Australia’s Federal Election – the best of a bad lot?
Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, The Hon, Mr Tony Abbott
OK, so the 1996 election cost $57 million, including $3,000 in prosecutions
OK so people serving prison sentences get to vote
OK so there are just over 14 million people enrolled to voted – and yes its compulsory…figure that out you folk from outside the borders of the Commonwealth… yep, you gotta vote and if you don’t they spend something like $3,000 hunting you to the ends of the non-democratic Earth… even if you try to hide in Pyongyang, North Korea, the agents of the Australia Electoral Commission will find you and hunt you down like the vote avoiding animal that you are!
Ok so we have a preferential voting system..so if you don’t get your first choice, you might get your second or even third…whatever!!!
OK so we have 150 members of the “Green” House of Representatives to choose from as well as 40 “Red” Senate seats
OK so we have a Conservative ex student priest , fitness mad Catholic candidate battling up against a red hair, far left atheistic litigation lawyer…. wow……… how exciting is this going to be?
The Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Julia Gillard
And then of course you’ve got the political party that can promise the world and never have to worry about delivering anything, who can appeal to the idealism of sitting around the campfire and singing Umkambaya My Lord completely off-key and yet seem such a viable alternative to a competent manager of a $350 billion a year business… yep, let just call them the Greens… such an original colour scheme for a national group of leaders… but hey that’s OK, because their up against the Pinkies and Blue Bloods.
And so, here we are, sitting in downtown Australian Suburbia and contemplating how to spend our precious vote to determine who is best suited to run our beloved country. Now I have to say that maybe Ross Lyons (St Kilda Football Club coach) is probably as good a candidate as anyone but he’s busy trying to keep 18 players playing through the centre corridor and kicking with the wind to be too busy to worry about global warming, asylum seekers, economic management and of course, the defence of the realm.
Having heard The Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, The Hon Mr Tony Abbott in his campaign launch speech yesterday, I have to say that I’m just not too sure that I could see him leading us out of the social, political, military, environmental and economic abyss we find ourselves in. At the same time, I’m certainly not convinced that our Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Ms Julia Gillard, with political blood on the hands, being at the behest of the Labour Party factional Lords and being responsible for some of the greatest political and economic stuff up since that last load of great stuff ups is the best candidate either.
Now it may well seem that Bananas in Pyjamas B1 and B2 could well be viable candidates and I sure am not about to dismiss their virtues. And please don’t even get me started with the likes of Family First, Steven Fielding. Mind you, the thought of Austen Tayshus of the Australia Sex Party holding the balance of power really is quite a turn on… hey, just think about it for a moment!
So who should you trust your future with? Who should hold the “nob” of power that will have the best influence the type of country that our children will grow up in?
That’s the 14 million vote question, and it will become a lot more clear in the coming 2 weeks………… Man, you just have to love a vibrant democracy.
But wasn’t it Winston Churchill that said that democracy was the worse political system there is…apart from all the others?
