Our new Prime Minister has called an electon for August 21st. Well good for her. While i would have preferrred she'd waited until October but that might have run it a bit close to the Victorian election for November. I think this is one of the hardest elections to call in a long time. Just a few months ago there would have been no doubt that Kevin Rudd would have romped it in. Then things started to go awry and Abbott started to look like he was in with a chance. personally I think Rudd would have creamed Abbott in any debates but the Labor apparatchiks had their shortsighted vision on winning an election and could not see past the polls and the internal dislike for the man who had swept them to power.
I think Julia will run a great election and Abbott will probably come unstuck under pressure but that might not necessarily be what will sway the voters. Theat's why I think it will be hard to know who is likely to win until pretty close to the day. I'd be surprised if most people even know who they will be voting for yet.
Over the last few years one of the saddest things that has happened in Australian politics is the primary motivation for our pollies, certainly for the parties has been staying in power, or winning elections rather than policies. We no longer get a sense of what sort of Australia they want over the next decade and what the policies are that will get us there. It always seems to be about how they improve their opinion poll results or how they will win the next election. The leadership lotteries are a prime example of that, not who might be the best leader for the country but who will win the election. How does this progress us as a nation I wonder.
There are visions I look forward to hearing about and there are some I want to talk about.
That's to come...stay tuned.
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