Federal election campaign: How long is too long?
It’s time to consider whether our elections really need to be so drawn out, writes Michael Madigan. Let’s cap it at a week and spare us this pretend non-campaign we’ve been enduring for months.
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We could get this election campaign done and dusted in one week and democracy would be none the poorer, while we, the people, would be so much the saner.
In the last federal campaign, during which I was instructed to wander about Queensland with no particular purpose in mind, I happened across a man named Derek Brown who was an electrician at a mine.
Derek generously furnished me with one of those “what-the-average-person-is-thinking-about-the-election’’ comments before making a remark I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“We should keep these election campaigns to one week,’’ he snapped, using that blunt tone so common among country folk, which could best be described as “affably brusque’’. “One week is long enough to look at the policies and if you don’t know what the major parties generally stand for anyway, you’re a goose.’’
A goose! There’s an economy of language in the use of that noun alone that could prove instructive to all campaigning politicians who should, if there is any mercy in their hearts, be paring back the wearisome lunchtime speeches they’ll be obligated to deliver over the next six weeks, and we’ll be obligated to listen to.
It’s true election campaigns are not necessarily boring — if you’re willing to apply your mind to what’s being said. It’s true you’re free to ignore them if you wish, and it’s also true they’re at the core of the democratic tradition we should be deeply grateful to have inherited as our birthright.
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As well, it’s true they are far more civilised than the “elections’’ of only a few hundred years ago when an Opposition kicked off a campaign by riding out on to a paddock armed with broadswords and attempting to murder members of the incumbent government.
All that was required then was a few hours of homicidal violence before one leader was decapitated and then everyone could ride home, tired but happy that God’s will had delivered them a new “prime minister’’, or monarch as it was then.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating decapitation as a campaign strategy. I’m merely pointing out it did have a crisp finality that our own system of preferential voting lacks.
Today, modern democracies can have election campaigns that drag on for 597 days. That’s what one American magazine, The Atlantic, calculated as the time it took Donald Trump to campaign his way into the White House by January 2017.
It’s not coincidental that this marathon happened in America, because it was there the modern political campaign was born.
In 1896, the future US president William McKinley provided a blue print for the 20th century political campaign by harassing Americans for several months with “front porch’’ speeches while distributing about 2.2 million pamphlets.
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An adviser, Joseph P. Smith, became one of the first press secretaries by transcribing McKinley’s speeches and handing them to journalists and voters so everyone had ample time to consider his policies, such as ramping up protectionism and buying Hawaii.
These days we have scores of countries around the world mirroring the McKinley approach to campaigning, with a few exceptions such as North Korea which only allows 23 days, and generously lets everyone know the result before votes are counted.
In Australia we are supposed to keep campaigns to between 33 and 58 days. But we all know the present campaign started back in August when then PM Malcolm Turnbull was kicked out of office by his colleagues.
We further know Prime Minister Scott Morrison, like Labor PMs before him, is spending taxpayer money advertising his Government’s achievements in the lead up to the day he calls the poll, after which he can’t.
Derek the miner has a point.
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Australians who take an interest in politics, and who don’t happen to be geese, have comprehended the key points in this election and understand the principles underpinning not only the two main political parties, but even those of the fringe dwellers that have popped up in the past few decades, such as One Nation.
We don’t need six weeks to comprehend a raft of new policies that could be put up on websites in an instant. We could ponder them in a spare few hours before going to the polls on, say, Saturday week.
The following week, the new government could get back to the far more important and worthy role politicians could play in our lives, which is governing.
michael.madigan@news.com.au
Originally published as Federal election campaign: How long is too long?