Argh, would someone just call the election!?!?!

The Focus – October 11th, 2007 by Sarah

I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with this whole Federal Election circus already, and the real campaign hasn’t even started yet. How much longer can Little Johnny drag all this out for? I suppose he’s watching and waiting, hoping that The Rudd or some other member of the Opposition will screw up and send Labor’s positive results in the opinion polls crashing down around them, which is precisely what irritates me about this whole thing. Politics is simply a game. It isn’t based on anything real or honest or valuable. It’s based on greed, power trips and the creation of further divisions in society. To put it more bluntly, politics largely consists of a bunch of boring, white, conservative old men trying to outdo each other. I don’t know how any Australian with the slightest hint of a moral conscience can really justify voting for anyone.

As an example, yesterday Little Johnny announced an upgrade of the Pacific Highway with or without the support of the State Government, which is incredibly long overdue. Having grown up on the Mid-North Coast and travelled a particularly risky stretch of the Pacific Highway every day for at least fifteen years of my life, combined with the fact that I have attended more than my fair share of funerals for those who have lost their lives on the roads, Little Johnny’s plans to upgrade are simply too little, too late. Shouldn’t the ever-increasing road tolls be enough incentive to make such a decision without an election looming?

But what is your point? I can hear you asking. What does the Pacific Highway upgrade really have to do with all politicians being nasty liars? Sure, this probably is in conjunction with the election, but big deal! At least something is happening, something is being done. Well, if you want a government who only believes something should be done at a time that suits them, I guess it’s fine. If you want a government who will pull out all the stops not because they value the Australian people, but because they want the other guys to look bad, then yeah, yay Little Johnny, you’ve got my vote.

However, I think the sad thing is that it isn’t only Little Johnny we have to worry about. It’s all of them. In response to Little Johnny’s announcement about the roads yesterday, the State Government announced the storm-damaged city of Lismore on the Mid-North Coast a natural distaster zone. This announcement wasn’t about ensuring the people of Lismore will be able to access special services to rebuild their homes and businesses, it was a case of the State Government wanting to outshine the Liberal Government’s announcement. How are we supposed to know which politicians are doing what’s best for our country, when what they deem as important seems to change depending on the political climate? I could use this as an opportunity to point out The Rudd’s sufficient lack of backbone he has demonstrated of late, but I won’t. I think the whole death penalty situation speaks for itself.

Despite having just demonstrated an immensely jaded attitude towards Australia’s politicians, the title of this blog still stands. I am very much looking forward to the day I get to choose whether a nineteen-fifties throw back with no soul or a spineless panderer to, well, pretty much everyone, gets to lead my country. At the end of the day, this is a pretty historical election, and possibly the end of an era, so I keep being told. It isn’t as if Australians haven’t had to choose between the lesser of two evils before, perhaps we should just be satisfied we don’t quite live in a dictatorship. And hey, if nothing else at least we can learn valuable life lessons from our pollies, such as that it’s perfectly ok to sweep important issues under the carpet until the very last minute, and that it’s fine to be indecisive about your morals and values as long you hug a few kids from time to time.

Hmm…perhaps I’ll just donkey vote.

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