Federal Election Day

No, I said election. It's nothing to do with a Japanese stiffy.

Australians go to the polls today to vote for members of parliament. Well, when I say today there have been some 1.8 million votes cast already by 13% of the voting population in postal votes and the like. That's for people who won't be in the country on the day or can't make it to a polling booth. Voting only takes a few minutes and is unlike the US Presidential voting where people can queue for 10 hours, on a Tuesday, to cast their vote. We always have it on a Saturday. As it is compulsory perhaps we should have the following Monday off as we have had to "work". I can walk less than 10 minutes to the polling booth.

I'll be voting today for my local member. No, that has nothing to do with my anatomy. Why do so many terms to do with politicians have sexual double meanings?

I hope that the Liberal/National Coalition gets back into office. They require 17 additional seats, a huge swing, and I have a hunch that with the polls indicating that it will be such a close affair (another double entendre?) that they will just miss out. We'll be stuck with those idiots who have wasted the budget surpluses put aside by the Coalition over the previous 11 years, who ran a disastrous home insulation scheme, who want to almost tax our mining industry out of existence, who want to tax our use on carbon when this is rather stupid and not giving people incentive to change where they obtain their power from, etc, etc. The Coalition has something like 44% of the primary vote and the Labor Party has about 38% but with the Greens providing their preferences to the Labor Party it looks as though this damn preferential voting system is going to deliver us another bloody three years of Labor.

Why would anybody, in possession of a right mind, vote Greens? Not only does the Labor Party, like I mentioned previously, want to almost tax our mining industry out of existence, but the Greens want to add $2 billion dollars to the bill.

Vote Liberal - vote for business. Business creates the jobs in this country, not the government. Well, the government does create jobs but they are only parasites, i.e. public servants.


Disclaimer: This message has not been endorsed by the federal Liberal/Nationals Coalition. It is the opinion of Frugal Bastard.

Election Propaganda Is Testing My Shredder

Checked my mailbox tonight and the amount of election propaganda was amazing. And as it has my name and address on it I put it through the shredder. I'm not one for leaving that sort of stuff in the rubbish available to dumpster divers. I think that there were seven postcards and pamphlets in total. How much money do these political parties have to waste of electioneering material? Too much. And that doesn't include what is delivered to the letter box. My shredder is certainly working overtime and getting up around the duty cycle.

If you didn't know, there is going to be a federal election in Australia this week. Australians will decide should we put up with the wasteful, incompetent and mismanaging Labor Party or give the "fair go for all, conservative, business-backing" good guys from the Liberal/National Party Coalition their backing.

I think that it will be very close. There isn't a lot of policy difference between the major parties and many people are disillusioned with both of them. Actually, not having many differences is more a sign of stable government than anything else. The most disillusioned voters are likely to vote for the Greens which would be a disaster should they end up holding the balance of power. Think before you vote, people.

One large problem in this country is the compulsory nature of elections. If you don't vote and don't have a decent reason for not doing so then you will be fined. It's only $20 and possibly $50 so it's not like a huge deterrent.

Apparently it is legal to partake in a donkey vote, i.e. place the first candidate on the ballot paper first, second candidate second, third third, etc. It is illegal to encourage somebody to do so. How lame is that? Almost all politicians are donkeys nowadays anyway. Where have all of the statesmen gone?

Vote For The Incumbent Or Incompetent?

There's a state election in Western Australia today. I think that they can be called six weeks beforehand and it was only two weeks ago that I found out on which date we would be voting. It must be the shortest electioneering period I've ever seen.

Now, who to vote for? The incumbent or the incompetent? Oh, they are one and the same. Perhaps it's a choice of the incumbent and incompetent versus the inept. Yes, that's a bit closer to the mark.

First - the incumbent. The Labor Party has been in office for eight years. An ad by the Liberals just stated, "Can you think of three things that the Labor Party has done in the last eight years?" And bugger me, I scratch my head and I'm unable to. We've had the Minister for Drink Driving, Alannah MacTiernan, who is the current minister for Planning and Infrastructure and John D'Orazio's legal issues. The police have been underfunded, the major ministries have been run by too few people, the health department is pretty much a mess and teachers have been almost militant n their efforts to obtain wage reform. More bad marks than good ones.

Second - the inept. The Liberals have had five leaders in the last three years and the current chief, Colin Barnett, only decided to run six weeks ago when Troy "Chair Sniffer, Bra Tweaker" Buswell stepped down from the job. Mr Barnett is a bit of a fogey but he's not old and he was about to retire. Not too many people have much respect for him. And the Liberals have had nothing but infighting over the last eight years. As incompetent as the government has been the Liberals haven't won too many political points.

It could be a close thing. I like the Premier, Alan Carpenter, but I don't like his colleagues.