The vernacular republic

It’s been just on 35 years since Les Murray’s ‘The Vernacular Republic’ selection of poems was published. This was one of the landmarks in Australian literature. Les Murray is the outstanding poet of his generation and one of Australia’s most influential literary critics. 


A nationalist and republican, Les Murray sees his writing as helping to define, in cultural and spiritual terms, what it means to be Australian. 

The late 1970s were heady days for Australian republicans. There were many Town Hall meetings, rallies, and calls to “maintain the rage” after the 1975 Whitlam dismissal. Donald Horne, Jim McClelland, and Manning Clark addressed a public protest entitled “Kerr and the Consequences” on 20 September 1976 at Sydney Town Hall. The meeting explored the Australian constitution and ways they believed it could be changed for the better. This was also the year Les Murray published his selected poems, The Vernacular Republic.

Leslie Allan Murray was born in 1938 in Nabiac, a village on the north coast of New South Wales, and spent his childhood and youth on his father’s dairy farm nearby. The area is sparsely populated, hilly, and forested, and the beauty of this rural landscape forms a backdrop to many of Murray’s best poems, such as ‘Spring Hail’:

.. Fresh-minted hills
smoked, and the heavens swirled and blew away.
The paddocks were endless again, and all around
leaves lay beneath their trees, and cakes of moss.

His parents were poor and their weatherboard house almost bare of comforts. Murray remarked that it was not until he went to the university that he first met the middle class. His identification was with the underprivileged, especially the rural poor, and it was this that gave him his strong sense of unity with Aborigines and with ‘common folk’.

In Les Murray’s 1976 The Vernacular Republic his selected poems demonstrate how it is Australian language that is at the core of the national identity. It is the independence of an idiomatic Australian dialect that distances the fringe from its English centre. Murray’s poetry shifts our perceptions to show life centred ‘here where we live’. Murray writes of The Macquarie Dictionary (1981), in his review-essay “Centering the Language”, that it shows

‘…how much larger and richer our dialect is than many had thought, in part by gently but firmly shifting our linguistic perception, so that our entire language is henceforth centred for us, not thousands of miles away, but here where we live.’

The use of the title The Vernacular Republic for his selected poems brings home the point that a community becomes culturally independent in its use of a local language dialect, or a ‘vernacular’. Vernacular is one of Les Murray’s favourite words and he often claims to be speaking in Australian rather than English.

Les Murray, both in public life and in his poetry, is an avowed believer in Australian cultural sovereignty. He is unyielding in his defence of a belief that has grown out of a desire to give voice to a very particular Australian identity, which to Murray’s mind emanates from the Bush. Dispossession, relegation, and independence become major preoccupations of his poetry. Beyond this, though, his poetry is generally seen to have a nationalistic bent. The continuing themes of much of his poetry are those inherent in that traditional nationalistic identity of the 1890s — respect, even reverence, for the pioneers; the importance of the land and its shaping influence on the Australian character, and bush-bred qualities and values such as egalitarianism, practicality, straight-forwardness and independence. For Murray his rural-centred Australian ‘vernacular republic’, although superficially modified by modern times and technologies, continues to exist essentially the same as it did in earlier times. Raised on bush traditions, he sees bush ballads as being vital to the national literature. In some ways herein lies the core of Murray’s much vaunted opposition to modernism — that it is a concept of the technological worlds of the northern hemisphere, ignoring and even obliterating the place-specific voice of a popular literature.

Les Murray used the idea of a ‘vernacular republic’ for his 1976 edition of selected poems, where the Australian vernacular is held to be the key to understanding Australian identity.

It is “the matrix [of Australian] distinctiveness” he says, “[w]e are a colloquial nation”, a “vernacular republic”.

Murray’s poetry locates us as a people here, in Australia, not thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. And it is here also that our sovereignty lies.

Girl Guides lead towards an independent Australia

After 18 months of intensive consultation with thousands of members and volunteers, the Girl Guides of Australia have dropped from their pledge of allegiance any reference to both the Queen and God. For a century Girl Guides have promised to do their duty to God and serve the Queen. Australian Girl Guides will now make their promise to serve the community and the country rather than to the Queen and God. Although this move comes in a jubilee year, Girl Guides Australia director Belinda Allen says the timing is right. It is this grassroots movement from Australian organisations that will be instrumental in the creation of an Australian republic.

Since 1969 Australian Girl Guides have made this promise. “To do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country …” But from 6 July 2012, God and the Queen will no longer be mentioned. Instead, the young recruits will promise to do their best to be true to themselves and develop their beliefs, serve their community and Australia and live by the Guide Law. The modernisation of the Girl Guide pledge is a reflection of Girl Guides wanting to move with the times and understanding that as a country we are changing and seeking our own identity and that's part of being Australian.

The change to the Australian Girl Guides' 40-year-old pledge to Queen and to God involved a survey of all 28,000 guides and leaders on changing the promise. The refreshed Girl Guides' promise will see its 28,000-strong group promise to do their best "to be true to myself and develop my beliefs" rather than to "do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country". NSW Guides Commissioner Belinda Allen said
"We are very much hopeful with the new wording to the promise that we'll be seen as more inclusive and modern and relevant organisation and many more people will like to join us."
 
In the new guide law, loyal has been replaced with respect and helpful replaced with considerate.

The old Guide Promise
I promise that I will do my best:
To do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country;
To help other people; and
To keep the Guide Law.

The new Guide Promise
I promise that I will do my best:
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs
To serve my community and Australia
And live by the Guide Law.

The Girl Guide movement started in Australia in 1911. Worldwide, the Girl Guide movement has 10 million members and involves girls aged between 4 and 25. About a million Australian women have been part of the Guiding Movement since it began in 1910. Helen Geard, Australia’s Chief Commissioner has said the World Association for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts or WAGGGS has ratified the changes the Australian movement has made to its promise. “WAGGGS has supported Australia and other countries to explore their Promise and Law to ensure it remains relevant to the girls and members of today.”

Republicans have welcomed the decision by Girl Guides Australia to vow to serve community and country rather than Queen and God. National Director of the Australian Republican Movement, David Morris, said it was important young Australians developed an ethic of service to community and country. On 6 July 2012, he said. 
"While Australians come from all over the world and often have emotional attachments to other countries, we have built, here in Australia, a unique community based on the values of a fair go and getting on with the job".

"For the girls of the Girl Guides, and for all Australians, we should be proud of Australia's heritage, such as being the first country in the world to introduce votes for women and to allow women to stand for parliament."

“Our kids are the future and it is very important that we develop the ethic of service to community and country.”

“It is our responsibility to teach our kids to take control of their own destiny, through community service and confidence in themselves.”

“All of the things we have achieved as a nation have been the result of Australians contributing to their community. Girl Guides have played their part in that and we salute them for their service to Australia."

It is these young women of Australia who will help to build an even fairer and more inclusive future.

The Queensland conservative Restoration

Some of the decisions by the new Queensland LNP Government have a striking resonance with those of long-time Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen and the new Mr Queensland, Campbell Newman.

3 July 2012, will be 100 days since the Newman LNP government had been elected in Queensland. It’s worth remembering the ALP interregnum came to power in 1989 with the execution of the Bjelke-Petersen government. Just over 22 years later, the conservative Restoration has begun moving the ideological clock back by changing Senior Counsel back to Queen’s Counsel and revisiting moving the Labour Day public holiday to late in the year rather than the Queen’s Birthday holiday. However, during these 100 days there seemed little public support for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. 

 

The Newman State Government is showing its monarchist colours with Queensland set to become the first state in Australia to restore the title of Queen’s Counsel.  After nearly two decades of Senior Counsel, the state’s top barristers are expected to soon resume the old title, QC. The title QC dates back to the late 16^th century, when Sir Francis Bacon was appointed the first Queen’s Counsel. When Queensland decided to dump the title in 1994, it was riding the wave of modernism that was sweeping though many Commonwealth and former Commonwealth countries. It was replaced in many places with various permutations of Senior or State Counsel, with no apparent loss of efficiency or purpose. The Bar Council of the Queensland Bar Association has confirmed to the Attorney-General’s office its in-principle support for the proposal to recommence the appointment of QCs, and the matter is expected to go before Cabinet soon. Queensland Bar Association president Roger Traves SC, acknowledged in a letter to members that some might view the move as pro-monarchist.

“The arguments against included that the stance was pro-monarchy,” he said.

This seems to have taken some members of the Bar Association by surprise, because it has not been an in-house issue for years and there was no public mention of any such proposals before or after the conservative Restoration.

The 2012 Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June was to be the last after the former Labor government shifted the Queen’s Birthday holiday to the first weekend of October, while retaining a one-off Queen’s Jubilee public holiday in June 2012. But now the traditional Labour Day holiday in May is under the gun again even though there had been widespread consultation last year when the holiday system was changed and it was agreed that Labour Day would remain in May. At the time Premier Anna Bligh said all holidays, except for the Queen’s Birthday, marked significant dates and were punctuated with official ceremonies or significance.

“Unlike other public holidays, it’s not celebrated on a date that is particularly meaningful,” Ms Bligh said.

However, Labour Day has special significance for Queensland because of its links to events in the labour movement of the late nineteenth century. The change in attitude towards the public holiday timetabling suggests the Newman government is determined to take an ideological stance against the union movement. The Newman government has clearly shown in the past week that it puts cost cutting ahead of Queensland jobs, services and communities. The first 100 days is just the beginning of a concerted attack on public sector services, and the wages and conditions of workers in Queensland.

Labour Day / May Day is a public holiday held on different dates in different Australian states. It has its origins in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. Labour Day, like Anzac Day, is a day when we remember the sacrifices our forebears made: the mateship, the loyalty and the determination to build and protect the freedom and rights we now enjoy. For, like Anzac Day, Labour Day is – above and beyond its historical significance – a day all Australians can celebrate our egalitarian society, our innate sense of fairness and equity, and our willingness to campaign side by side for a better world. It is the day we celebrate the winding back of the exploitation and oppressive working hours that were the norm in the early nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution. It is a day we remember the efforts of the labour movement which brought us the eight hour day and over the ensuing decades of struggle such basic advances as minimum wage levels, safety in the workplace and the right – bar a brief return to the industrial relations Dark Ages during the Howard era – to bargain as a collective.

In Queensland, the first Labour Day celebration took place in Brisbane on 16 March 1861 and was essentially a celebration by a small number of skilled building workers who had recently achieved an eight-hour working day. The date of the event was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the first workers achieving the eight hour day in Queensland. For a large section of the Brisbane labour movement it remained important that the Labour Day celebrations be changed to 1 May to make them part of the international campaign, begun by the International Labour Congress in 1889, to make 1 May an official workers holiday around the world. In light of the labour movement’s successful push for an eight-hour day, a large May Day meeting was held in Melbourne on 1 May 1890. Other Australian capital cities also held May Day meeting at the same time. This campaign was given a major boost when, on 1 May 1891, hundreds of striking bush workers held Australia’s first May Day procession through the streets of Barcaldine. On 1 May 1891, more than 1,000 striking shearers participated in a May Day march in Barcaldine, Queensland, where their leaders wore blue sashes and they carried banners and the Eureka flag. It was reported that cheers were given for “the eight-hour day”

Henry Lawson wrote “Freedom on the Wallaby” to mark the day:
    So we must fly a rebel flag
    As others did before us,
    And we must sing a rebel song
    And join in rebel chorus.
    We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting
    O’those that they would throttle;
    They needn’t say the fault is ours
    If blood should stain the wattle.

The Labour Day date was moved from May to the second Monday in March in some parts of Australia after World War II.  Since 1948, Labour Day in Western Australia has been observed on the first Monday in March and marks the granting of the eight hour working day to Western Australians. However, from May 1893, the holding of Labour Day and May Day in Queensland has continued hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, over time, the reasons for shifting Labour Day so that it corresponded to May Day have been forgotten. But, equally clearly, the now largely forgotten campaign to link the two had made Labour Day in Queensland a significant occasion — when not just the eight-hour working day is celebrated but also the international solidarity of labour. In fact, Queensland unionists are almost alone in celebrating Labour Day on or around May Day as most other states still time their celebrations to coincide with anniversaries of eight-hour day victories.

The Queen’s birthday public holiday originated in 1912 to observe the birthday of King George V on 3 June. Over the years, Queensland – along with most other states – has continued to observe the Queen’s birthday in June, even though the actual birthday of Queen Elizabeth II is 21 April. In Western Australia, the Queen’s birthday public holiday is held in either September or October. The Queen’s birthday is observed as a mark of respect to the sovereign but is not widely celebrated in community events like other public holidays. In 2012, the Queen’s Birthday holiday in June was rebadged in Queensland as the ‘Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holiday’.

The 2012 British bank holiday was held a week before the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee public holiday was held in Queensland. On 4 June 2012, a 1000 strong boat procession floated up the Thames River. As for the 6 February 2012 Diamond Jubilee ascension there were again no public demonstrations or celebrations in Queensland. Instead there appeared to be greater excitement from everyday Australians at the release of the opening title track off the first Cold Chisel album in 14 years. On 4 June 2012, Jimmy Barnes launched No Plans with the guttural scream

“I’m standin’ in the sun / Smokin’ a cigarette – noooo plans.”

No Plans is written from the perspective of an outsider, a homeless guy who is looking out at the suits on their way to work, giving them the finger and saying , ‘To hell with you all, I’m happy with my lot’. Perhaps it’s this egalitarian, leveller message inherent within many lyrics of Cold Chisel that defines Australia’s attitude towards class and monarchy.

One wonders what the next 100 days of the conservative Restoration will bring to Queensland. Perhaps all state schools will be required to hang a picture of the Queen in their school hall (or principal’s office) or the playing of the royal national anthem will resume in cinemas before the feature. Goodness knows. At a time when we should be casting aside period costumes and using plain-speaking language in courts, it appears senior lawyers in Queensland want to divorce themselves from the people they represent. Anachronistic titles do nothing but add to the mystery of the law that makes it a stranger to the people and them a stranger to it. The abolishing of Senior Counsel and reintroduction of Queen’s Counsel seems a retrograde step that has nothing to do with the administration of the law and everything to do with the aggrandisement of the practitioners.

One of the first Labour Day processions in the world was in Barcaldine on 1 May 1891 and the public holiday has been celebrated in Queensland on the first Monday in May since 1901. Labour Day is celebrated by workers across the state and May 1 is deeply ingrained in Queensland’s history as a day to recognise workers’ rights — and yet the Newman government is talking about moving it to October or November to appease the business communities concerns about paying overtime. The ALP interregnum is over and it seems the reign of Bjelke-Petersen II has begun.

On Australian mateship

Today is the day known as Labour day in Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is an important annual event that commemorates the granting of the eight-hour working day for Australians and remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. As Queensland unionists today break out their hats and placards, it is a time to consider the wider significance to the labour movement with its connection to the Australian ideals of mateship, egalitarianism, and the larrikin spirit.

Rugby League mateship

The word ‘mate’ has a long, proud and distinctive history in Australia. From Broome to Omeo, “G’day mate, howya going?” is the familiar phrase all Australians instinctively understand. It’s a part of the national lexicon found nowhere else in the world. One result of the prevalence of the ‘mateship’ culture is that Australian society is stringently anti-hierarchical. Mateship is the antithesis of class structure inherent in the British monarchy. It is with a ‘Mate for Head of State’ that Australian sovereignty would reside fully in the Australian people and not in the British monarchy.

Labour Day, like Anzac Day, is a day when we remember the sacrifices our forebears made: the mateship, the loyalty and the determination to build and protect the freedom and rights we now enjoy. Both are also occasions when we recognise the ongoing struggles of today and thank those standing beside us in the fray.  Today, we celebrate those workers and union delegates who stand alongside their mates and colleagues to preserve and better the working conditions of all Australians. For like Anzac Day, Labour Day is – above and beyond its historical significance – a day in which all Australians can celebrate our egalitarian society, our innate sense of fairness and equity, and our willingness to campaign side by side for a better world.
The term ‘mateship’ can be traced back to the early convicts and was likely to have formed out of the predominantly Irish working-class egalitarianism present in British society in early colonial times. The harsh environment in which convicts and new settlers found themselves meant that men and women closely relied on each other for all sorts of help. In Australia, a ‘mate’ is more than just a friend. It’s a term that implies a sense of shared experience, mutual respect and unconditional assistance.

Originally, ‘mate’ was a bit of a blokey term. A century ago, our great poet, Henry Lawson wrote a short story entitled Mateship. Lawson said the grandest of mates were two blokes. But Lawson was also good enough to concede that “the creed of mateship” could extend to an old mate’s wife or daughters. A search of Hansard reveals that ex-Liberal Senator Amanda Vanstone was one Australian woman more than happy to call even her political opponents ‘mate’. Today, many young women sprinkle the term ‘mate’ around as often as men.

Mateship is a term frequently used to describe a relationship during times of challenge. The popular notion of mateship came to the fore during the First World War. During this period, the word ‘mate’ became interchangeable with the word ‘digger’, which had its roots in the gold digging fields of the 1850s. Gold diggers were portrayed in stories and songs as romantic heroes, larrikins and villains who embraced the principles of democracy. Mateship was defined through the experience of trench warfare, concentration camps, hunger, injury, forced labour and the boredom and terror of war.

In her 2011 Australia Day speech in Adelaide, Prime Minister Julia Gillard praised the spirit of ‘mateship’ and ‘a fair go’. Gillard spoke glowingly of the Australian spirit of informality and lack of deference, “the informality that rejects deference and snobbishness and makes it all right to just call out ‘Julia’.” She talked of mateship in the Changi prisoner-of-war camp and compared it to the courage shown in the flood crises around the nation in 2011. Gillard paid tribute to “working Australians” and again spoke of “the dignity of work” in a society where success is defined “by your preparedness to work” and where “demography is not destiny”. Prime Minister Gillard said Australians would be celebrating Australia Day “from the rock to The Rocks” and said her message was:

“don’t let go — we will hang on to our Aussie mateship and our Aussie fair go in the worst of times and in the best because we are Australians”.

The mateship culture, combined with the original convict and then colonial culture, has created an irreverence for established authority, particularly if it is pompous or out of touch with reality. Australians are expected to behave with humility and not think of themselves as better than their peers. Henry Lawson wrote in Shearers:

They tramp in mateship side by side -
The Protestant and Roman
They call no biped lord or sir
And touch their hat to no man!

At present, our Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II. While many Australians are fond of her, she belongs to a family and culture on the other side of the world that doesn’t place the same premium on ‘mate’. One can hardly imagine walking up to the next in line for the crown, Prince Charles and saying “G’day mate, howyagoing?” The British monarchy reflects values that no longer reflect Australia. It is hereditary, sectarian and British. An Australian republic on the other hand would be democratic, egalitarian and most importantly Australian.

As Aussies we recognise that individual achievement rarely occurs without a helping hand from others. We value independence in a community minded way. Despite our differences we all know that when adversity strikes, whether in the form of bushfires, floods or international conflict, there’ll be a fellow Aussie to help out. It’s the tradition of the digger, the character of mateship and it’s still the essence of the Australian spirit. So as unionists “tramp in mateship side by side” through Queensland’s cities and towns today let’s remember that Labour Day is about family, freedom and a fair go.

A Short History of Australian Republicanism

Australian republicanism goes back to the earliest days of the colony. The question of whether or not Australia should be a republic has been debated for longer than most people imagine.

Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804

In early colonial NSW, the American rejection of British rule and the violence of the French Revolution was well known. Republicanism was often used as political language to challenge government authority and only hardened the resolve of those in power to savagely repress any supporters. In 1795, the ‘Scottish Martyrs’ arrived. The many Irish convicts brought with them antipathy towards the British. Convict uprisings such as the 1804 Castle Hill rebellion were labelled republican. But in most cases the convicts were not looking for political change, they just wanted to return home.

The period from 1840 to 1856 was one in which colonial grievances reached their height. In Sydney in 1850, the outspoken firebrand Reverend John Dunmore Lang, the People’s Advocate editor EJ Hawksley and the young Henry Parkes campaigned through the Australian League for a republican form of government when the British government wanted to reintroduce transportation of convicts. In the early 1850s during the gold rushes there was an influx of large numbers of migrants from Europe and the United States to Victoria, many of whom were sympathetic to republicanism. This caused British officials to fear the possibility of revolution. In 1854, the Eureka Stockade rebellion at the Ballarat goldfield was ultimately a republican desire for government by the people. However, the urgency vanished when responsible government was granted in 1856.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century republicanism became strongly anti-monarchical and nationalist in sentiment. The ‘inevitability’ of an Australian republic became a common theme. In the late 1870s the traditional Irish enmity towards British authority can be seen in the republican sentiments expressed in Ned Kelly’s ‘Jerilderie Letter’ and later in Kelly gang member Joe Byrne’s ‘Declaration of the Republic of North East Victoria’.

During the 1880s, there were fifteen republican organisations and twenty newspapers or journals in cities and major country towns. This republicanism was often focussed on struggles between capital and labour. From 1884, the Bulletin expounded a strong anti-monarchical attitude. In 1887, republicans twice defeated attempts at Sydney Town Hall to pass a loyal resolution congratulating Queen Victoria’s Jubilee resulting in an open clash between thousands of demonstrators. Soon after, Sydney had a Republican Union and a republican journal led by Louisa and Henry Lawson and George Black. It was in the Republican that Henry Lawson published “A Song of the Republic”.

In 1890 and 1891, the Australasian Republican Association on the north Queensland goldfield of Charters Towers had over 700 members, published a regular journal, and established republican branches. The Australian Republican editor, F.C.B. Vosper published an inflammatory editorial at the height of the 1891 Shearers’ Strike calling for revolution and the declaration of the republic. He was arrested and tried for seditious libel but eventually acquitted.

The Commonwealth of Australia was the title chosen for the new nation at the 1891 National Constitutional Convention. Although there was controversy over the republican ancestry of the term it was the title accepted in 1901. Prior to the mid-1890s, republicans had insisted that national independence could be achieved only by Australia’s secession from the Empire. However, by 1901 federation was seen as the first step on the road towards political independence.

In the 1960s, republican activity was restarted by authors Geoffrey Dutton and Donald Horne. At the same time the student magazine Oz lampooned the monarchy. However, the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the appointed Governor-General on 11 November 1975 outraged many Australians. Since those turbulent days, several notable Australians declared a commitment to an Australian republic. There were many Town Hall meetings and calls to ‘maintain the rage’. Republicans proposed 1988 for the establishment of an Australian republic. This was not to be.

Campaigning in 1999 referendum

In the 1990s, the popular definition of ‘republic’ was simply the removal of the hereditary monarch. This was seen as the last step in Australia’s political development. In 1991, the Australian Republican Movement was established. In 1993, Prime Minister Paul Keating formed the Republic Advisory Committee to prepare options on how to achieve a republic with minimal constitutional change. In June 1995, he announced his goal of a republic with an Australian head of state. The 1998 Constitutional Convention helped to strengthen the debate for a republic. However, on 6 November 1999, the republic referendum was defeated because many pro-republicans voted ‘no’ as they feared that without a direct election they would gain a ‘politician’s republic’.  In the 2000s, the different republican groups met in ‘Republican Gatherings’ and started working in coalition — all pulling in the same direction for the same common cause.

Compulsory Voting In Australia

Just over one hundred years ago, on 27 March 1912, Australia introduced compulsory enrolment and, in 1924, compulsory voting — since then, participation in the voting process has become an accepted and entrenched activity in Australian society.

Election Day 1907

I love election days. In Queensland, we have just held local government elections which came close on the heels of a state election. On Election Day, I usually help run the P&C sausage sizzle in the mornings and hand out ‘how to vote’ cards in the afternoon. It’s a great chance to see the ebb and flow of your local community — and catch up with people you haven’t seen in ages. Election Day is a community event; a common, civic enterprise — and one in which most people are happy to participate. Since 1924, Australians have had to turn up at a polling place on Election Day, have their names registered against the electoral roll and receive a ballot paper. However, because of the secrecy of the ballot, it is not possible to determine whether a person has completed their ballot paper prior to placing it in the ballot box. It is, therefore, not possible to determine whether all electors have met their legislated duty to vote.

Polling Day 2012

Seen in this light, compulsory voting is better understood as a legal obligation to participate in the common civic activity of turning up, rather than as the need to cast a valid vote. The requirement to turn up is, quite clearly, a restriction on the liberty of citizens, as the option of choosing to go to the beach for the whole of the day has been removed. However, voting is far less onerous than other compulsory civic duties — such as paying taxes, sending your children to school and jury duty.

So, it is a requirement on Election Day that, at some time during the day, each and every citizen of voting age is required to attend a polling booth. If you don’t turn up to vote in state or national elections in this country, you are charged with breaching the electoral laws and face a fine, or even imprisonment if you are a persistent offender. What justifies this infringement of liberty is that compulsory attendance is one of the few obligations of citizenship in Australia that involves doing something collectively, as a community.

Australia has the oldest, and probably the most efficient, system of compulsory voting of any of the advanced democracies — and there is evidence of strong popular support for compulsory voting. Every opinion poll taken since 1943 has found that three in every four Australians support compulsory voting. This has always crossed party lines. The first Australian Election Study, after the 1996 election, showed 74 per cent of respondents supported compulsory voting at federal elections; and the Australian Election Study after the 2004 election was still showing 74 per cent in support. A Morgan poll in 2005 showed 71 per cent support; and an Ipsos-Mackay Study, also in 2005, showed 74 per cent. Adelaide University’s Lisa Hill suggests

‘…this is probably a function of the fact that their relationship to the state has normally been a friendly one.’

Australians have not looked upon the compulsion to vote as particularly objectionable or onerous. Most Australians regard voting not so much as a right but as a fairly undemanding civic duty. It is seen as a normal part of Australian political culture and has wide support in the Australian electorate.

It was in July 1910, that the then Labor Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher (from Queensland) moved elections would be on a Saturday. This was of great assistance to Australian workers, who could then participate in elections. Soon after, in 1911, compulsory registration was introduced. During the Federal parliament debate for the bill on compulsory enrolment in 1911, Senator George Pearce stated

“Too often [voting] is looked upon merely as a privilege, because people throughout the world have had to fight for it — in some instances under distressing conditions … but I venture to say that in a country like Australia, where we recognise that every man and woman should have the right to vote, that right becomes more than a privilege — it becomes a duty.”

For the past 100 years it has been mandatory for Australian citizens to enrol to vote. Today, despite a century of compulsory enrolment, there are 1.5 million eligible Australians missing from the electoral roll, with young people and Indigenous Australians particularly under-represented. In the past, fines were imposed for failing to enrol. However, today, the Australian Electoral Commission encourages voluntary compliance and strives to make enrolling or updating enrolment as easy as possible.

When Queensland introduced compulsory voting in 1915, it became the first place in the then British Empire to do so. It was Queensland’s Denham Liberal Government that first legislated compulsory voting in 1914. Apparently the state government was concerned that ALP shop stewards were more effective in “getting out the vote”, and that compulsory voting would restore a level playing ground. Interestingly, the Labor Party was returned at the first compulsory poll in June 1915. Also interesting is the effect of this one the people in Queensland, who got used to voting and the turnout in voluntary federal elections increased above the national average.

Compulsory voting was introduced for federal elections in 1924 on the private initiative of Tasmanian Senator, Herbert Payne. While compulsory voting was first advocated by Alfred Deakin at the turn of the twentieth century, Australia’s first nine federal elections were held under voluntary voting. At the federal level, voluntary voting had produced between 55 per cent and 78 per cent turnout of voters. The significant impetus for compulsory voting at federal elections appears to have been a decline in turnout from more than 71 per cent at the 1919 election to less than 60 per cent at the 1922 election. However, the Bruce-Page federal government (a conservative coalition of the Nationalist and Country parties) was reluctant to be too closely identified to such a proposal.

On 16 July 1924, Senator Payne introduced the Commonwealth Electoral Bill 1924 as a private member’s bill to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to make voting compulsory in federal elections. He felt some action was required following the record low voter turnout (59.38 per cent) at the 1922 federal election. However, neither the government nor the opposition had compulsory voting on their platforms. Intriguingly, the law to make voting compulsory apparently passed through the Parliament in only 15 minutes and in neither house was a division required — therefore, no votes were recorded against the bill. This was only the third private member’s bill to be passed into law since 1901. Senator Payne explained the principle behind his Bill:

“The presumption is that our laws are enacted by a majority of the electors represented by a majority of the members in this Parliament.”

The impact of the new Bill was immediate, with turnout at the 1925 election rising to over 91%. After this, other states quickly followed: Victoria in 1926, New South Wales and Tasmania in 1928 and Western Australia in 1936. South Australia added compulsory voting for its House Assembly in 1942.

Since the federal election of 1925 voter turnout has never been below 90 per cent and, while the number of informal votes can vary, there is little evidence about what extent this represents acts of error, apathy or protest. During the 2010 federal election, the former federal ALP leader Mark Latham argued that “compulsion begets apathy”. In his cynical stand-up routine on 60 Minutes, he stated the government should not force citizens to vote or threaten them with a fine. In his ‘Five Minutes with Mark Latham’, he urged voters to leave their ballot papers blank and vote informal. After the election, Latham wrote in the Australian Financial Review, 9 September 2010:

‘The 2010 election was a good advertisement for voluntary voting. What other conclusion can be drawn from a campaign that produced a sharp increase in the informal vote, vast numbers who could not be bothered voting and a significant protest swing to the minor parties?’

The response to Latham is that strong and effective democracy requires a minimum degree of participation by all its citizens, not just those anxious to influence the system to get something out of it. The idea is not new. The great Greek historian, Thucydides, records the Athenian leader Pericles as saying:

‘… we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his business: we say he has no business here at all.’

The decisions of government affect everyone and they are more likely to be made on behalf of everyone if everyone plays at least some role in selecting the members of Parliament.

Compulsory enrolment and voting are the fundamental underpinnings of Australia’s democracy and Australians have readily accepted this with their enthusiastic participation in the electoral process. Participating in democracy should not be optional. Even if you despise politicians and the political process, turning out a couple of times every three or four years to vote for your local, state or national government is not burdensome for anyone. It forces even the most cynical individual to at least cast a fleeting glance at the political process and that is a desirable outcome. Adelaide University’s Lisa Hill notes:

‘By ensuring that voting participation is not confined to the more prosperous members of society, compulsory voting serves to protect such important democratic values as representativeness, legitimacy, accountability, political equality and minimisation of elite power.’

Compulsory voting forces people to engage with their democracy.

Our democracy needs more occasions where we get together and engage in a shared activity. For the most part, this should not be as a result of compulsion. However, there is room for at least one occasion, held every few years, when all citizens are required to come together in a common, civic enterprise. The requirement that we turn up to vote meets that test.