By the time the next issue of The Cud goes live we’ll know the outcome of the most recent Australia election. I wish I could get across the sound of loud, disinterested YAWN better in words so as to explain exactly what I’ve been feeling about this campaign. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not going to travel the wholly offensive route of scene-stealer Mark Latham and advocate a donkey vote in the face of those millions around the world who would be willing to die just for the chance to cast a free vote in an unfettered election.

That said, it seems that our options here for leadership are wholly limited. On the one hand we’re faced with a religious conservative in Tony Abbott who, at least to me, feels like a wolf-in-sheep’s clothing along the lines of a John McCain/Tony Blair type character: a politician merely inching toward the middle for the sake of a campaign, but at the end of the day so driven by his core right wing and conservative ideals that he could potentially drive us down a road to all sorts of misery, particularly in terms of international affairs and in such issues as abortion and gay rights. In Julia Gillard we similarly get a media-honed impression of an open-minded, ‘modern’ woman with political values close to the middle, however she has proven to be almost to a fault tied in terms of loyalties to her unionist roots, and she can’t escape the fact that she was a very key part of the Rudd government. That government has been charged with producing an incredible amount of waste on multiple levels while also appearing wholly stagnant and over-bureaucratic in decision-making on key matters such as the environment and Aboriginal affairs where popularity-grab speeches and symbolic gestures lacked any substance to back them up in the long run. Some could also arguably question whether Gillard’s ‘Brutus’ display of loyalty towards former Prime Minster Rudd would be the kind of trait we might want in our own leader.

At the end of the day I’ll be casting my vote and wishing that third party politics and preferential votes in politics counted for more than just ‘keeping the bastards’ honest. The dominance of irresolute two-party politics isn’t unique to Australia –not by a stretch- but at a time when our country feels like it needs a real shot of vigor and inspiration to the system (much as many had hoped might arrive in Kevin Rudd) it appears to me that we’re as lost as ever for fresh blood and fresh leadership. ‘Let us all rejoice’ indeed.

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