What voters really think of the Federal Election

WE’RE halfway through an eight-week election campaign, but it doesn’t seem either leader is getting their message across.

Halfway through the election campaign and it seems neither leader is cutting through. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

HALFWAY through a mammoth eight-week campaign, you might think the politicians would be doing a reasonable job of getting their messages across to Australia.

But many voters news.com.au has spoken to while following Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on his travels this week expressed boredom, disappointment and contempt for the nation’s two main parties.

Darren Smith, who works in maintenance at the Sydney Fish Markets, said Mr Shorten’s appearance there yesterday morning was a “photo opportunity to make himself feel important”.

But he didn’t just reserve his disdain for the Labor leader.

“They’re all the same to be honest,” he added. “I think they’re just wasting our money going around doing all this when they should be running our country.”

Mr Smith said he cared about jobs, healthcare and immigration, but he couldn’t pick a favourite of the two leaders.

“It’s a tough one in my eyes, they’re all full of it,” he said. “I’ve always been Liberal, but this time, I might go Labor. I voted Liberal a couple of years ago, but now it’s not the person I voted for.”

Fishmonger Andrew Dullaway was also downbeat. “I don’t think much of any politician at the moment,” he said.

“I think they’re pretty spineless, all of them. I think I’ll vote for Turnbull, just for stopping the boats policy working. I think the cutting the company tax will actually stimulate growth in the economy and employment.”

While many seemed happy to pose for photos with the Labor leader on Thursday, truck driver Bill Anderson called him a “pretty fair sort of fellow”, while fish market worker Tony Tsikles made headlines for erecting a “Vote Libs” sign outside.

.@UNSW renewables student Jesse Jones gives his view on the election after Shorten's visit #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/SEfv1qSoVg

— Emma Reynolds (@emmareyn) June 2, 2016

But others said they were disillusioned with the PM, and were now looking to Mr Shorten instead. When the Labor leader visited Rockdale in southern Sydney yesterday, a local who asked the leader about marriage equality said he thought Mr Shorten had “changed a lot in the last couple of years” and was “ready to take on the job.”

He added: “I’m a bit disappointed in Malcolm Turnbull because he’s a nice person, a nice man, I was going to vote for him, but just the last couple of months, he doesn’t do anything he wants to do, he does what the party says.”

Roxanne Maurin, a sciences and commerce student at the University of NSW, had also gone off the Prime Minister.

“Before Malcolm Turnbull was leader of the party, he came across as really personable,” she said. “I feel like now, less so, and never really liked Bill Shorten, but he’s kind of seeming better now for the last couple of months.”

Fish market employee Andrew Dullaway sums up views of most voters I've met #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/TsiC2lacD6

— Emma Reynolds (@emmareyn) June 1, 2016

Fellow student Jesse Jones was also unhappy with the PM, although he wasn’t quite a cheerleader for Mr Shorten, who visited the university on Thursday to talk renewable energy.

“I don’t think that he has the necessary skills to be the prime minister of the country ... I think Turnbull’s made some probably not so great decisions since he’s been in power as prime minister,” he said.

“I thought at the start that he would be a good leader, it seems like he has good leadership potential, whereas I think comparatively, Shorten doesn’t.

“I honestly don’t see there being a candidate that I feel I could vote for. I think that would be the biggest thing I have to say, in the sense that I don’t actually believe there’s any party that deserves to run the country at the moment.

“I mean, that’s the difficult thing for a lot of people at the moment, it’s kind of picking between the lesser of two evils.”

Alison Gillerman, a PR and advertising student, added: “I think they’re both a bit of a jerk, to be honest. I kind of feel like they don’t really change, they’re both kind of the same type of thing, like you vote for one person and then both parties kind of just throw them out a few months later anyway.

“Probably from the two, I’d lean toward Turnbull, to be honest, he just seems more business savvy ... but I don’t really like either of them.”

Others called the pair “much of a muchness”, “a tad underwhelming” and many admitted they hadn’t paid much attention to the campaign so far.

No one seemed bowled over by the promises.

“A lot of it is pie-in-the-sky talk,” 74-year-old David Pelow from Coffs Harbour told news.com.au as he holidayed on the Great Barrier Reef while Mr Shorten visited to announced a funding injection earlier this week.

“Your ears prick up and you listen, and then eight months down the line it goes quiet.”

Brisbane pensioner Connie, who met Mr Shorten at Carindale Westfield, said: “He promised he’d do this and that but I don’t believe it. They’re all the same.”

Anecdotally, it seems Mr Turnbull might have the edge, but no one’s thrilled by the idea of either potential future government.

Lawyer Alan Richardson, a 43-year-old from Victoria, laid some of the blame with the public. “Australians are very apathetic,” he said. “I’ve given up on Australians.”

Originally published as What voters really think of the Federal Election