The Rant-O-Matic

I’m more than a little disappointed that we still have over three weeks of campaigning to go before polling day rocks around for our upcoming federal election. There are a number of aspects to this campaign and this election that I’m finding to be quite concerning. Some of these come from the politicians, some from the media and some from the electorate itself. All up it’s a combining to show just how much trouble this country is in. I don’t know if I want to see just how worse things are going to get before August 21. If current trends continue, it’s going to be completely horrifying.

For a start, there’s our two candidates for the prime ministership (sorry, no matter how you try to cut it, Bob Brown just isn’t one) – Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard. On one hand, we’ve got a right-wing christian, living in the 1950s and xenophobic nut-ball and on the other we’ve got a person that’s doing their best to emulate them. The highlight of this came on Sunday night when instead of a “leaders debate”, what we had were two people who’s only area of difference is their sex. In practical terms, Liberal and Labor have a distinction without a difference, so regardless of the outcome this country is going to see a virtually identical set of policies put into legislation by the new government. Hardly something to look forward to – especially if you happen to strongly disagree with everything that both these people are saying.

It’s not just the fact that they’re the appealing to the same audience that’s disappointing. There’s also the fact that they’re doing in a way that seems to fly in the face of their respective messages about improving this country. Central to this is their apparent misunderstanding of what a “refugee” is. At the moment, the policies put forward by both Labor and the Liberals to “help” people who come to this country seeking asylum from their war-torn home counties is seen to be nothing short of a xenophobic crusade against people that are not anglo-saxon. It’s more or less racist. It’s shit.

But even the media doesn’t seem to be all too interested in raising the intellectual bar of the election conversation. Sadly, the media only really takes interest in opinion polls. Now, the AEC tells us that there’s something in the order of 14 million registered voters in the country. Yet surveys taken from a sample of less than 1% of those people are given a massive amount of priority in the media. The problem with these polls is two-fold. Firstly, the sample sizes taken, compared to the number of eligible voters is amazingly small. It’s impossible to call such a pitiful percentage a representative sample of the australian people. Secondly, the amounts of the swing in sentiment reported are often well within the survey’s reported margin of error. That in itself makes the whole exercise futile. You can’t make definitive statements about a survey who’s delta-results fall inside a tolerance for mistakes. Any number like that is completely devoid of value. Thirdly, even with such a small sample, the only way to get consistent data is to ask the same people the same questions every week. Now, I’m not overly familiar with the inner workings of these research companies, but I’m pretty sure that is not the case. So not only are these polls taking a majorly small sample. Reporting shifts that are within the margin of error they’re also not consistent in collecting the data they do get. And do not get me started on the fucking “worm” used during the debate. The amount of attention given to something that is no more than a graphic on the screen was beyond pathetic. So, why do we have to pay so much attention to them? Please, media, give us proper journalism and analysis of this election.

Finally, we reach the problems with the electorate itself. These problems stem from a combination of what has been previously mentioned. As far as the media is concerned, the endless bleating and insinuation about how Julia Gillard came to be prime minister seems to have made people completely unaware of just how our westminster system of government works. The whole idea that we don’t directly elect our prime minister seems to have been lost in the mess. It’s sad. In order to properly exercise one’ democratic right effectively one must understand how the system works. To only think that this election is a contest between two personalities is not demonstrating an understanding of the system. We don’t elect the prime minister, they’re picked by their respective party to lead them, being prime minister is nothing more than a perk of happening to be the leader of the party that’s currently forming the government. The focus on two personalities that are both equally held to the ethos of their party, rather than their own ideas, detracts from the actual way our system works – which is voting in your local member who is going to deliver the best results for you and everyone else in your seat.

So, what does this mean? Well, chances are that things are really only going to get worse. As the politicians dumb down their policies to cater for a dumber audience, and the media continues it’s slide away from reporting the facts to tabloid sensationalism then this we’re going to continue our slide away from the “clever country” and more towards the “bogan bizarre”. Joy.