Abstract
This chapter examines national election participation rates over the past two decades and identifies a recurring pattern of below average turn out in a small number of seats, suggesting that these constitute fault lines in the otherwise widespread consensus of public compliance with compulsory voting. These seats fall into two main categories. The first are remotes seats with comparatively high rates of Indigenous population, and this confirms a chronic and well recognised issue of concern regarding low Indigenous participation in the electoral process. The second are affluent inner urban seats in Australia’s major cities of Melbourne and Sydney in which highly educated young people are clustered. The latter pattern might presage a potential weakening in the public’s support for compulsory voting.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Some reports claim that turnout in elections held in 1955 fell below 90%. The turnout rate was affected by a number of uncontested seats occurring. Other reports seek to adjust the result to accommodate uncontested seats and find a participation rate of 95%. See Australia (2005): https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/FederalElectionResults#_Toc390336867.
- 2.
The history of opposition to compulsory voting is discussed by Paul Strangio in another chapter in this volume.
- 3.
Bibliography
Bennett, S. (1996). Winning and losing: Australian national elections. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Bennett, S. (2005). Compulsory voting in Australian national elections. Canberra: Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services.
Brett, J. (2019). From secret ballot to democracy sausage: How Australia got compulsory voting. Melbourne: Text Publishing.
Cameron, S., & McAllister, I. (2016). Trends in Australian political opinion: Results from the Australian election survey 1987-2016. Canberra: Australian National University.
Evans, T. (2006). Compulsory voting in Australia. Australian Electoral Commission: Elections Systems and Policy Making Division discussion paper.
Farrell, D., & McAllister, I. (2006). The Australian electoral system: Origins, variations and consequences. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Hill, L. (2002). On the reasonableness of compelling citizens to vote: The Australian case. Political Studies, 50(1), 80–101.
Hill, L. (2016). Voting turn-out, equality, liberty and representation: epistemic versus procedural democracy. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 19(5), 283–300.
Hill, L., & Rutledge-Prior, S. (2016). Young people and informal voting in Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 51(3), 400–417.
Jackson, S. (2015). The Australian greens. In N. Miragliotta, A. Gauja, & R. Smith (Eds.), Contemporary Australian party organisations. Melbourne: Monash University Press.
Jaensch, D. (1995). How and why Australia votes. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. (2018). Report on the Conduct of the 2016 Federal Election and Matters Related Thereto. Canberra: Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Laughland-Booy, J., Skrbis, Z., & Ghazarian, Z. (2018). The voting strategies of young people: A conceptual framework. Australian Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 143–159.
McAllister, I. (2014). The politics of lowering the voting age in Australia: evaluating the evidence. Australian Journal of Political Science, 49(1), 68–83.
Pruitt, L. (2017). Different ways to different domains: the everyday politics of young people. In M. Chou, J-P. Gagnon, C. Hartung & L. Pruitt (Eds.), Young People, Citizenship and Political Participation: Combating Civic Deficit? (pp. 77–103). London: Rowman and Littlefield.
Sheppard, J. (2015). Compulsory voting and political knowledge: testing a compelled argument hypothesis. Electoral Studies, 40(1), 300–307.
Whitlam, G. (1985). The Whitlam Government 1972 to 1975. Melbourne: Penguin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Economou, N. (2021). Non-participation in Australian National Elections: Fault-Lines in the Compulsory Voting Consensus. In: Bonotti, M., Strangio, P. (eds) A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia. Elections, Voting, Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-33-4024-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-33-4025-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)