Just told about this site – Vote No to Canberra’s power grab. Easy to get involved & have your say count. Disgraceful that taxpayers are funding the Yes vote to the tune of $21 million but zero funding for the No vote. National Institute on Aging recently reported that Alzheimer’s is not only important for cheap sildenafil uk the physical satisfaction but it is also important from the emotional point of view.As per the todays scenario, competiton is very high. However, spouses popping pills together discount priced viagra on their wedding anniversary is not exactly the height of romance. As they say, “A Stitch in time saves nine,” a problem that gets diagnosed at levitra 100mg pills the early stage of blepharitis then, avoid using eye makeups to prevent irritations. His spiritual writings can expose the modern man to God’s great words addressing the pain and levitra australia prices the confusions they are thrown into. The $21 million is planned to be made up of about equal amounts from the Gillard Govt and the Local Govt Association. Ratepayers should let their own local councils know if they want council funds going to support the Yes case.
I was appalled to read where this week all lower house MP’s except two Liberals – voted to hold the referendum.
On 14 September let us enjoy showing Canberra that we voters know exactly what to do when in the voting booths. My earlier article – Vote NO to referendum to amend the Australian Constitution to recognize local councils
I agree with you Warwick. This referendum if it proceeds is an assault on democracy. It will allow a small clique of Federal government members, such as the present possibly corrupt Prime Minister (likely to have signed a Power of Attorney & backdated it without the donor of the POA physically present) and her cabinet, to provide benefits to individuals and localities for political purposes.
What is needed in the constitution is citizen initiated referendum (such as in Switzerland see www.cir-australia.net/index.php?id=24) so that bad laws (such as the Carbon Tax) can be overturned and Recall Election (see here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_election) so that people such as Oakshott, Windsor, Thompson & Slipper who oppose the wishes of their electors or are found to be corrupt can be replaced quickly.
A licence for American style pork barrelling.
The problem is that there is no organization that has a significant interest in stopping this. Hence no funding for a NO vote. And doubtless 90% of the socialist/centralizing media will be in favour.
@cementafriend
Yes
But I have been told by a Swiss citizen (he was in Aus investigating possible investment) that a now not uncommon occurrence is that a referendum produces a vote that the Swiss Govt does not care for, so the vote is ignored
Or as a wrinkle, the losing side calls for a recount (suspending the import of the vote for the interim) but the actual vote ballots have been legally destroyed so no recount, interim stretches to infinity
I would be interested if anyone has factual evidence to rebut this
Hi ianl8888 Here are some other links en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_Switzerland and about referenda in Switzerland in particular www.ch.ch/en/referendum/ A referendum to change the constitution is mandatory and has to be noted by the parliament regardless of the wishes of the elected government.
The Swiss are conservative and not all referenda are successful, just as in Australia. However, the threat of a Citizen Initiated Referendum means that elected representatives try harder to get legislation right and that citizens are much better informed.
Please note that Switzerland is a Confederations of States who do the taxing and have a say over the Federal Parliament. That is how Australia set out at federation.
A recount is different to a Recall election. If a referendum is just “No” “yes” with electronic voting the is no need for a recount. Australia has an antiquated voting system which can be subject to error or cheating. Recounts can give a different result and then a court of disputed returns can overturn results or call for a new election.
A recall election might be called on a number of grounds such as corruption, changing party affiliation, voting opposite to policies announced before an election etc. Peter Slipper is an example where a recall election may have occurred. The electorate of Fisher is conservative and strongly LNP. After the election his travel “rorts?” were exposed in the local press. There were strong hints that he would be disendorsed at the next election. Then he accepted the speakers position to prop up votes for the labor party. After, some sleazy emails were exposed he sat on the cross benches and supported labor. A recall election would have seen him lose his seat and likely started a process for an early election.
Australia needs more democracy by vote of the people, not less by giving power to a federal government (in which a clique of outsiders (eg union officials) can manipulate laws and expenditure).
cementafriend – thanks, most of that is not new, of course
I am hoping for actual detailed examples of Swiss CIR (would probably need to be from a resident of Switzerland) that gave a YES/NO vote contravening current Govt policy
Once, many moons ago, I put the Swiss-model CIR concept to a local Mayor (staunchly ALP). Horrified, he scrambled at full speed to paint the Swiss as “different”, although he refused to say different how
Slipper, Windsor, Oakeshott – all of them have deliberately double-crossed their electorates big time. Despite opinion polls, it remains to be seen if this will be rewarded or not in September. The only thing I am certain of is that some variation of the Swiss system will not be introduced in Aus in my lifetime – I would agree that Aus geography makes federal CIR very difficult
I originally posted on this subject 10th May 13 – Vote NO to referendum to amend the Australian Constitution to recognize local councils – then on 9 June this current post – since then the opposition voted for the Govt measures in the House of Representatives, only 2 “crossed the floor”.
Now we should be even more concerned at the hijacking of our Constitution as it emerges that the Govt will fund the YES vote to the tune of $30million while the NO vote gets a measly $500K.
Then yesterday we get this news – Coalition could change tack on referendum – well I hope so. You can have a say at “Vote no to Canberra’s power grab”