National
How will you determine who to vote for?
#8 David, it is apposite to note that Andrew Wilkie revealed in the Murdoch press this weekend how he had been unfairly targeted on a personal level and deliberately misrepresented on policy issues by both the ALP and the Greens during the last three years.
The notion that the Greens are somehow victimised in the media in ways that uniquely apply to them, as Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson’s father suggests in #1, can easily be countered by giving a cursory perusal to the way that Anna Reynolds, the Greens candidate for Denison, has tried to use the media to denigrate Wilkie’s attempts to positively represent the interests of the people of Denison in a variety of ways, such as in health and gambling.
On a broader canvas, we all know that the whole Murdoch press has been ordered by their owner, an American citizen, to “throw the Labor mob out”, using every avenue at their disposal to do so. Whatever you think about the merits of Rudd Labor being returned to power or being replaced by Abbott, let us give a more nuanced perspective to the heavy hand of media influence in shaping Australian election outcomes.
It is obvious that the views of Rupert Murdoch, who is not even an Australian citizen, will probably have more influence than any other single individual in deciding who forms government in Australia after September. This is because his views are soaked into the brain cells of a swag of “Howard battler” electorates in NSW and elsewhere.
However, this is also an election in which the Murdoch press and the Fairfax press have come out swinging against each other (although not noticeable in Tasmania) about some key issues, especially the issue of aylum seekers.
In relation to the question “how will you determine who to vote for?”, my response is not one which most people would be comfortable with. It is not based on an analysis of who can be disagreed with to a lesser extent than the alternatives, but on the basis of whether any deserve a vote at all.
I can no longer vote for the Greens, either for the House of Reps or the Senate. This has been reinforced by observing the behaviour of the Greens in Denison, although I’m in Lyons. It has also been reinforced by the cynical and opportunistic way that the Tasmanian Greens have behaved as members of the Giddings Tasmanian government, and have demonstrated a total intellectual incapacity to deal with fundamental social justice areas such as education and health.
Nor is it possible to support Labor or Liberal candidates for none of them have any role to play except advancing their own careers and selling their souls to whatever their party says. They are caucus nonentities, numbers pure and simple, and attracted to the idea of self-importance.
As Andrew Wilkie said “We now have a political ruling class that populates Canberra who are preoccupied with their own and their party’s self-interest at the expense of the public interest. It’s a political ruling class made up of far too many people who don’t have a lot of life experience and who are not well connected to their communities”.
It is unfortunate that Wilkie has decided to continue to contest Denison when he could have considered replicating the Harradine experience, representing Tasmanians on social justice matters beyond the confines of Denison.
At least then I could say that I voted for someone in 2013 rather than voting informally.