I would be happy if voting was voluntary as it would get rid of the vast majority who views voting as a chore rather than as a privilige (if you don't think voting is a privilige take a look at what is happening in the Mid-East over the past 12 months or ask someone in Burma or China). It would hopefully also have the effect of bringing about a better class of candidate.
You miss the point of my statement.
The compulsory voting system here disguises the issues of voter dissatisfaction from the Politicians. I had actually hoped that the very large informal vote at the last election would have brought it home to these numpties but only Graham Richardson and Alexander Downer acknowledged that there is a crisis in confidence amongst the voters regarding the elect-ability, honesty and suitability of our Politicians for office.
The bigger privilege is not to vote but to serve the community.
The argument that non voters lose importance can also be countered in that a major party would work very hard to engage with a wider voter base if it was voluntary as Australian fatalism and laziness would ensure that only those with a vested interest or existing political affiliation would turn out otherwise. Thus the need to engage the voter would drive the Parties to formulate policies that would do this.
There are two things that I would like to see
1) the removal of the preferential system so that no candidate polling dismal primary voter support can make office on back room deals.
2) fixing politicians wages to public servants (including the judiciary). This would promote fiscal responsibility and remove the moral issue that the politicians now face in that they have capped the wages of all their servants yet will give themselves a massive pay rise many times that of the cap on the servants wages. There is also the issue that the "independent" tribunal effectively makes recommendations on their own pay rise as the Judiciary's remuneration is linked to the Pollies, so it isn't really independent.