Lightening Online

I tend to be a bit “ho hum” about politics in general.

Not something I’m advocating.

After all, you can’t complain about the state of things if you’re not prepared to do something about it, right?

Still, the whole “politics, policies and parties” generally leaves me feeling rather baffled.

In year 11 Australian Studies we had to follow the election and write a paper on who we would vote for and why.

That was the year John Howard and Bob Hawke were the leaders of the major parties.

I chose John Howard because I liked his smile. 

Not sure I got the best of grades for that paper!

As things turned out, maybe my “gut instinct” was right.  A few years later he spent time in one of my Tafe lectures.  He wasn’t leader of the Liberal party at that time but he took the time to speak to about 10 of us and explain the GST.  He explained it REALLY well.  And when he did eventually become Prime Minister, I think he did a reasonable job.

That was my first Federal Election as a voter and Liberal got my vote because of that.

I didn’t become supportive of any particular party though.

Then I married Farmboy.

Farmer’s in general tend to be big National/Liberal voters.

They’re the ones who tend to look after small business (and therefore farmers).

Of course, Paul Keating certainly didn’t do anything for the Labor vote with farmers when he stated categorically that Australia did NOT need Farmers.

These days I’m not so sure there’s much difference between the major parties.

What were once strong left and right wings (or whatever terminology they use - and don’t ask me which is which because I can never remember!!!!) don’t seem to be quite so much these days.

I do think that’s a good thing.

Maybe both major parties are a little more “balanced” these days (????).

So, the long and the short of it is, I’m still not sure WHO I want to vote for this Saturday.

And I’m not even sure my vote counts really, given I currently reside in a “safe” Liberal seat.

How do you decide who you are going to vote for?

Do you get right into policies?

Do you vote based on the leader of each major party?

Am I alone in feeling like neither of the leaders or their parties are really inspiring?

And I still feel sick with what happened over the ousting of Kevin Rudd.

And it’s not like I particularly like him or anything!

I didn’t like it when Paul Keating did it to Bob Hawke either. 

I like it when people play nice.

And you don’t last in politics if you play nice. 

Isn’t that a sad state of affairs?

*** end political brain dump***

My apologies to international readers who don’t care squat about the Australian elections.