An Aboriginal man, who refuses to vote in Australian elections because of cultural beliefs, has been granted an exemption and accused the government of using “sneaky and coercive” methods to register Indigenous people to vote.
Callum Clayton-Dixon, an Aboriginal activist, appealed a $174 fine for not voting in Queensland’s January election, and on Monday was informed by the Electoral Commission Queensland that the fine had been revoked.
Clayton-Dixon’s appeal was based on a regulation that exempts people on religious grounds as he said it was against his beliefs as an Anaiwan man.
“A lot of other cultures and societies, their religion is a separate institution from the rest of society,” he said. “They have the church, the government [and] courts, whereas in Aboriginal society, your religion, your spirituality is intrinsically linked with the rest of the society. The way we interact within the tribe and how we interact outside the tribe is heavily influenced by spirituality.
“One of the most important obligations is that we are not supposed to speak on behalf of other people or country. If I had voted in that electorate, or in the federal election that is not in my country, then I would be speaking on behalf of that tribe.”
For Aboriginal people, Australia is divided up into individual countries based on where their tribes are from.
This is the second time Clayton-Dixon, 20, has had a fine revoked for not voting, after he refused to vote in the 2013 federal election.
Voting is compulsory in Australia though people can usually avoid it by not enrolling to vote. Clayton-Dixon was enrolled automatically when he was in high school and had his details updated automatically when he moved and changed his address on his licence.
“It’s very sneaky and coercive in a way, how they enrol Aboriginal people,” he said.
He cited an example of a friend who played in an Australian Electoral Commission sponsored Aboriginal football carnival, where players had to be enrolled to vote to be allowed to play.
Aboriginal people’s spiritual beliefs were a “significant factor” in the low rate of voting participation by Indigenous people, he said.
“It’s just something a lot of blackfellas know. I don’t have the right to speak on behalf of someone else’s mob, I’m not going there, I’m not going to participate. We never consented to this political system being imposed on us, it doesn’t cater for us.
“We are statistically a very small minority and it puts us in position where we have very, very, very little chance of being able to elect an Aboriginal person to parliament that can actively and freely advocate on our behalf.”
Clayton-Dixon said a stepping stone to improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in the Australian political system, would be to allocate seats in parliament to Indigenous people.
