POLLIES IN A STATE OF LIMBO

With only 4 days to go, never have I been so undecided coming up to an election. Sick to death of the pollies zotting here, dashing there, promising this, deciding that, shaking hands and kissing babies here, there and everywhere. Posing for those photo opportunities while trying to look genuinely interested in the whole shebang, jumping through hoops in their last ditch effort to sway us one way or the other in their favour. Do they really think all this last minute frantic activity is going to convince us Tasmanians of their worth and their Party’s ability to deliver the goods? Surely by now they would’ve learned we don’t have a whole lot of faith in them at the best of times, let alone in the lead up to an election.

Wish they’d simply do the job they were elected to do and run the State, fulfil the requirements of their portfolios and represent their electorates responsibly instead of all the wheeling and dealing and slinging off at each other and dragging out every bit of dirty laundry to justify their positions, as well as felling the forests they vow and declare they want to protect in order to get out all their annoying letter box literature. When all is said and done, the muck raking and scare mongering has a negligible effect on the result.

I don’t doubt that those who stand for public office have good intentions, even the best intentions in a lot of cases. It’s a thankless task, and once you’re successful in claiming the most votes you immediately become the person to blame if things don’t work out right. But even the best intentions don’t guarantee performance, and being part of a bigger whole means you have to live with constant ambiguities in the process of trying to get the job done while also trying to avoid offending this lobby group and that bunch of protestors or another group of activists who will continually call your policies and efforts into question.

Everyone has their own agenda when it comes to the political process, be it personal, social, environmental or whatever. In the end, the facts speak for themselves. We either believe them or we don’t, their track records are either complementary or found wanting, we decide to vote down Party lines or throw in a few independents for good measure, and by Saturday night we either have the same guys ensconced for a few more years or we don’t. Some would say it makes no difference which Party holds power, but whatever the outcome I think there’s going to be some definite shifting of the deck chairs come this weekend.