Should voting be made compulsory?

Since compulsory voting was introduced to Australia in 1924, turnout has never dropped below 91%.
This would increase the legitimacy of elected representatives as declining turnout undermines the democratic process, particularly in local by-elections, where turnout in 2014 was mostly around 20 or 30%.
The state already requires people to do much more onerous things than to turn up at a polling station.
Citizens’ rights are not affected by compulsory voting as they can go to the polling station and submit a blank ballot rather than actually vote for any candidate.
Politicians and parties would have to pay attention to all groups of voters rather than just the better off and better educated who tend to be the ones that vote.
Inequality would be reduced through re-engaging disenfranchised communities.

Many people who choose not to do so because they feel their vote is powerless.
And under the current Westminster voting system, they would be right – In the 2017 General Election there were 22 million wasted votes – or 68% of the total.
There is little evidence from countries that have compulsory voting that their electorates are more interested/engaged in politics – some voters would make a random choice on the ballot paper because they have to vote.

It does not promote real democratic engagement
just turns voting into one more thing that the state requires us to do.
it needs to be more than just ticking a box, people need to be engaged with political decision-making in order to ensure representatives are working for the common good.
The failure of people to vote may indicate satisfaction
g. it could be said that the decline in turnout from 1997 to 2001 indicated that many voters were happy with the expected Labour victory and saw no need to vote.
The turnout is higher when the electorate are not happy with the status quo, such as in the 2010 General Election, which had a turnout of 65.1%.