Your vote, your voice

Voting is an important part of our democracy, and many would argue it is a responsibility of all Australians eligible to vote to exercise their vote at each election.  When you think about it, it's a great opportunity to hold political parties and politicians accountable.

But there's a catch. To make sure that you get to vote, you have to be enrolled.

Before each election the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) undertakes massive enrolment drives, trying to find new and different ways to remind people about enrolling to vote or updating details.  This year they've really pulled out all the stops in trying to get more Australians enrolled to vote than ever before.

What does it mean to be enrolled to vote?  It means that you get to have your say about who represents you in Parliament. It means that you get to hold those who represent us in parliament accountable.

The latest AEC enrolment drive tries to show first time voters that everyone votes; even superstars.  The AEC campaign has Australian celebrities talking about why they think voting is so important. Some will say it's a cheap effort and somewhat old-hat. But seriously, if it means as many people are enrolled as possible then good luck to them.

Even if you're not a first time voter, it's a great time to check that your enrolment details are up-to-date.  This is especially the case if you've recently moved.

If you're sitting there thinking, 'oh I'll do it later', you might find when you go to enrol to vote it'll be too late.  The rules are that once the papers authorising an election are issued the voter roll is closed – and your voice at this election won't be heard.

The AEC has recently made it even easier to enrol or to update your details with their electronic forms.  You can fill them out online in PDF format and print them out or save them with your details to email to the AEC.  They are definitely trying to make it as easy as possible for people to enrol to vote or update their details, despite the Howard Government's efforts to restrict eligibility and make enrolling more difficult and cumbersome.

The Your Rights at Work team is right behind the AEC's efforts.

We hope that you'll remind friends, family and co-workers that might be first time voters to enrol or their vote won't count.


R@W News is a forum for news, analysis and commentary about rights at work and related issues. The opinions presented in R@W News are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the ACTU.