WHY THE “REAL WORLD” ISN’T ALWAYS A GOOD CHOICE.

When I was Year Seven, I remember learning how to vote in elections, and I have come to believe that compulsory preferential voting, whatever people say, is the fairest system.

I also remember my Year Seven Teacher saying, when it came to School Captain elections, even if, in my year, one of the choices for School Captain was a poor one, and something one of the school captains did, should have seen them removed from their position, that you don’t vote for someone because they’re your friend, you vote for someone because they have the attributes necessary to fulfil the role.

I remember, in that year, we had a lap-a-thon and people would donate or pay you so much per lap. They had a rest space, and some of the teachers noted that some of the students were giving the forms they had to initial to other students who were running laps for them, among them one of the school captains. That, in itself, is tantamount to fraud, and the teachers then said that all those who did it had to own up and have those laps deducted.

Some people, when they vote, will see a candidate who they see as being from the “real world” (i.e. not from wealth and not with a university education and with a plain form of speaking) as being worth voting for. While it’s true that politics has a lot of trappings, some are excessive and some are not, and we have to bear in mind the security of some. I remember, during a pilots’ strike, in 1989, a senior figure being interviewed who said that the pilots’ demands included, a Ford LTD for every Captain, a Ford Fairmont for every First Officer (or co-pilot) and I thought, “Okay, I would not have considered, in the days when Australia made cars, a Commodore, Falcon, Magna or Camry for every backbencher (that would have been an argument for fixed terms to say that you have a three year lease on a Commodore, Falcon, Magna or Camry and when a new politician is elected, they choose a new car, and, in a by-election, the new candidate takes over the former member’s car and if they retain the seat at a general election, then they can choose the make of car they want), a Statesman, Fairlane, Verada or Vienta for a frontbencher, and economy class flights for all politicians between the closest airport to their electorate and Canberra, but maybe first class for some politicians. But the notion that a candidate who has lived in the “real world” is a good choice is not always a good one.

Australia has had a leader who claimed that he didn’t hold a hose, when he went off to Hawaii during the summer holidays, in 2019, while NSW and Victoria were dealing with bushfires! The leader I most detest, abbott, may have been a volunteer fire fighter, but how anybody could claim that that was good, when he was also a climate change denier, and sprouted the nonsense that climate change could be doing more good than harm (hello, a hotter, drier climate) defies logic! Now, the current leader is equating the COVID19 Omicron variant and mask mandates by saying that they don’t legislate for sunscreen and hats, so why should they mandate masks. Well, hello, sunscreen and hats do NOT protect the person next to you from being sunburnt, but masks protect against the spread of germs from coughing and sneezing!

We have seen the results of COVID19 denialism from a former US leader, who is hopefully going to be indicted over tax matters! Equating it with seasonal flu, until he, himself, became infected! That former US leader MAY have been a self-made real estate guru (no, he wasn’t, Daddy helped him out) but he was not a public health expert and demonstrated what leadership should not be.

Australia’s answer to that idiot, not just the leader but the former fish and chips shop proprietor who is now self-appointed president for life of a micro-party, is saying that she’s “fed up to the back teeth with hearing about protecting the vulnerable.” Again, this was a politician who tried to move a motion (there’s a place where that politician’s motions should be passed, and it has a bowl and cistern) that all lives matter (what hypocrisy, the lives of people she is concerned with matter, according to her). And this was a politician who toasted trump’s win, in 2016!

What is more important that whether a politician knows how much a loaf of bread costs, is how well a politician understands the important issues. Rather than thinking about “health dictatorships” perhaps the public needs to think, “The Chief Health Officer is a doctor; the Health Minister does not have to be,” and a true leader takes advice from a bureaucrat who understands the issues, they don’t override them. And nor do they stack departments with people who tell them what they want to hear! They have people they NEED to hear! And politicians, also, MUST NEVER claim that parliament is a hindrance to good government, as that is not a leader but a dictator!

If you vote for a political candidate who you think is from the “real world” they may not have the skills or policy analytical ability to make the correct decisions and they may allow their personal views to dictate voting patterns on individual matters.