Election Views

Well, the Oz election is in full swing, with junk mail from candidates bombarding our letterboxes (at the cost of whole forests – funny the Greens aren't protesting about this) and extended TV time (all paid for by long-suffering taxpayers of course) boring us all to death.

Fortunately the solution to the latter, and to the interminable and ever-increasing ads on TV, lies in the greatest invention of the last century, the mute button on the remote!

Unfortunately, the solution to the former, namely having all candidates meet the costs out of their own pockets of their TV ads, printed brochures and posters that litter the landscape, is most unlikely to eventuate.

It is time we picked the best of other countries' policies on elections. For example, we could emulate Sweden, where no TV ads are allowed. or Italy where negative advertising is not allowed, or Mexico which sets a limit on ad spend. More importantly, we could insist on publication of a straightforward declaration of policies limited to one A4 sheet for each party, or candidate in the case of independents. The last thing we want is to become more like the USA with its horrendously expensive, and to outsiders idiotic, presidential campaign.

However, it can be interesting, indeed quite hilarious at times, to observe the approaches by the different parties during interviews.

At home, we christened Gillard 'Noddy', as when Rudd was in office, she was always behind him nodding agreement to his every pronouncement. Now she has successfully knifed him in the back and taken his place, she has acquired her very own 'Noddy'. It must be a Labor party requirement for high office. Unfortunately for her, it effectively prevents her from distancing herself from Rudd's policies and his disastrous mistakes like the home insulation fiasco.

Abbott at least appears on his own in most interviews, but that has not stopped him from putting his foot firmly in his mouth at times, such as when he effectively said his word could not be relied on about anything! We all knew that applied to politicians generally and it was refreshing, if embarrassing to him, to hear one finally admit it.

The Greens seem to adopt a policy of being firm on any conservation issue, as long as they don't have to observe it and someone else pays. For example, their stance on introduction of a carbon price seems to be in direct opposition to their silent acquiescence of the reams of election junk being produced. In fact, most of their other policies seem to be intent on costing taxpayers more than the other parties and that is saying something!

The independents seem to stand for anything as long as they can get their noses into the trough and obtain a slice of the many excessive perks available to those in office.

But in the end it seems we will be relegated to our usual choice of spendthrift Labor and (relatively) fiscally careful NLP, neither of whom seem to have any long term (20-50 years) plans for the country.