[LINK] E-Democracy

Stephen Loosley stephen at melbpc.org.au
Tue Nov 21 23:34:08 AEDT 2006


Hi all,

In terms of e-democracy we are still playing around the edges.

E-voting for blind people seems a sensible arrangement to me
and I congratulate the Victorian government on its initiative. Even
though many IT-smart Linkers, imho, have quite rightly queried the
recent modus-operandi (a black-box-ballot-box is NOT comforting,
and 'trust-us' assertions are of little re-assurance) at least they tried.

But e-voting is quite peripheral to genuine participatory e-democracy.

For example, the several people I have known who have successfully
entered politics are dedicated and honest people, and I wish them all
the best.  However, it's impossible for them all to be across the broad
spectrum of legislation they're required to vote on so they skip boning
up on every bill before voting, and simply use their time trying to keep
their electorate happy .. and leave the big-picture bills to the party. Ok
this is understandable but besides the Opposition who have their own
agendas, who then reviews new legislation in any un-biased manner?

The media (thank god for Michelle Gratten) used to do this but now are
more interested in purchaser entertainment ie, reporting on celebrities. 

So, although as Jan quite rightly asserts :-) most proposed legislation 
eventually appears somewhere on the web, but, why not in one central
web location with easy-to-use invitations for comment, before debate?
We will surely end-up with much more thoroughly thought-through laws.

And why, in this day and age, do most Australians who want to petition
our State and Federal governments still have to do it the same way it's
been done for nearly a thousand years .. a hard-copy list of signatures?

E-voting is almost completely incidental to genuine, real e-democracy.

Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia
.




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