Paper Votes are a Gem

I watched Hacking Democracy, this evening. Depressing.

The US use automated voting machines built by private companies, certified by other private companies and closed source. The main scary demonstration was a man in the middle attack that was so simple as to be hilarious and clearly changed a mock election result.

I'm sure that there are alternatives and probably plenty of open source voting platforms out there. I mean it is a simple enough technical challenge to solve. But when you think about using something malleable like a computer to 'automate' aspects of a vote you are asking for trouble. I mean, if you think about it any closed source voting system is by definition a man in the middle. Your vote is subject to a process you can't see. Better to have the Australian system that involves lots of people.

For those that don't know how it goes. Once your vote is in the sealed ballot box it goes nowhere. About half an hour before the doors close the counters appointed by the Electoral Commission are joined by representatives of the parties and in some cases members of the public. At 6 the doors are closed and locked. The ballot boxes are opened and fall onto a big desk for all to see. The scrutineers get to observe the count and wander freely (though don't interact except to sign that they were present).

When a vote is unclear the Electoral Commission folks  discuss it openly in front of the scrutineers to try and ascertain the will of the voter. The entire process is open, as are the check counts, as is the reconciliation of ballots versus the number of folks marked off against the role for that booth. The results are public record and kept as are the original ballots in case of recount. Our system is sooooooooo much better than in the US. Democracy is messy. The more people involved in it the less chance of wide spread rigging.

When you think of all the polling booths across the country during a federal election think of the thousands of volunteers scrutineering on behalf of their parties, or themselves and the dozens of lowly paid counters. It is a hidden gem in Australian society and I suspect widely misunderstood. Don't ever trust efficiency and automation in the core institutions of government. Now all we need is to stop as a society electing snoozers on both sides of politics and we'll be all good!

Goodbye Gunns, It's Been Fun

What is the lesson of Gunns going broke? Well surely it must be that if you don't run your core business well all the projects in the world won't save you. In addition, I contend that the dollar was always going to rise with the mining boom and as it did any business case was going to be eroded beyond viability. 

As for Government. The willingness by both Gunns and the Government of the day to distort due process to the point of borderline corruption was a disgrace. Folks have been talking about the Tasmanian Government presenting a sovereign risk to potential investors. This is absolutely to true but perhaps not just in the sense the TCCI thinks.

IMHO, a modern government of any moderate persuasion should try to set the market conditions and then leave it alone. A government the intervenes on one project on behalf of one corporate entity is distorting the broader market. 

My heart goes out to all those loosing their jobs during this time. Also, it goes out to those self funded retirees and others who hold guns shares. I don't believe that the board ever made it clear at any AGM that the pulp mill was an all or nothing bet. 

Mack