Man Formerly Charged With Rigging Student Ballot Exposed As Labor Official 96
First time accepted submitter pocock writes "Motivated by reports of Matthew Weaver's twelve month jail sentence for rigging CalState student elections, a comprehensive blog describes in detail how a generation of student ballot riggers from the late 1990s have graduated unhindered into federal politics, playing a pivotal role in Australia's upcoming federal election. One can only wonder if Weaver had not been caught, would he too have eventually swiped a million dollars and put the SRC into liquidation?"
Re:Weaver is a Labor Official? (Score:5, Informative)
It's confusingly written, but the blurb (and story) are just using him as the hook. The rest of the story is about Australian politics.
The premise seems to be something like this:
1. Heard about this guy Matthew Weaver, who's been in the news after he was convicted of rigging student elections in California?
2. Well, on that subject, did you know that a bunch of current Australian politicians also have a background rigging student elections back in their college days?
Re:Both major parties are bad (Score:4, Informative)
3. The leader of the Liberal/National coalition - Tony Abbot - is a truly nasty piece of work. He is an intolerant bigot. He makes my skin crawl every time I hear him talk.
You forgot religious. I mean there's been plenty of religious prime ministers but nothing to this extent. He was educated at St Patrick's Seminary and was well on his way to becoming a member of the clergy when he dropped out after getting a brief taste in politics and then became a politician shortly after. The man has quoted scripture in some of his interviews and he has deeply religious beliefs which he forces upon his party (won't let the party take a conscience vote on gay marriage). This alone goes against the principles of democracy, since I can only vote for my local member and he may not be able put our views forward in some cases.
I immigrated to Australia many years ago and became a citizen about ... 5 years ago. I was forced to sit the exam and one of the entrance exam questions was on the founding principles of the Australian government. One of the correct answers was "Secularism of State" so voting for Abbott is not only a blow to democracy but also a blot to the founding principles of the Australian government.
Re:Aus Labor Party is anything but democratic (Score:2, Informative)
The Liberal Party method of appointing it's leadership it totally and utterly free of ballot stuffing 100% guaranteed. No Ballot, no democracy, how could autocrats allow anything as disrupting as democracy to control it's leadership, basically straight up collusion at the top appoints it's leadership and you betcha lotsa $$$ have everything to do with who leads. At least with preferential voting third party voting has real clout and the Australian Greens provide a viable alternative.