To the Polls

Quick, those of you in North America - who's the prime minister of Australia?

Really, someone outside of Australia should know...

Anyway, the answer is Julia Gillard, who is Australia's first female prime minister.  She's also in danger of becoming something of a historical footnote, since she's only been in office since June 24th of this year, and an election was held today that apparently has an even chance of ending her time in office at a smidge past two months.

Turns out these things can happen in a parliamentary system - who knew?

And I voted today - my first participation in an Australian election.  Good fun.  And a good idea, too, since voting is apparently mandatory here, and you can be fined for failing to cast a ballot.  I'm happy to report that while politics here appear to be about as unsavory as you might expect, they're nothing like as messed up as U.S. politics.  No one publicly calls for the center-left candidate to be assassinated.  How civilized.  And, added bonus, there's a quite strong Australian Greens party that you get to vote for...