Some time after this Saturday our nation will have a new government. Election day will see the end of Kevin Rudd’s government that in its last days was led by someone else. Since the 2007 federal poll we have had two leaders of our federal government and three leaders of the alternative government.
In the election campaign we have seen at least a half-dozen former government and opposition leaders having their say on various issues and personalities. Perhaps the loudest voice from the past has been that of former Labor leader Mark Latham. As a reporter for Channel Nine’s Sixty Minutes program, Mr Latham has injected himself in front of the cameras on at least two occasions to buttonhole the prime minister and opposition leader. In his 60 Minutes report on Sunday Mr Latham urged people vote for nobody come Saturday. That is perhaps a bit extreme, given that having a guaranteed free vote under a fair electoral system is something very rare in this world and should never be discarded lightly.
Yet Mr Latham’s advocacy would likely find some support within the ranks of those who have been following the current election campaign. It has, unfortunately in this newspaper’s opinion, been an uninspiring campaign.
Both Labor and the Coalition parties have been hostage to the views of swinging voters in marginal seats, no matter how out of kilter they may be with the majority of Australians.
For instance, both sides have failed to educate the electorate on the facts about so-called boat people. Both sides have sought to cast themselves as being in favour of a limited Australian population by suggesting curbs on immigration, without actually saying what their respective population limits might be. Voters could be excused for thinking it as all been based on sending subtle signals, or “dog whistling” on immigration issues.
Both sides have indulged in barely truthful negative advertising. Unfortunately, they do so because of one simple fact it works with many voters. The focus groups assembled by polling companies have ruled the responses of both sides to key issues. Labor has ditched its previous rock-hard commitment to fighting climate change. The Coalition has ditched its previous rock-hard commitment to workplace reform. Both sides have failed to show inspiring leadership or policies that ignite the imagination of voters. The current prime minister even found it necessary to declare she was radically changing her campaigning technique and was no longer going to be the sort of candidate she had been in the past, but then went on to exhibit no discernible difference in her campaigning style.
So Mr Latham’s suggestion will no doubt find support and some voters, or more correctly non-voters, may indeed put blank papers in ballot boxes on Saturday.
But what in the end is the point in doing that? We believe a far better approach is to vote for a third party or an independent candidate.
But at the same time we urge voters to be wary of rewarding the lacklustre major parties by filtering their votes to them via preferences. A guiding principle may be for voters to do what major parties have been doing to them – put them last.
NINE FINE YEARS
This issue celebrates the ninth birthday of our newspaper. And for the past eight years, it’s been a tradition to use the sassy, feisty and uber-trendy staff of Fat Boys in the Valley Mall to mark the milestone. Here, from left, Lou, Daniel, Robyn and Kylie wish us well.
