Close but not close enough
Yesterday’s article was a look through the party’s which, to be polite, failed to sway me to give them my vote. The next two pieces will count down the parties which impressed me.
22-23. Senator Online
By standing on the ‘What do YOU think’ platform in which all legislation will be put to the internet voting public, these guys are basically a ‘nothing’ party who will vote according to the raw opinions of ‘the people’. Normally, this is a terrifying prospect, but the idea of no actual policies is better than the policies all of the parties below SOL have put together.
20-21. Stephen Mayne
Mayne’s standing on reducing pokie machine numbers, supporting immigration and supporting carers. All good by me. And anyone who pisses off Glenn Milne is all right in my book.
A quick aside
Watching this horrific video by the Climate Sceptics Party was the most amusing moment of the ‘Meet The Candidates’ series.
18-19. Carers Alliance
Reading about the Carers Alliance might have been the most educational. They propose policies but also funding proposals for them, and they stand up for a group of society who – everybody would agree – do have it very tough through no fault of their own. Good luck to them.
14-17. ALP (except Conroy)
Win or lose, I promise a long and bitter piece on what an awful job Labor has done in this campaign. They have campaigned with the subtlety of a mediocre first year marketing student – find a strength, talk incessantly about it. Find a weakness, run away from it. Never fully understanding that there the need for a big picture vision and a sense of competence and reliability which you need to put forward.
That said, I just can’t give up on them. Policy wise, they’ve got a number of strengths, and I think if they can get a more accommodating senate, and understand that Governing involves more than pandering to the week-by-week jolts of opinion polls, they’ll be alright. But they need to realise that no matter how loud the sectional interests fighting them are, when you’re the Government, you’re the loudest.
Oh, and they’ll win the election too. And win comfortably. I’ve said all along that Labor will do better on polling day than they did in the final polls, and although they’ve tried to destroy the advantages of incumbency I still think enough voters will think to themselves ‘Tony Abbott as PM…really?’ Maybe not enough to save my 14-1 bet on Labor to win 91-plus seats, but enough to get the job done.
Hopefully there’ll be time for more on that before the polls close. Otherwise this paragraph might be suddenly erased at 11pm on Saturday night.
Four parties to go:
– Greens
– Democrats
– Sex Party
– Secular Party
But work calls – so you’ll have to wait for the gripping final chapter…
Carefully Scripted Remarks 