Australia as we return to the polls.

Please bear with me here;  nobody has to really care about this post (although I appreciate any support I may get from it), but I grew up with political discussions around the dinner table. Now, many who know me very well will know I am traditionally aligned overall to one of the major parties, though I really have never supported ALL their policies either. But I genuinely want this to be a broad coverage of how I see Australian politics in 2016 and the election campaigns themselves. I suppose I should start with some background info but I figure if you even needed that, you wouldn't be reading this.

Firstly, the leaders' debate. It was widely condemned as a snoozefest, and I must agree. For me it was an hour purely of tired rhetoric from both Turnbull and Shorten; hell, even the moderator looked bored occasionally. It didn't help how both gave one seemingly scripted answer after another. Do politicians never realise just how transparent and insincere that is? Furthermore I always sensed one key point of leaders' debates (as opposed giving a speech at a press conference, where rehearsal can give the impression you know what you're talking about) was to show you can IMPROVISE, and how well compared to your opponent. Here, neither leader tried that once, and in a debate playing it safe like that can just be so unengaging and fake.

Secondly but more importantly, of course the policies themselves. Now, I am here to indoctrinate nobody, but you consider today's most prominent issues or causes: offshore detention, marriage equality, Indigenous affairs, the NDIS, climate change, the economy et cetera. Some political issues come and go, but after at least a decade in several cases, none of those have. That's because they are tangible, and meaningful to at least a broad sweep of Australians. Wherever you stand on any of them, all sides of politics could be more less talk and more action about each one.

Finally, campaigning in Australia I think needs an overhaul also. The classic 1972 Labor "It's Time" campaign clearly worked, because Whitlam won that election, and the Coalition had held government since 1949. It had a very catchy jingle and help from numerous Aussie film and TV stars. But since then, that approach has been adopted ad nauseum, and today, at least to my mind, for that reason it just no longer works. You have to stand out, but without feeling like you're TRYING to, and this election so far is just the latest of many that have inspired too-familiar campaigns with them, from both sides. And then there's scare- and smear-campaigning, which often just brings the party responsible down to their rivals' levels.

Again, I'm not trying to influence anybody's vote. I just wanted to use this blog to offer a snapshot (from my perspective) of Australia's political landscape in this election year. And I guess I'm holding hope against hope that said election will make some difference for all Australians.