Queensland Election 2012

Exactly one week ago, on this very day, I was voting for the first time. I was dragged tooth and nail to the polling booth with the bribe of coffee as a reward afterwards. But why? Why was I so unwilling to vote for my future in Queensland. As a first time voter, I expected that there would be clear guidelines, clear policies and clear positions so that I would know exactly who I wanted to vote for. I was very very wrong.

I don’t follow politics incredibly closely but I watch the news consistently enough to know what is going on. It was tipped to be a landslide with the Liberal party expected to smash the Labour party and that’s exactly what happened.  Throughout the 5-week campaign I was constantly bombarded with hate campaigns against the other leader. For example, the labour party’s election seemed to focus primarily on attacking Campbell Newman, his family, his financial history, the possibility that he might lose Ashgrove or creating stupid pop up ads in which Campbell Newman’s face constantly crawled across my computer screen on a spiders body. Likewise, the LNP had numerous ads that showed how ‘smelly and old’ the labour party is in Queensland. It was one of the meanest, nastiest, and most personal election battles to date.

As far as I was aware though, there was never any mention on what each party was going to do for the future of Queensland. Australia, being the democratic nation that it is, is privileged enough to decide who they want in power based on their policies to improve their states in the future or fix things that weren’t working. Many countries don’t have this privilege, and yet throughout the 5-week campaign I never heard any promotion for policies that would improve my beloved Queensland for the future. It’s a shame that politics has come to this. It’s focus lies more on the leader rather than the state or nation they are fighting for, and this raises the question where is politics going in the future? It’s a very scary question. I hope that in the next election the leaders can get there acts together and provide something worth voting for.

Hoo Roo

Stewy