AN UNDEMOCRATIC FARCE

Tell me this is democracy at work. Former Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has quit. There’ll be a by-election for his seat in November. And if people don’t vote in that election they’ll be fined. Even if they are Labor voters and even though there’ll be no Labor candidate standing. It’s a joke. A bad joke. What message does it send when a Government won’t even put up a Candidate?

Whatever happened to the principle of giving a young, fresh, candidate a go. Give them some experience. Expose them to the voters. Get them blooded.

And tell this to a political novice called Maxine McKew. She not only took on an entrenched member. She took on a sitting Prime Minister who had held his seat since Noah was a boy and was aiming for a record fifth term in The Lodge. McKew took on John Howard and she won.

Hasn’t done much since playing Max the Giantkiller but you get my point.

The Liberals squibbed it at state level after Steve Bracks quit as Premier only months after being re-elected and his deputy, John Thwaites, went the same day. The Libs decided not to stand candidates in Port Melbourne and Albert Park.

They didn’t give the electorate a chance to voice their disapproval of a Premier and his Deputy who arrogantly said ‘elect us’ and then just walked away. And Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu didn’t have the guts or the confidence to stare his party bosses down and say ‘we will stand candidates. We owe it to our supporters’.

But back to the Nelson by-election. Surely a Government, half-way through their first term, should go in there with guns blazing and, deep in Liberal territory, tell them that  the ETS is right and their handling of the economic crisis is right  and the stimulus packages were right. Or don’t they truly believe it all and fear a traditional anti-Government by-election backlash?

Or maybe they fear a backlash against the shambolic State Government in New South Wales where an embattled Premier  Nathan Rees has gone walkabout after being told to quit by a senior colleague.  The official line from his office spokesman is ‘ I don’t know where he is’.

Whatever. The whole thing makes compulsory voting an undemocratic farce.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009