Politics in China Town

About a week and a half ago we had dinner with some of Richard's colleagues in China Town. The food was really tasty, although I'm bummed that no where in the city seems to serve brown rice:/ A lot of interesting topics were discussed, one of them being politics. It was really interesting hearing some of the differences between the US and Australia. Apparently in Australia, every single person is forced to vote. Authorities will, apparently, track you down and will fine you if you do not vote in time. If you move within the country, they will send you a change of precinct form asap.

In their last census report there was a large majority of people who put down their party affiliation as "Jedi", and the government almost recognized the group. Unfortunately they renigged at the last minute. May the force be with them!

I was pleased to find out that both Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report are both shown here. I was told that sometimes the shows don't make as much sense to people here because of not necessarily being up to speed on American politics, but my gut is telling me that they probably know a lot more about our politics than Americans know about theirs. I know their Prime Minister is a female which is very cool, but I just realized that I still to this day have not looked up her name. 1 min please, her name is Julia Gillard. She's the 27th Prime Minister and has been the Leader of the Australian Labor Party since June, 2010. She's the first woman to hold both offices. I guess she's like the Australian Hilary Clinton.

Australia overall sounds like a much more liberal, less religious based country which is refreshing.