Dumbocracy

I am not at all impressed by the antics of the major parties in this campaign. And let’s not mention the media - with few exceptions (e.g. Crikey) our media is a disgrace. ABC News 24 is as bad as I had expected - for the first time Rupert has a serious rival. It's trying to become *Fox News* Australian style - the only thing missing is the slogan. Ugh.

Both Labor and the Liberals are seemingly in a death spiral to show us who is the dumbest. But it is clear to me who takes that prize.

Amongst his other conservative and far right announcements - the monk is determined to be the champion of austerity. Apparently when he becomes PM he is going to cut waste and reign in the nation's debt and reduce tax and do everything he can - to cut Government spending.

It's lucky for him that his supporters are innumerate because otherwise they would cotton onto that old equation: "cutting spending equals cutting services". He hasn't yet announced which services he will cut because he wants to win the election first ;-)

There is no doubt that the main reason why this campaign is so bad is because the actual voters are not informed or concerned enough about the big issues. There is just not enough thinking going into candidate and party selection and issue analysis. And aside from the efforts of a lightweight media this is mainly an education thing - and it won't improve until we get a much better educated society.

Under the Liberals that will never happen - at least Labor has an education plan and a track record.

This election should be a battle between the big ideas. The key and important issues ought to be front and centre and be debated by the leaders. Unfortunately the big ideas are all "Missing in Action".

Regardless of what the leaders say or do today or tomorrow or next week - Climate Change is still the major issue bearing down on us. And it will surely run us over unless we start to deal with its challenges. But apparently that isn't to be mentioned during this election. Dumbocracy.