Thanks to Project SafeCom
Dear all…
Today the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, has visited the Governor-General and announced the next Federal Election, but in a clever, manipulative and nasty law pushed through in Federal Parliament last year (the government could “push” this, because it has a majority in Both Houses of Parliament), the Electoral Act has been changed.
The Electoral Rolls will now close at 8pm of the day that the “writs” are issued for the election, sooner than ever before. Mr Howard has - presumably under pressure from lobby groups and his own party - still given some time beyond today’s announcement for closing the Rolls. At his press conference this morning the PM stated:
- “The writs will issue on the 17th of October, the (electoral) rolls will close on the 22nd of October….”
When the Electoral Rolls are closed, it will be TOO LATE to enrol to vote, and many thousands of young people are likely to miss out, and they will not be able to vote!!
It is likely that the government has changed this law, because it deliberately wants to stop young people to vote because most young people will not vote for Mr Howard or the Coalition government, but for Labor, The Greens, the Democrats or for any other party or for an Independent.
This election, more than any election in Australian history, is about voting to protect our planet, and the party that performs best of all on Climate Change, should become the party that gets the votes of all people.
And our guess is, that, more than any other age group, young people are highly likely to consider the environment before all other issues when making up their mind who to vote for.
What you can do:
1. Forward this message to as many young people you know;
2. Phone all young people you know and mention this issue, and ask them to enrol to vote immediately;
3. Send an SMS message to ALL young people you know, to your young friends, to any of your children or grandchildren in this age group;
You can enrol to vote via the Australian Electoral Commission’s website:
- http://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Special_Category/Age_17_enrolment.htm
- or here: http://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/How_To_Enrol/index.htm
• More information by GetUp! about this law and about enrolling to vote is here:
- http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/VotingIsTheBestRevenge
• Some news from the ABC about this law is here:
- Electoral changes will hurt young voters
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/14/2058999.htm
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