Thursday, June 28, 2007

Gerstralia

Last week I posted off an application to renew my driver's license, which as a lucky citizen of NSW, is possible as long as you're not away for longer than five years and your license hasn't been expired for too long. Yesterday I got an email saying that, unfortunately, they couldn't renew my license because I had an outstanding fine which had gone to the state debt recovery service (didn't know we had one) and my license was suspended until I paid it. This was all very confusing given that a) I've been out of the country for two years and b) I don't own a car.
Anyway I sent off an email to the nice folks at the SDRS and they got back to me pronto telling me I had a fine because I... wait for it... didn't vote in the 2005 State by-election for Marrickville. So, to summarise, I can't get my license renewed because I didn't vote in a by-election. I'm torn between being really impressed with the speed with which I got this information, as well as the depth of state control in NSW and really, really frightened that Australia has TURNED INTO GERMANY.

Anyway the next step in this whole ridiculous process was to email the NSW Electoral Service telling them I was out of the country, which I just did. Stay tuned...

3 comments:

Matt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt said...

Sorry, I had to delete a possibly inflammatory remark about mandatory voting. I'm really not in any sort of position to criticize another country's form of democracy at the moment.

Torshy said...

Actually I'm fine with your criticism- I think it's absurd to take away someone's right to a driver's license for not voting. It's like refusing someone a video card because they have a library fine. That said, the fine's been retracted without any more effeort than one email on my part, so I can't really complain about heavy-handed big brother tactics. But I still will.