I have just been fined for not voting in our local council election and I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!

It's just plain ludicrous.

Last November I received a pamphlet in the mail introducing council candidates and outlining their policies.

The candidates were drab and uninteresting, their policies the usual motherhood stuff of 'upgrading services' and 'sustainable development.' Boring, meaningless drivel. I followed the campaign in the local paper. None of them appealed to me. None, I thought, deserved my vote.

So on election day, I did not turn up at a polling booth. I did not vote.

I think what I did was democratic, but it was illegal.

My wife turned up to a booth, knowing little about the candidates and cast a donkey vote. She wrote a number beside each name 1 to 8 from top to bottom.

Her vote and those of so many like her who did not even know what the candidates stood for would have affected the result.

I think what she did was undemocratic, but it was legal.

This week I received a 57 dollar fine from the Electoral Commission for not voting.

What a joke!

In a grown-up, modern western-style democracy like Australia there should be a right to vote and a right NOT to vote if you don't support any of the candidates or their policies in any election whether it be Federal, State or Local.

Australia is the only western democracy that has compulsory voting. America doesn't. Britain doesn't. Even New Zealand doesn't! In those countries candidates have to go out on the hustings and court voters, capture their imaginations, and entice them to the polls with good policies. Wouldn't that be nice here?

Some will say... well you don't HAVE to vote in Australia. You can just go into the polling booth, get your name ticked off and leave . The point is in a democracy you shouldn't have to go through that charade.

Some will say... in America voter turnout is often poor. Well, there it's made worse because of a silly tradition of holding elections on Tuesdays, so voting clashes with work. Fortunately we avoid that problem by holding our elections on Saturdays. Much more sensible.

For the record, I did vote in the last Federal election. I supported the Carers' Party because carers are the unsung and unappreciated heroes of our society. Candidates' appearances on TV and in papers about the plight of their families were heart wrenching. They did what political candidates should do... they captured the imagination of a voter and won his vote.

Legal experts say compulsory voting is not enshrined in the constitution, so we don't need a referendum to get rid of it.

It's a matter of one of our political parties having the guts to adopt a policy of dumping compulsory voting and then getting it through parliament.

Now that's a party I WOULD vote for.