Democracy Is Not Free!

Every time you vote at a Federal, State or Local election the average financial cost is around $5.

What do you get for your $5?

You get to vote once for one candidate and allocate your preferences for the rest of the candidates. If the candidate you voted for gets elected than you can say that you are represented. If the candidate you voted for did not get voted in then you are not directly represented. And, your preferences may end up going to a person that you do not want to represent you.

What you don't get for your $5?

If you no longer think that the person whom you voted for is representing you then you do not have the right to withdraw your vote from that representative. If you no longer want them to represent you then you must wait until the next election to vote for another person. Unfortunately by that time it is often too late to undo the changes that you (and often the majority) did not support.

If you want to have your say about a specific issue then the representative in your electorate is under no obligation to take into account your position on that issue. There have been many instances where more than 50% of the electorate disagree with the elected representatives yet the elected representatives go ahead and do what the majority don't want. I have heard on good authority that the mayor of a Queensland metropolitan council was asked if the council listened to what the citizens wanted. He said, "Of course we do, but we don't have to do anything about it." What arrogance! Any representative who thinks like this is not worthy of the office.

What you could get for $5!

Anthem Australia proposes that for $5 per person per year it is possible to set up a distributed (i.e. 'not centralised') representative network that allows you the voter to:

• Vote directly on many issues.
• Change your vote on an issue.
• Control how the resources you contribute to any issue are allocated.
• Give your right to vote (a proxy vote) on one, many or all issues to one or many representative/s who are bound to directly represent what you think.
• Change at any time the person who represents you.

This type of network will put in the hands of the Australian people a mechanism to take advantage of what is known as 'Economies of Scale'. Big business uses it, the government relies on it and now with the internet we the Australian people can have the benefit of it.

Click here for more details on the plan to use the proposed new version of the Australian national anthem as the pilot issue to build this network.

If you want to contribute to making the goal of Anthem Australia a reality then you can:

• 'Have Your Say' about Australia's national anthem.

• Become an 'Australia Representative'.

• Volunteer your time and skill towards a 'Project Task'.

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