Election – Australia

In a week’s time Australia will vote for its seventh Prime Minister in nine years.

Not the most flattering record to have, and one which a country like Australia does not deserve. In these times stability of leadership is crucial yet here we are at it again.

Admittedly four of those Prime Ministers were not elected but voted by their own parties for self-preservation and quests for power. Either way both major parties indulged in this high stakes game and both have lost voter confidence because of it.

I voted early so the current bombardment of political advertising is lost on deaf ears, and my guess is even if you haven’t voted already you have tuned them out.

Please let us have some stability. It’s really all we ask.

SA Election, March 2018

SA Best pledges $7.5M for something so Labor promise $8M, then the Libs promise $10M for something else and SA Best promise $11M… it’s basically a bidding war to see who can buy your vote, especially as these promises are not legally binding and therefore meaningless.

Please, use your own judgement and vote for who you think deserves it, not just because of some promise that will most likely never be honoured.

It is monumentally stupid that political promises are not legally binding, and until they are I’ll call it for what it is – a laughable vote auction being presided over by a clown (yes, red nose and all).

So many times in the past, at both State and Federal levels, politicians have ignored their pre-election promises. My first experience of this was when Paul Keating got elected on his tax cuts which he said during his campaign were already in “L-A-W law!” and yet never happened.

Laws can be changed, and his was.

If they want our respect (and the party that earns it will also win our vote) then they have to stop making promises they have no intention on keeping (“We didn’t realise how tight the budget was so can’t deliver on everything” – heard this before?).

The only way they will earn our respect is by making their promises legally binding, with penalties if they do not deliver.

They also need to pass laws that stipulate that all political advertising has to be subject to the same rules as all advertising – that is they must be true, and penalties of $100,000+ should apply.

If I went on TV and said lies and made false promises I would end up in jail. The same fate should apply to all politicians and their parties.