A Date With John Howard – November 24th

The PM dropped into see Michael Jeffery for a spot of tea, a scone or two and a smidgen of proroguing Parliament for the election on November the 24th.

So finally the race is on, properly. I’ve always been in favour of fixed terms of government intellectually, but it has only been at this election, when I’m also a candidate, that I realise just how awful the current situation is.

Advantages for the incumbent

Timing – can call a snap election in response to favourable news for them, or unfavourable news for their opposition.

Enrolment – Howard has wisely chosen not to make the timeframes as brutally short as he can under his changes to the electoral act, giving people who have turned 18 have until Wednesday to enrol, or those who have just changed address since the last election have until next Monday to update their enrolment either at the AEC or at their local post office.

Planning – can have schedules meticulously laid out working up to the actual election date. Can find out, without tipping your hand, which venues are available for functions at key times. Can book advertising ahead of time – both official party advertising and the blatantly corrupt use of taxpayer-funded government ads – in some cases, like with billboards, you can kill two birds with one stone by advertising yourself and depriving your opponents of the site, too.

Volunteers – this I’ve discovered, is the big one. In planning your timetables for events, and staffing polling booths, you can’t give much notice to your volunteers until the election is called. Most people have lives outside of politics, and any effort they give is time away from family, friends and sometimes, work. To only be able to give a few weeks notice to them to drop everything is a terrible ask, and often, it’s just not possible for them, due to prior commitments.

And your core campaign group can live for six months or more on tenterhooks, waiting for the election to be announced, deferring opportunities and obligations, even vacations, until the date is set. It’s unfair and it’s undemocratic.

This year, I’ve actually found it harder to be involved in real politics because of the election. In 2005 I was heavily involved in the first Walk Against Warming in Brisbane, and I was again in 2006, but this year with the election hanging overhead, I could only be peripherally involved without making commitments I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fulfill.

Yesterday was a day of action coming out of the Australia At The Crossroads meeting in August where concerned citizens from across the spectrum came together to call on the next government, whoever they might be, to take serious action on some key issues like climate change, industrial relations, welfare, Indigenous affairs and the War in Iraq. People gathered at the ABC studios in Toowong for an initial rally, then split up into teams to target four marginal electorates – Bonner, Bowman, Longman and Moreton.

In 2004, for the first AATC meeting and the follow on actions, I was very much involved, but again, as a runner preparing for a race that could start at any time and run for any length, I couldn’t commit to much this time. I only made it to about three meetings. And as penance, I spent several hours yesterday dressed in The Big Switch’s polar bear costume.

If nothing else, I hope November 24th manages to bury the disgracefully unbalanced and unfair practice of governments calling an election at their whim, face down at the crossroads with a stake through its heart.