Week 6 (Aug. 16th - Aug 22nd)
Move over Wizard, tonight is the federal elections, which means there may be a new person emerging from behind the curtains to run the land of OZ. However, the polls are so close that the deciding factor might be called to a hung parliament (a legislature where no political party has an absolute majority of seats). To give you an idea of how rare this election outcome is, it would be the first hung parliament decision since World War II. I'm sure this news article can explain it better, so hopefully you can open this web page and read about it if you're interested. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/7801295/hung-parliament-looking-likely/
Apparently the Greens Party (read Hippie Party) are the only ones currently jumping for joy as they've earned their first seat in the Senate. Right now the current PM, Labor Party's (liken to our Democrats) Julia Gillard, is duking it out with the Liberal/ National Coalition (Liken to our Republicans) Leader Tony Abott. I will update you with the results so stay tuned.
Interesting facts about voting in Australia: voting is mandatory! If you do not vote, you will be fined. It's not a large fine (maybe around $100 aud) but here you literally and figuratively pay a price for not voting. Also, election days are always on a Saturday. This helps to make the polling process convenient for people to vote so it doesn't interfere with work or school. I really can't help but compare other systems to our American system and wonder if the States should make voting mandatory. At the very least, they should hold election days on Saturdays, it makes way to much sense, doesn't it?
In any case, we can only hope the elected PM (unlike most politicians out there) has courage, a heart, and a brain.
Yours by popular vote,
Jillian aka - Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes
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