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CRAIG COMMENTS |
Follow the leader
Wednesday 24 October 2007
New leadership; old leadership; the right leadership; dual leadership. Anyone would think that we are electing a President for Australia with all the focus on the political figurehead in the opening of this federal election campaign.
Like all other residents of Victoria, I will not be voting for Kevin Rudd or John Howard in the forthcoming poll as their electorates are interstate.
Over past decades, at both a state and federal level, we have seen a politician shift to a U.S. Presidential-style leadership advertising campaign in breach of the practices and principles of the Westminster system our Parliaments operate under. The modern campaign is designed to promote an image that the voter is actually voting for the leader of the party. This is more prominent where the party has at its head a popular charismatic and sellable “product”. This new campaign style is a response to the intense media focus on the party leadership group and directly undermines the importance of local MPs and the constitution.
This strategy also stifles real parliamentary debate. It gags individual thought and removes the ability for a candidate or party MP to stand up for their electorates.
Federal and state parliaments are devoid of candidates with the will or ability to stand up and be counted for their constituents and the voters who are actually electing them.
A Labor MP is not allowed to cross the floor or they will loose affiliation. The Liberal Party has a more open policy, but it is still rare. They are more likely to abstain and squib the vote than vote with the other side; and the last time a National Party MP actually crossed the floor on an important issue is hidden in the dusty archives of Parliament.
A voter is led to believe that on both sides of Parliament, we have a chamber full of parliamentary clones of the promoted leader who are not allowed to speak or even think differently to what the party promotes.
The media should share the blame for the promotion of this fraud, yet the real criticism should be levelled at both major political parties.
Victoria will be punished in this election campaign (as it has for the last few years) with less direct funding than other states. This is because our state has less marginal seats than the other states. This will see both parties and their anointed leaders jet around the country, flying over Victoria visiting the chosen few marginal seats who may actually count on election night, dishing out promises and our money like confetti. Just to ensure that we in Victoria don’t feel completely left out, they will occasionally drop in on the way through. The focus on Tasmania’s marginal seats already in this campaign should send an important message to Victorian voters… “marginal matters” and your vote (and mine) is being taken for granted.
