I received a media release from the Southern Cross Group in my inbox this evening. The media release is titled:
Overseas Australians Should Enrol to Vote Now [pdf]. It is a reminder for diasporans that the Electoral Act has changed and the diasporans need to enrol each year to remain on the electoral roll. The AEC can strike a diasporan off if they miss voting in an election.
From the media release:
Jacqui Mowbray, spokeswoman for the SCG in Sydney, said that 2006 changes to the closing date for the electoral roll, coupled with limitations in the law on enrolling from abroad, meant that many Australian expats who had left Australia in recent years faced a very real prospect that inaction on their part would lead to them becoming disenfranchised for their entire sojourn abroad.
"Australians overseas must organise their electoral enrolment now, and not wait until the Prime Minister calls the election", she said. "The old seven day window between the calling of the election and the closing of the electoral roll is gone. Once the election is announced, the roll will close almost immediately."
The release contains some interesting statistics too. The SCG estimates that nearly five hundred thousand, or half, of the Australian diaspora are disenfranchised because the electoral act prevents them from re-enrolling. In addition there are low levels of voting by diasporans:
In the 2004 election, only 68,544 votes were issued by overseas posts. In 2001, the figure was 63,016, and in 1998, 65,086. In 1999, only 57,955 votes were issued overseas for the referendum on the Republic.
It is not compulsory for diasporans to vote. I can understand a level of apathy from diasporans as the House of Representatives doesn't have the national focus that diasporans would have. Local issues in the electorate would hardly be something a diasporan would gun for. However I can imagine a large level of interest in the Senate. If there was an elected President - a national position - then there may be more interest from the diaspora.
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Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
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Orange Table,
The Vig,
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phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
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Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
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Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
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Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
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Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
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www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
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Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
