A need for more from leaders
To use an old cliché, it is always a tough job to try to separate the chaff from the hay when we go to the polls, whether it be for federal or state elections.
Seeing through the mist of embellished rhetoric, finger-pointing, character assassination, diversionary processes and ambiguous levels of truth emanating from the halls of power, is, to say the obvious, a chore and a bore.
As we head towards a Federal Election and Victorian polls later in the year, people have a right to demand sincere reasons why they should cast their votes in a particular way.
Sure, there will always be a large percentage who vote a particular way based on philosophical, habitual or historical allegiances.
There will also be individuals so disenfranchised by political process that they throw hands in the air and say it’s all too hard.
And there are others who will dig deeper, probing the pros and cons of political parties and candidates and how policies and direction will or might influence day-to-day life and prosperity and vote accordingly.
Amid this speculative backdrop, we need our political representatives or aspiring representatives to provide clarity about why a vote for them would be the best move for electorates, states and the country.
We’re already a bit far gone, but what many of us would love to avoid are incessant political slanging matches, where a prime objective is more to discredit an opponent than promote meaningful position on policy. Some of us are sick of hearing why someone else, be it individual or political party, is or would be no good in a governance role.
Instead, we would prefer to hear why someone is or would be good in the position – and importantly, why it is or would be beneficial.
No political party can take the moral high ground on childish name-calling – they are usually as rabid as each other and considering our vote is precious, we deserve more.
We would all know that a democratic vote, fundamental in a free society, theoretically gives us an opportunity to influence governance direction.
But we would also know, considering the vagaries of everything from ‘safe’ and ‘swinging’ electorates, the influence of voting preferences to simply where people live, that establishing governments and parliaments overall is far from simple.
To our political movers, shakers and prospects manoeuvring for elections – can you please for the moment forget about the gang on the other side of the fence and instead convince us about you and your plans for Victoria and Australia.