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Man Formerly Charged With Rigging Student Ballot Exposed As Labor Official
First time accepted submitter pocock writes "Motivated by reports of Matthew Weaver's twelve month jail sentence for rigging CalState student elections, a comprehensive blog describes in detail how a generation of student ballot riggers from the late 1990s have graduated unhindered into federal politics, playing a pivotal role in Australia's upcoming federal election. One can only wonder if Weaver had not been caught, would he too have eventually swiped a million dollars and put the SRC into liquidation?"
A similar dynamic of student-election "dirty tricks" graduating into general election bugging and sabotage of election opponents played out during the Watergate scandal. Donald Segretti cut his teeth in election fraud during his USC days, and later applied his skills in Nixon's reelection campaign, the resulting "Muskie letters" effectively knocking a democratic senator out of the campaign. Karl Rove came from the same school of campaigning.
These incidents are as perfect an example of "Broken Window Theory" in politics as you are likely to come across. "Shenanigans" in college, if left unchecked, lead inevitably to outright election fraud. If you permit criminals to train their skills, operate unpunished, and indeed enjoy the rewards of their misdeeds, they are unlikely to change their ways in a hurry.
On a related note, I regard most student politcs in universities as a wholly illegitimate process. The resulting bodies and persons do not represent the student body or its values. At best, they organise drunken festivals and serve as a training ground for the corrupt and incompetent cadre currently in charge of the western world.
May the Maths Be with you!
It's confusingly written, but the blurb (and story) are just using him as the hook. The rest of the story is about Australian politics.
The premise seems to be something like this:
1. Heard about this guy Matthew Weaver, who's been in the news after he was convicted of rigging student elections in California?
2. Well, on that subject, did you know that a bunch of current Australian politicians also have a background rigging student elections back in their college days?
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Mate, the ballot paper looks like an Asian grocery shelf and you complain about the lack of choice?
More like a restaurant with a huge menu of delicious dishes to choose from. You can order what ever you want but you always get either sweet and sour pork or beef in black bean sauce served to you - both come with special fried rice.
BM3
3. The leader of the Liberal/National coalition - Tony Abbot - is a truly nasty piece of work. He is an intolerant bigot. He makes my skin crawl every time I hear him talk.
You forgot religious. I mean there's been plenty of religious prime ministers but nothing to this extent. He was educated at St Patrick's Seminary and was well on his way to becoming a member of the clergy when he dropped out after getting a brief taste in politics and then became a politician shortly after. The man has quoted scripture in some of his interviews and he has deeply religious beliefs which he forces upon his party (won't let the party take a conscience vote on gay marriage). This alone goes against the principles of democracy, since I can only vote for my local member and he may not be able put our views forward in some cases.
I immigrated to Australia many years ago and became a citizen about ... 5 years ago. I was forced to sit the exam and one of the entrance exam questions was on the founding principles of the Australian government. One of the correct answers was "Secularism of State" so voting for Abbott is not only a blow to democracy but also a blot to the founding principles of the Australian government.