In two weeks’ time Australians will go to the polls. A lot has been compacted into the past three weeks of the official campaign and the earlier weeks of unofficial campaigning when the Government parties, with the resources of the Government began the phony campaign with the launch of their tax package.
In the next two weeks the eyes, hearts and brains of the people of Australia are gong to be increasingly focused on the election. People who take little interest in politics will begin to take an interest as the day draws when they must vote. The danger is that in this period isolated incidents which have little to do with the major policy differences between the parties can gain an importance out of all proportion tot heir real substance. Any minor mistake in the days close to polling day unfortunately gets exaggerated importance. Voters should try to avoid allowing them too much influence.
An example appeared this week with a very silly press statement by Labor’s shadow attorney-general Nick Bolkus. The statement attempted to lay a the feet of Prime Minister Howard blame for deaths through heroin overdoses. The argument ran that Mr Howard had cut funding to the Australian Federal Police and Customs who otherwise might have been able to prevent some heroin being imported. It asserted that the extra heroin had flooded the market and lowered the price. It was a very long bow indeed, verging on the absurd.
But nothing much should turn on it. Mid-term, nothing would have turned on it. Sure, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley should chided his frontbencher in a manner stronger than a dead sheep and with a little more alacrity, but if he had done that it would have, again, attracted far greater importance than the issue warranted precisely because it is mid-campaign.
This tendency for the trivial to get exaggerated importance has an unfortunate side-effect. The minders and spin doctors of both leaders have closeted and manicured their charges to the extent they have lost their naturalness, especially Mr Howard. Usually, Mr Howard gives a fairly good off-the-cuff speech. He usually is happy to garner a wide range of material to support his arguments. This campaign he appears artificially hemmed in. He is far from relaxed and comfortable. It would be ironic if the fear of making errors resulted in the greatest mistake of all — to appear so unnatural as to be unelectable. Earlier in the campaign Mr Beazley seemed to suffer from the syndrome but since the televised debate a week ago appears to have a least partially overcome it.
It is important in the past two weeks that voters and leaders concentrate on the main issues: what sort of Australia do we want and which party is most likely to achieve it based on past performances and future programs.
To the extent heroin is an issue, it is not because of fatuous exaggerations by a shadow minister, but through a comparison of policy approaches. And certainly the compounding of distraction through a botched interview by an overly hostile ABC radio interviewer should not have any bearing on how anyone votes.
And nor should the electorate be distracted by the spate of sporting events at election time. Voters are capable of absorbing more than one news event a day.