After almost 8 months of build-up Australia is finally going to the polls tomorrow. I think most Australians are viewing this with a sense of relief more than excitement as the campaigning has been long, hard and almost completely negative from all sides. Australia has a weird concept where scores of people stand on street corners waving placards and pictures of their selected candidates at passing traffic. Odd from a UK perspective because I've not seen that done over there, and odder still because it's hard to believe that anyone still cares enough to do it.
Another interesting thing is the role of the press over here. There is only one major newspaper published in SE Qld - the Fox / Murdoch owned Courier Mail - and it portrays a relentlessly negative image of the Labor (sic) party and in particular Kevin Rudd, the incumbent prime minister. In the UK the Mirror traditionally champions Labour and the Sun the Tories, but over here there is no alternate view and so most people only get to read what Rupert Murdoch wants them to read. This had ruffled a few feathers and a local lobbying organisation has produced the following excellent video
This ad has been vetted by the appropriate TV organisations and has been passed as fit for broadcast, but it has been turned down by all three major television stations in Australia. So much for a free press...
Anyway, it's almost over and scarily it looks like our next PM will almost certainly be the mad monk , a man who can confuse a suppository with a repository and who will no doubt represent Australia well on the world stage.
This is all summed up best by this video, which is my tune of the week. The last third is more than a little over the top and is obviously just someone getting over-excited about their special guest, but it's worth it for the first section...
Another interesting thing is the role of the press over here. There is only one major newspaper published in SE Qld - the Fox / Murdoch owned Courier Mail - and it portrays a relentlessly negative image of the Labor (sic) party and in particular Kevin Rudd, the incumbent prime minister. In the UK the Mirror traditionally champions Labour and the Sun the Tories, but over here there is no alternate view and so most people only get to read what Rupert Murdoch wants them to read. This had ruffled a few feathers and a local lobbying organisation has produced the following excellent video
This ad has been vetted by the appropriate TV organisations and has been passed as fit for broadcast, but it has been turned down by all three major television stations in Australia. So much for a free press...
Anyway, it's almost over and scarily it looks like our next PM will almost certainly be the mad monk , a man who can confuse a suppository with a repository and who will no doubt represent Australia well on the world stage.
This is all summed up best by this video, which is my tune of the week. The last third is more than a little over the top and is obviously just someone getting over-excited about their special guest, but it's worth it for the first section...
Me - I'm heading off to a remote island tomorrow in an attempt to avoid the hooplah...
hoopla!
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