The ALP (Anti-Labor Party)

I do not blame anyone for being disillusioned by the political campaign we have seen over the last... well... year really. When the two major parties are not slinging pointless insults at each other like two five-year-olds in a school playground, they aren't even getting close to exploring the full array of issues that current and future Australians must face. If I was to rank issues as a factor of air time and page space during this campaign it would probably look something like this:

Interest Rates/Economy - 80%

Climate Change - 10%

Leaving 10% over for health, education, transport, foreign affairs etc.

Now no one is silly enough to deny that the economy is an important issue, and interest rates are causing massive headaches for those struggling to make ends meet as it is. My problem is that the current discourse is ridiculously disproportionate and not really inspiring any sort of deeper thought into some of the key issues such as climate change, foreign relations, human rights, health, education, refugees etc. I'd argue that young people are sick to death of it. Older generations are probably so used to it by now anyway.

What capped it off for me today was logging onto the Liberal Party website (something I really try not to do often and yes I did have a quick shower and scrubbed my computer monitor afterwards. I was curious about their preferences... I swear!) and noticing that hardly any space on their home page is dedicated to POLICY, something that is rather important wouldn't you think? Most of their space sets out reasons why Labor are a bad choice, with links, stats and silly graphics to boot. Have the Libs conceded defeat already? Are they finally admitting that they have no vision for this nation and have just decided that the only way they can be returned to government is to make people scared of Labor? I think so.

I guess the up side of this is that a lot of young people will probably realise just how cynical both of the majors are and might throw their vote to a minor party with a little more vision. Here's hoping.