Elections

We had the opportunity to watch (not participate in) the election process in Australia this year.  As with many things, it's different from the process I am used to.

Mid summer, prior to this election, the then Prime Minister's Party became disillusioned with her actions and policies.  The Party got together, had a meeting at 7pm on a Tuesday and replaced her with in the hour-ish.

The "replacement" PM (Prime Minister) called for the election to be held on September 7th.  (There is no set election date. It is different each time they hold elections.)

Two weeks before election day, the various party campaigns kicked off.

That's TWO WEEKS ONLY.  NOT TWO YEARs. (We could learn from this practice.)

There were some great commercials but some of the best stories came from the news shows.  All of them participated in showing the best candidate gaffs.  (And to think, in the US only the late night TV shows point these things out!)

Another difference - compulsory voting.  If a citizen doesn't go to the polls, they are fined. 

Then there's the ballot.  For the last three days, I have seen commercials explaining how to mark ballots.  An Australian citizen can vote straight party line or for individuals.  However, if they vote for an individual, they must rank every person running for each office in order of preference.  For example, there are at least four people running for PM.  Each of the four has to be marked in order of preference - 1, 2, 3, 4.  If they make a mistake, they can get another ballot.  (I've never tried that in the US...) 

Just one more interesting thing to make comparisons about!

I got a dolphin!

After watching for about 4 hours over 2 days and taking approximately 742 pictures,

I got a dolphin!

And a couple of Galahs posed for me!

Pictures taken around Gladstone, QLD boat harbour.