Brexit showed us what happens when people who don't know how things work vote. I don't believe in mandatory voting. People who don't know or care what they're voting for isn't a good thing, I think. Before any talk of mandatory voting, it should be a mandatory part of the secondary school curriculum teaching kids how parliament and elections work.

I had a colleague, who when told she should have voted in the GE, said, "Never mind, I'll vote next year."

I mean, this was back in the early 2010s. Nowadays that argument holds more water, I suppose.

What an utterly worthless measure. I suspect the people proposing this want a placebo rather than anything that will actually change things.

The only reforms that matter are getting private money out of politics and (to a lesser extent) reform of the electoral system to replace FPTP. The latter will help, but is not the panacea that enthusiasts claim.

Compulsory voting doesn’t mean you have to vote: it means you have to show up or have a good excuse to not have done so. Once you show up, you can lodge a blank ballot, write “FUCK THEM ALL” on the paper, draw a willy on it or whatever. Informal votes, as they’re known, are counted and, while they don’t decide who wins, they’re a gauge of dissatisfaction (a certain baseline amount is expected, though variation from that can indicate changes in public sentiment).

From an individual voter’s point of view it may seem pointless and annoying, though looking at it across the system, compulsory voting changed the dynamics of elections by eliminating the advantage of playing to one’s base to boost turnout. The result, as seen in jurisdictions such as Australia, is less extremism as parties tend to aim to appeal more to the broad public.

How can that be anything other than an attempt at misdirection by people who don't want any real electoral reform?

Imagine all the protest votes for whichever party promises to abolish it. As a country that excels at self-sabotage, this seems like expediting the process.