H J AMES J OHNSON

A USTRALIAN H OUSE OF R EPRESENATIVES

I NDEPENDENT C ANDIDATE FOR L ALOR

Saturday 31 July 2010

My fellow constituents of Lalor By Twitter and Facebook

I have written today to the Australian Electoral Commission requesting an explanation how comes, when the
Lists of House of Representatives Candidates for the 2010 Federal Election was published on the official
Government website www.aec.gov.au shortly after 9 pm on Friday evening my name was missing from the list of
Candidates for the electorate of Lalor (Vic).

I will keep my supporters and followers updated on developments. For now I urge that this not be a cause for
lack of morale. Things always have a way of working out for the best. And even the grimmest of crisis (which,
by the way, this isn't) carry the seeds for the greatest opportunities.

For the moment, the “official” list of House of Representatives Candidates for the electorate of Lalor (Vic) has
only nine candidates. Following the AEC's “double-randomising” lottery process (which works a bit like Hey Hey
It's Saturday's Chooklotto used to work in its heyday), the nine “official” candidates currently appear in the
following order on the 21 August ballot paper:

1. SHEEHAN, Paul (Secular Party of Australia) 2. SHAW, Brian William (Independent)

3. INGRAM, Sheridan (Liberal) 4. McLEAN, Lori (Family First)

5. GILLARD, Julia (Australian Labor Party) 6. RUDD, Van

7. AUSSIE-STONE, Marc (Independent) 8. TAYLOR, Peter (Australian Greens)

9. CLARKE, Joanne (Independent)

MAIL: PO Box 6137 Point Cook Vic 3030 james@jamesjohnson2020.com :EMAIL

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DEFENDING THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION *** WORKING FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A NEW AUSTRALIAN WAY
The Australian Electoral Commission already has one Court date for the 2010 election - a hearing in Canberra
in a couple of days time, namely Wednesday 4 August.

This Court Date is for proceedings where a civil rights action group (@GetUp) are challenging the decision by
the Australian Electoral Commission to close the electoral roles at 8 pm on Monday 19 July.

With@GetUp performing in the role of a private attorney-general, the propriety of the Australian Electoral
Commission's rules, procedures and decision making over the closing of the electoral roles will be subject to
judicial scrutiny at the highest level possible in an Australian Court, namely the judgment of our Full High Court,
comprising all seven the High Court Judges, including Chief Justice French.

Of course, in our dubious democratic system where it is allegedly a crime against the State to fail to vote, by
signaling that it will turn away unregistered voters from the polling booths on 21 August 2010, the AEC is
becoming a primary accessory to the crimes that each unregistered voter commits by failing (to be allowed) to
vote.

Whether this bizarre (and internationally without peer) aspect of our “Broken Democratic Process” will factor into
the legal arguments and the judgments of the Court in the @GetUp proceedings on 4 August remains to be
seen. Perhaps it will. Perhaps it will also be the seeds of yet another class of court dates for the troubled and
troublesome AEC (troublesome to me and the 141,000 other voters of Lalor at least).

Unless the Australian Electoral Commission acts quickly to remedy its failure to announce my candidacy,and
moves fast to remedy this in time for me to stand as an Independent Candidate on 21 August 2010, then the
propriety of the Australian Electoral Commission may be paying a second visit to the Full High Court in the very
near future.

In the meantime, the people of Lalor seem to be well catered-for in terms of being able to register an
Independent protest vote against the ruling Liberal-Labor Duocracy (with the all important proviso that
on the inevitable two-party preference between the TweedleDum and the TweedleDee parties, the protest
vote ends up in TweedleDee's pocket – ie Liberal's Sheridan Ingram).

Apart from the two major parties, the peoples of Lalor also have a candidate from the mezzo party (Australian
Greens) and two of the three minor parties (Secular Party of Australia and Family First). The Australian
Democrats have not endorsed a candidate for Lalor.

It is important to remember that a “protest vote” to the Australian Greens will end up on a two-party
preferred basis as a vote for the TweedleDums (ie incumbent Julia Gillard).

I am yet to find out whether the Secular Party of Australia and Family First will be directing their preferences to
TweedleDum or to TweedleDee.

Of course the minor parties are free to suggest to their supporters how to vote on preferences. And the minor
parties are also free to choose not to direct their preferences.

It is a “curiouser and curiouser” feature of our Broken Democratic Processes in “Down-(W)Underland” that whilst
our political parties (and indeed our politicians themselves when voting on the floors of the many Houses of
Parliament) have three voting choices “for”, “against” and “abstain” we as voters can only be trusted with “for”
and “against”. It seems it is not in our own good, or we are incapable of the necessary freedom of thought and
intelligence of action to “abstain”.

MAIL: PO Box 6137 Point Cook Vic 3030 james@jamesjohnson2020.com :EMAIL

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DEFENDING THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION *** WORKING FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A NEW AUSTRALIAN WAY
It is curious that voting is not compulsory inside the House of Parliament, nor is it compulsory for candidates for
the all important nominations of second preferences, yet it is allegedly compulsory for all eligible voters (there is
no legal middle-ground of abstaining).

Such compulsory conscription of voters, under alleged “laws” that not only disallow but even criminalising
conscientious objections (an “I abstain” or an “I can't keep the bastards honest, so I simply don't want to be
responsible for putting them in positions of power over us in the first place”) rings very odd to my mind, as a
constitutional human rights lawyer.

I can't see how the State can criminalise a decision by a citizen to abstain from exercising a right. I can't think of
another “Broken Democracy” like Australia where the State (both the Federal Government and all of the State
Governments). Whether these curiosities of the Australian Broken Democracy condition will be raised in the
@GetUp proceedings on Wednesday remains to be seen. Perhaps they should be. Perhaps the Australian
Electoral Commission will be separately or additionally challenged in the High Court on these fundamental
issues too.

Of course the practicalities of registering an effective protest vote are presently more importantly, for the sake of
Lalor (and at this election for the sake of Australia as well as only Lalor voters are enfranchised to vote for or
against our troubling Prime Minister (non-elected).

On the practicalities of registering an effective protest vote against the TweedleDum-TweedleDee duocracy of
mindless, mediocre, modern Australian politicians, the people of Lalor seem well served with 3 and probably 4
Independent candidates.

The three declared Independents are Brian William SHAW (who scored the second spot on the ballot paper),
Marc AUSSIE-STONE and Joanne CLARKE who each declared themselves as “Independent”.

Van RUDD is the ninth candidate (6th on the ballot paper) while he has not described himself as an
“Independent” in his candidacy papers.

I again ask my supporters and followers to remain calm and positive whilst I sort out with the Australian Electoral
Commission the curious situation where my name is at the present time missing from the Lalor Ballot Paper.

It is important not to jump into any conclusions. It is important to get in all of the best available information
before formulating what might need to be done to fix the problem.

Best wishes

JAMES JOHNSON

MAIL: PO Box 6137 Point Cook Vic 3030 james@jamesjohnson2020.com :EMAIL

T E L E P H O N E : 1 3 0 0 [ Ye t t o b e a d v i s e d ] www.jamesjohnson2020.com :WEB
FAC S I M I L E : 1 8 0 0 [ Ye t t o b e a d v i s e d ] J a m e s J o h n s o n 2 0 2 0 : FAC E B O O K
SMS: 0401 865 914 @JamesJohnsonCHR :TWITTER

DEFENDING THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION *** WORKING FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A NEW AUSTRALIAN WAY
 H J AMES J OHNSON
A USTRALIAN H OUSE OF R EPRESENATIVES
I NDEPENDENT C ANDIDATE FOR L ALOR

Saturday 31 July 2010

Australian Electoral Office By Facsimile

And by Registered Post
And By Email

I refer to the Lists of House of Representatives Candidates for the 2010 Federal Election which you the
Australian Electoral Commission, published to the public on your official Government website www.aec.gov.au
shortly after 9 pm on Friday evening.

I refer specifically to the list of House of Representatives Candidates for the electorate of Lalor (Vic) which lists
only nine candidates.

Please explain how comes my name is missing from the list of candidates nominated for the electorate of Lalor?

And please explain the immediate steps the Australian Electoral Commission will take to rectify this situation so
that the electors of Lalor may vote for me (if those are their wishes) on 21 August 2010?

I supplied you, the AEC, with the relevant information concerning my candidacy by completing and returning to
you the enclosed AEC Form 60 “Nomination of a Member of the House of Representatives” by facsimile at
about 4 pm on Tuesday, 27 July (see attached).

Thus my nomination was made some 44 hours inside of the 11:59:59 AM deadline on Thursday, 29 July. And I
dispatched the original signed papers to you by express post at the same time as the facsimile transmission. So
you should have received these too, a good 24 hours inside of the deadline.

Best wishes
JAMES JOHNSON

MAIL: PO Box 6137 Point Cook Vic 3030 james@jamesjohnson2020.com :EMAIL

T E L E P H O N E : 1 3 0 0 [ Ye t t o b e a d v i s e d ] www.jamesjohnson2020.com :WEB
FAC S I M I L E : 1 8 0 0 [ Ye t t o b e a d v i s e d ] J a m e s J o h n s o n 2 0 2 0 : FAC E B O O K
SMS: 0401 865 914 @JamesJohnsonCHR :TWITTER

DEFENDING THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION *** WORKING FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A NEW AUSTRALIAN WAY