@futzle The good news is that it’s electoral expenditure, so they can claim it back from the tax payer. (They have though or everything.)

@futzle the people opening those envelopes and doing the processing are volunteers

What if I held onto the reply-paid envelope for, say, six months, and sent it back to them then? There must be a term limit on the parties claiming postage back from the taxpayer, but that reply-paid envelope will probably work for years.

I see that SBS News has an article about this scam. Good work. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/want-to-postal-vote-this-federal-election-watch-out-for-an-unfair-tactic/ddulg8ii7

@futzle only got one of those from the ALP so far. I have got it ready to send back with a message that I think less of them for doing so and will allocate my preferences accordingly.

@futzle yeah, LNP thoughtfully included a reply paid envelope.

I don't have glitter, but I am petty enough to cut up the original envelope and the letter and the spare form they sent me in to tiny pieces and fold them carefully into the decoy form.

@futzle does it cost the party money though? Or does it just come out of their tax-funded advertising budgets?

@ajft I am informed by @damonism that they overspend their postage allocation, so it does cost if enough of us do it. https://aus.social/@damonism/114276385570755999

@futzle lol!

@futzle Hmm, well if that prepaid account is still active they'll probably be able to claim it somehow. If not then it'll be shut down and Auspost will wear the cost.

@futzle I suspect it depends if the AusPost billing account is held by the political party or by the individual politician (who may or may not get reelected). The one I got the mail is going back to a specific politician's local office

@futzle Electorate offices receive an allowance for communications, which they can spend on facebook ads or snail mail, but that ends the moment the election is called, so the party has to pick up the tab for these postal vote scams.

They do of course receive funding after the election, based on the number of first preference votes they receive, and will get a big pile of 'administrative funding' in the years ahead if the recent legislation isn't wound back

@joannaholman Yes, this is a good point. Will send it to them this week.

@futzle @joannaholman I make sure to include other candidates flyers when I send them back. I have some respect, but not much.

I want them to sigh, and say "oh, for fucks sake, another smart arse who thinks that this is the first time anyone has ever thought of doing this".

@futzle tape it to a brick and "hand deliver" it to your local MP's office after hours?

@neoluddite For the record, and for our friends at ASIO watching this thread: absolutely not.

@liamvhogan BRB I’m getting the smelliest glitter I can find.

@futzle @liamvhogan and the Greenest texta you can find

@futzle TBF, there is a limit as to how much they can claim back, and the majors do usually spend more than that.

@damonism So my protest only works if everyone else does it too.

And probably only once, because they’ll figure a way to increase the limit next time.

@futzle @damonism I have been doing this for decades. When I was at Uni there was a federal election. I lived in a block of flats and somebody thoughtfully provided a bin for the junk mail. I would collect dozens of send us money stuff as it was primarily that election into uni and a bunch of us sat around filling them in and sending them back to make them pay for the postage.