John MacDonald: What's not to like about compulsory voting? 

How do you feel about a million people not voting in this year’s election?

I’m not talking here about people not getting themselves sorted and registering early because of the changes brought in by the Government.

The early cut-off. No more registering on the day.

These a million people with every right to vote, who didn’t. Couldn’t be bothered.

I think it’s a shocker and something needs to be done about it.

Because, if you look at the records over the years, there’s a very clear pattern of more and more people not bothering to vote.

So what do we do about it? I’ve got a solution.

But first, here are the numbers. The Electoral Commission is telling us that, in the election we’ve just had, 74.6 percent of eligible voters took part.

And it’s looking like being the second-lowest turnout ever in New Zealand.

There are about 3.8 million people eligible to vote. About 2.8 million of them voted. Leaving 1 million who didn’t.

Not that this is totally new. A similar amount of people couldn’t be bothered last election, either.

Some people might say, oh so what?

They might think that it just means we have a million people who don’t have the right to complain about the way the country’s being run over the next three years. Because they didn’t vote.

But it’s more than that. Because the more people voting, the more representative our Parliament is.

The more of a mandate the Government of the day has.

So we need to take it seriously. And I think we need to do what they do in Australia and make voting compulsory.

It works and here’s the proof. Since making voting in federal elections compulsory in 1924, voter turnout has never fallen below 90 percent.

Two years before making it compulsory, just 60 percent of people voted in the 1922 election.

In 1924, voting was made compulsory and straight away there was an increase in voter turnout, with 91 percent voting a year later in the 1925 election.

And, as I say, it hasn‘t been any lower than 90 percent since.

Fun fact: The fine for not voting is $20 Australian. Which you would think wouldn't be enough of a stick to get people voting. But it is.

Although, voting is probably so ingrained - or the obligation to vote is probably so ingrained in Australia - the threat of a fine doesn’t really come into it.

Not that everyone in Australia likes being told they're breaking the law if they don’t vote. There have been campaigns over the years to change the rules. But most people are fine with it.

I’d be more than fine with compulsory voting here in New Zealand. It very clearly works in Australia. So why not do the same thing here?

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