Party Games: Federal Election schedule a joke

WE’VE been talking election for six weeks and we have just two weeks to go. So why is Malcolm Turnbull holding back? You won’t like the answer!

ONE down, one to go. Labor is getting the day-after glow with Bill Shorten doing the rounds of the radio and TV studios and talking endlessly about Medicare, schools and jobs.

It was a good launch, as these things usually are, and gave Labor and its candidates something to fight with.

However, it’s also three-quarters of the way through this marathon campaign. We have been talking election and politics for six weeks and we have two weeks to go.

The Coalition is still waiting. They won’t do their launch until next week, again in western Sydney at one of those undisclosed locations we usually expect to find the Vice President of the United States during a terror attack.

That’s seven weeks into an eight-week campaign and they’re just launching their campaign. Is this a joke?

No it’s not. There’s a cynical reason, which is that until parties have their launches, Finance Department rules say we, the taxpayers, pay for everything — politicians’ travel, staff travel, accommodation and all the rest.

Once there’s a launch, the taxpayer money stops flowing and the political parties have to pick up the tab.

So Labor has been paying Shorten’s hotel bills for a week now and the Liberals’ Tony Nutt will sign Turnbull’s accounts for the Intercontinental for the next six days (unless Malcolm throws the

Platinum Amex on the counter).

It’s got to be a joke!

Other countries also have elections and there are campaigns but Australia is in a minority when it comes to having these “official launches”, which are supposed to kick off an election. That is what they once did and then they started getting run in the middle of a campaign.

Now it’s at the business end and we know most of what we need to know anyway.

In Britain, parties launch manifestos which outline their “program” while in the United States they have primary selection processes which end in a nominating convention.

We should review the whole thing here and have it in week one or not at all.

Originally published as Party Games: Federal Election schedule a joke