We’re halfway there! Just one more month to go and we’ll lining up at the polling booth, devouring our sausage sandwiches and dodging party campaigners attempting to thrust enormous pieces of paper into our hands.
Election campaigns generally run for about four weeks, so despite already experiencing a month of campaigning, resulting in campaign fatigue for many of us, we’re now at the point where party strategists think voters have started tuning in.
But have they?
The first leader’s debate was universally panned as dull and uninspiring. Both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten chose to ignore the questions and simply regurgitate the same old talking points we’ve been bombarded with through both paid advertisements and grabs on the news.
The debate was also a ratings disaster – vindicating the decision of all television networks, aside from the ABC, to not air it.
Part of the issue is the personality of the leaders themselves. Both Turnbull and Shorten have negative net satisfaction ratings. Basically that means that more voters disapprove of them than approve. The current political environment is quite different to elections in the 2000’s. Back then, John Howard, himself a very popular political leader, went up against a series of Labor leaders who maintained positive satisfaction ratings. Mark Latham was, throughout his entire term as Opposition Leader, viewed more positively than either Shorten or Turnbull are currently. It might seem hard to believe now but that was the case.
So, voters are simply just not attracted to our political leaders, which in turn is feeding apathy and disengagement across the voting population.
“Despite claiming to believe in a particular ideology or world view, political parties are regularly willing to throw that out when there’s an opportunity to run a scare campaign and win a few votes.”
But looking at the issues that have featured prominently so far can also help explain why the election has failed to capture the excitement of Australians.
If we took Labor and the Coalition at their word, this election was a massive ideological battle between one party that will stand up to the big end of town (Labor) and another that will prioritise tax cuts to boost investment (Coalition).
But this framing is pretty phoney. During the leader’s debate Bill Shorten confirmed that the Labor party wanted to reduce the overall national tax intake, just like the Coalition.
And while Labor is opposing the Coalition’s plan to reduce company tax, it’s also refusing to support another Coalition policy that would raise $6 billion by changing superannuation tax arrangements for the top 4 per cent of income earners.
So, on one hand Labor is saying it will “stand up to the big end of town”, but on the other they are opposing a sensible, progressive measure designed to make super fairer and raise much needed revenue. $6 billion would go a long way into funding schools, hospitals and infrastructure – all things Labor ostensibly declares as political priorities.
When parties take these sorts of positions during election campaigns it confirms to many voters how cynical the whole process is. Despite claiming to believe in a particular ideology or world view, political parties are regularly willing to throw that out when there’s an opportunity to run a scare campaign and win a few votes.
Now that we’re getting closer to actual polling day, expect to see the major parties unveil big-ticket policies. They’ve been saving the exciting stuff (well, as exciting as any election campaign policy can be) for the home stretch, when they think people have tuned in. Despite apparently being the party of small government and reduced spending, expect the Coalition to start throwing about buckets of cash in marginal seats – like the bizarre $4.6 million to fund a novelty steam train in Victoria.
This election has already seen its fair share of candidate gaffs and disendorsements but as the pressure ratchets up and sheer exhaustion sets in, we’re likely to see a few more stuff ups, misspoken policies and “gotcha moments”. After all, there’s still a month to go.
On the other hand, thank God there’s only a month ago.
