Comment: Keeping up with the candidates - and dealing with election boredom

We're still four weeks out from the federal election. Are you bored already? Tara-Jay Rimmer suggests a few ways to jazz-up the campaign trail.

Yawn-worthy? Source: AAP

Apparently the future leaders of our country were on TV on Sunday night. You probably didn't realise since approximately 9 people watched it. Ok, not quite. The chances of success that night were slim but the politicians remained hopeful that someone might care about the future of their country over the future of their club playing on pay TV.

Election fatigue is kicking in for Australia with an eight-week campaign and we are only half way through. There are only so many politicians kissing babies we the general public can withstand. Are there even any babies left? Where do the babies come from? Do you log onto photoopwithpollie.com.au and find a wait list? Do I need to sign up my future baby now like a super exclusive nursery?

Australia isn't like America, with the 18-month long campaigns involving fundraising, the outrageous sound bites and even more caricature-style candidates. We don't like to drag things out with drama unless it's reality TV, obviously, and can't be bothered with the name-calling. We certainly don't want a TV personality running the country but they do need to have personality and 'Q&A' doesn't really bring out the personality in the pollie.

With four weeks left, what else can they do to keep us interested? Maybe a Voice-style blind audition could be the trick, where you don't know which side they are on until they have finished stating their case.

They have stated their policies and answered the questions but the reality is most people don't make up their mind until the day of the election, at the polls, with a sausage in their hand. Are these eight weeks even worth it, since we apparently all have much better things to do?

Unusually, both Labor and Liberal candidates seem to know what they are on about, be personable but professional, and get their message across in an empathetic way without feeling too staged most of the time. They appear to be liked within their party and might even last the whole term - this time - without pissing off the other cabinet members and getting ditched in favour of someone else.

Having a clue is good for country but bad for the press trail. Can someone start a beer skolling competition or some onion eating, just to jazz-up this campaign trail?

Tara-Jay Rimmer is an entrepreneur, founder of The Van That Can, writer and key note speaker based in Brisbane.