
It follows a surprise call by Premier David Bartlett two years ago to make voting compulsory, observing that more Tasmanians vote in Australian Idol than in local government elections.
Following those comments a joint working group was established with help from the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and discussion papers were sent to all of the state’s 29 councils in December last year.
At previous AGMs, councils have voted down the proposal on the grounds that the introduction of postal voting had already “significantly” increased voting from ratepayers and had the potential to increase informal voting because people were being forced to take part in the election.
The motion tabled by the West Tamar Council was rejected 18 councils to 10.