Well that's it, innit, Dave. It's all very well forcing people to vote, ostensibly in the interests of democracy, but I'd far sooner employ strong persuasion coupled with bloody good political education. Actually, the practicalities are that the minority of democracies that have compulsory voting rarely sanction those who refuse to vote. The Aussies accept almost any excuse from non-voters. And anyway, it isn't really about compulsory voting at all. It's about forcing people to turn out. Once they're in that ballot box they can do what they like.

The Aussies often crow about their compulsory voting. I'd love to hear from whatever fair-minded Aussies we have here whether their voting system has produced good governance... ;-)