Chapter 253: The Upcoming House of Representatives Election
On January 17, 1908, after several days of discussions and preparations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially issued an announcement establishing the Australasia Publicity Department. This department would be managed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and responsible for both domestic and international publicity work.
All news agencies, media outlets, and writers' associations were to be supervised by the Publicity Department to ensure no information harmful to national stability circulated domestically or internationally.
The announcement of the new department quickly attracted the attention of many in the political world. After all, the positions within the government of Australasia were highly sought after, and the Publicity Department, being under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was an important one.
At Arthur's suggestion, Grant Wilson had prepared well in advance and, leveraging the United Party's position as the largest party, successfully secured the role of the first Minister of the Publicity Department.
As the new Minister of Publicity, Grant Wilson knew Arthur's intentions. Therefore, on his first day in office, he reported his plans for the Publicity Department to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and requested approval from the cabinet.
On January 19, Foreign Minister Andrew successfully presented Grant's plan to the cabinet for review, which was promptly approved, and the plan began implementation that very day.
Starting from January 19, all immigrants arriving in Australasia would be assigned to different regions by family units, with a greater focus on less populated areas.
To encourage immigrants to move to Western Australia and South Australia, both state governments introduced policies to offer immigrants compensation of at least five acres of land.
These two regions, being vast and sparsely populated, make up nearly half of Australasia's land area but only house one-fifth of the population, so they certainly needed more support.
For the immigrants, the compensation from Australasia was quite generous. If they chose to move to Western Australia or South Australia, they would receive at least fifteen acres of land, and by hiring a few indigenous workers, they could easily become landowners.
Moreover, if they decided to forgo the land, they could gain priority to enter the newly developing Leonora Industrial Zone. After receiving training, they could become workers in the industrial zone and earn higher wages.
Currently, workers in Australasia earned a decent wage, with a minimum of about 47 Australian dollars.
After the National Day, the government of Australasia resumed its busy work, and construction projects across the nation continued to progress at full speed.
One particular project, the Leonora Industrial Zone, which was highly prioritized by the government, had already employed over 20,000 indigenous workers. Small changes occurred every few days, and major changes were seen every week at the construction site.
Starting from February, Arthur attended the launching ceremony for the Australasia Battleship, the launching of Russia's second battleship, and the formation ceremony of the Fourth Regular Division, among others. By March, he finally had a little time to rest.
Though busy, Arthur found great satisfaction in these developments.
The hopes of the Australasia Navy had entered the construction phase, which meant that in the near future, Australasia would gain a strong naval force, and the country's security would finally be guaranteed.
On March 17, Prime Minister Walter requested Arthur's attendance at the regular cabinet meeting to report on the current government situation and finalize the specific process and arrangements for the national election later that year.
Australasia was different from other European countries. The people could elect officials at various levels, and those elected could choose government officials at the same level.
The term for an elected official was generally two years, but they could maintain their position by running for re-election.
Currently, the term for all government officials at all levels was unified at four years.
The Prime Minister could serve a maximum of two terms, while ministers could serve up to three terms, with a maximum of five terms in office.
The term limits for governors were slightly more flexible, with a maximum of two terms, but there were no restrictions on the number of terms served.
This meant that if a governor was popular with the people, it was possible for them to serve continuously, alternating between two terms and three terms.
The rules for mayors were even more relaxed. Though their term remained four years, there were no limits on the number of terms they could serve.
As long as a city mayor was popular, Arthur would have no objection to them serving continuously, as long as they were effective.
For village and town-level officials, the village head was usually appointed by the state parliament, with a six-year term and no term limits.
All these officials were monitored by the two houses of parliament and the people. The parliament had the authority to remove elected officials, though this did not apply to cabinet officials.
However, the House of Representatives could petition the Royal Parliament and Arthur to dismiss the current cabinet and hold new elections.
Regarding the upcoming House of Representatives election, Arthur decided to attend the meeting to also hear reports from the government officials on the work done over the past few months.
On March 19, the regular cabinet meeting of the Australasia government was held at the government hall.
Amidst cheers and applause, Arthur attended the meeting and, as usual, took his seat at the head of the table.
The meeting began with reports from various departments on their current work, such as the Ministry of Industry's expansion of industrial bases, the progress of new industrial zones, and so on.
The most important report for Arthur was the Ministry of Civil Affairs' update on immigration over the past two months.
Currently, the immigration numbers in Australasia were rising rapidly, with each year showing greater growth than the last.
After setting a new record the previous year, the first two months of 1908 already saw over 130,000 immigrants, and there was a strong possibility of setting another record this year.
By mid-March, the number of immigrants in 1908 had already surpassed 170,000, meaning Australasia was receiving over 2,000 immigrants per day, which demonstrated the astounding pace of immigration into the country.
Because of such an extraordinary number of immigrants, Australasia conducted a census nearly every year to determine the actual population, which was crucial for the government's future planning.
With these new immigrants included, Australasia's total population had surpassed 7.3 million, and Sydney's population had officially crossed the one million mark.
Of course, the number was capped at one million. After Sydney reached this milestone, the Ministry of Publicity, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and other departments worked together to move the majority of the remaining immigrants to Western Australia and South Australia, with a smaller portion heading to New Zealand.
The most popular destination in Western Australia and South Australia was, of course, the rapidly developing Leonora Industrial Zone.
This industrial zone, which was highly prioritized by Australasia, would soon create tens of thousands of industrial jobs, making it necessary to encourage early immigration to the area.
In addition to the exciting news of record-breaking immigration numbers, Australasia's financial situation was also quite strong.
The total fiscal revenue for the first two months had already surpassed 7 million Australian dollars. Though the investments were considerable, this was still a good sign.
Minister Grant also reported on the actions and achievements of the Publicity Department, and Arthur encouraged him to continue expanding efforts abroad, promoting other cities in Australasia to attract more immigrants.
Arthur also proposed an idea: to create a ranking list of the most suitable cities for immigrants and publicize it widely overseas.
Since it was a list created by Australasia itself, it was perfectly fine to give it a slight bias in favor of the country.
As long as European immigrants trusted the list, the plan from the Publicity Department would be a success.
Whether the list was truly accurate didn't matter much; the goal was to get immigrants to come. After all, in this era, immigrants weren't overly wealthy, and the cost of round-trip tickets wasn't something they could easily afford.
Of course, Arthur was only offering an idea. How to execute it was up to the ability of Minister Grant.
For Arthur, his role was to make macro-level decisions for the nation's development, and these officials were the ones who implemented the details.
If a country needed its king to personally oversee every aspect, it would never last long.
After more than two hours of reporting, the meeting finally reached its last agenda item—the upcoming House of Representatives election.
The House of Representatives election was a nationwide political event in Australasia, highly welcomed and participated in by most of the population.
In the last House of Representatives election in 1906, more than 2 million people participated, all voting for just 298 seats in the House, reflecting the importance of the election in the hearts of the people.
This upcoming election would be held two years after the last one, and immigration numbers had increased by more than one million since then.
This meant that the number of people voting this year would certainly exceed two million, and the process and plans for the election needed careful preparation to prevent any mishaps.
Fairness, openness, and accuracy were the key issues that Arthur cared about. Government officials were aware of Arthur's concerns since this wasn't the first House of Representatives election.
However, each election had its unique characteristics. With the development of Australasia, the House of Representatives election was becoming increasingly important, and the number of participants would only grow.
To fully count the votes, not only would a large number of officials need to be involved in the calculations, but there would also need to be deep involvement in cities and towns to collect the intentions of all voters. It was indeed a massive undertaking, especially for the current government of Australasia.
In reality, the officials paid close attention to the House of Representatives election, as most of them belonged to political parties, and these parties were keenly interested in the number of seats they could secure in the House.
The number of seats each party held determined the amount of funding they would receive each year and whether their key officials could enter the cabinet.
For example, the two largest parties in Australasia, the United Party and the Country Party, both secured cabinet positions because of their high proportion of House seats, thus gaining entry to the highest levels of government.
After over four hours of discussion, the government finalized a process and plan for the election that satisfied everyone.
The process would involve the distribution of voting collection boxes across all villages and cities. Small villages would have one box, larger villages and small towns would have two, and larger towns and cities would have three. Larger cities would receive even more boxes.
Each collection box would be guarded by soldiers and monitored by officials from the state governments, who would supervise the boxes in non-residential areas.
In addition to the dual supervision of soldiers and officials, state governments would organize random inspections of the boxes in their jurisdictions to prevent any accidents.
Arthur and the cabinet would also conduct random checks, ensuring a five-layer security system that virtually eliminated the possibility of any incidents.
The election would begin on June 1 and end on July 1 for voting. The transportation stage would take place from June 21 to July 1, with all ballots being collected for counting by the state governments.
The final results would be reported to the cabinet on July 21, and after random checks, the results would be publicly announced on July 25.
To prevent any issues during the election, even after the results were announced, all the ballots would be gathered in the capital, where Arthur would personally oversee a recheck.
If there were discrepancies in the statistical results from different states, not only would the election be invalidated, but the state governments would also be held accountable, and every ballot box would be thoroughly scrutinized.
Arthur had full confidence that under such a strict system, no one would dare to cheat or break the rules.
This election plan was widely accepted and officially adopted for the 1908 House of Representatives election, and it was made public.
This also meant that the people had over two months to carefully consider who they would support as the new representatives.
(End of Chapter)
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