I didn’t see anything in the rules about posts like this, so please let me know if general inquiry is not allowed here.

With that said, hello everyone!

My family (Americans from Chicago) will be moving to Adelaide next year because my wife accepted a university job over there (waiting on visa process for permanent residency).

What advice or general knowledge about Adelaide would you love for us to know?

Anything amazing we should be aware of, see, do, etc? I love D&D, so I’m hoping to find a group to play with eventually (I also love to DM).

We’ve been to Sydney and Cairns a couple of years ago and absolutely loved our time there. We all cannot wait!

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[–] 2 points 3 months ago

Some general voting/system of gov information-

  • Once eligible, voting in State and Federal elections is compulsory. Local government is optional.

  • There is only one level of local government for an area, there isn't a county and then city/town government. There are no overlapping LGAs.

  • We don't do First-past-the-post here, all voting is preferential voting, there is no such thing as a 'wasted vote' here (unless you 'donkey voted' - ie. to turn in a blank or otherwise informal vote, this happens here because as above, voting is compulsory and donkey voting is a form of protest)

  • Unless you happen to be in the electorate the Prime Minister represents as a Member of Parliament (an MP) you don't vote for the Prime Minister here, you only vote for your local member and for 10 senators for your state. (NT and ACT only get 2)

  • Elections are every 3 years, there are no term limits for PMs

  • Who is PM is decided by the party that forms government (well before the election) but as it's the party who decides and the PM is not directly elected to the position, they can be replaced during a government term without fresh elections.

  • The upper house in State government here is called the Legislative Assembly, they have 6 year terms the same as the Federal upper house (The Senate), half of the upper house is elected at each general election.

  • Everything closes at 5PM on Sat/Sun in the Adelaide Metropolitan area due to some old laws. Outside the 'burbs things are open again.

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