With 2 weeks to go in this farce of an election I have reached a point of utter dejection - there's almost nothing that I can see anyone doing about the fact that I just can't in good conscience cast a vote confidently for anyone at all. The only people making the slightest sense is the Australian sex party, which as fun as it might sound is obviously no basis for serious government.
I completely trust the Liberal party under Tony abbot to competently and cost effectively implement policies that deeply shame me and make me question my very decision to live in Australia - just like the seven years of Howard Government I lived through before. At the same time, I trust Labor to have principles I wholeheartedly agree with, but to develop policies that are half-cut compromises to satisfy various factional vested interest and then completely fail to competently implement them. In terms of leaders, it's a choice between Mad Monk Abbott and Julia Gillard's 'government by Kath and Kim' - with the mercurial Ruddbot lurking spookily in the shadows and the delusional Mark Latham popping up randomly like some Pythonesque jack-in-the-box.
(Come back Malcolm Turnbull and Kim Beazley – all is forgiven!)And the greens? While I would like to donate my very first Australian vote to the Greens, I cannot forgive them for conspiring with the Coalition to kill the ETS (in a remarkable case of ‘letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.’ ). I can't remember if they could or couldn't provide the numbers to get that through - but its the principle of the thing. Besides, I do find that to a man and woman, their self-righteousness is stomach churning.Its a depressing and exasperating proposition which leaves me mulling a really bizarre set of options since voting in this country is mandatory- the positive: vote green purely to keep the Liberals out while making sure Labor gets a bloody nose- the creative: turn up to vote but defile the ballot paper. The main challenge here is to decide what to defile it with. All suggestions welcome in the comments box below
- the negative: not turn up and register a protest by paying the $100 fine
- the comical: vote for the Australian sex party afteral; (somewhat dependent on whether they sell out to share preferences with the puritanical 'family first' party)
- the insane: lobby the Queen to revoke Federation so we can re-establish British ruleThe last option of course is an echo of this comical letter from the Queen circulated after the debacle of the 2000 US election.