LOCAL STORIES

Australia is going to the Polls

Warren Strybosch

On the 21st of May Australians will go to the polls to decide which party will form the next federal election.

It will be Albanese first time leading the Labor party in an election since becoming Opposition Leader in 2019. Albanese took office at age 56 and is the oldest first-time Opposition Leader in 59 years, since Arthur Calwell (age 63) took office in 1960.

If Albanese wins office, he will be the 31st Australian Prime minister and he will follow the likes of Kevin Rudd who was replaced by Julia Gillard, the first female prime minister of Australia, only to be replaced by Rudd a few years later after she backflipped on the carbon tax scheme.

Unfortunately, for Albanese, he has not one of those leaders who has stood out over the years. In fact, a lot of people, until recently would have not known who the Opposition Leader of Australia was. It does not bear well for Albanese as he is an unknow quantity and has not warmed himself to the Australian people thus far. Unfortunately, Labor has an uphill battle, and it will be interesting to see if Labor has to joins ranks with the Greens and possibly Clive Palmer to try and secure government. Labor is hoping they will get the numbers but given Albanese is not really leadership material, it will be interesting to see if Labor can pull something out of the bag come this election.

Whereas Mr Morrison is seeking the Coalition's fourth term in office and whilst he might not be liked by everyone in Australia, is a well-known figure who has demonstrated he can make decisions in a crisis. The Coalition re-election theme is one of economic trust and pointing out that if Labor gets in, they are likely to ruin Australia’s economy after it has struggled through tough times of late. Then if you add the Greens and Palmer into the mix, the question will be, will Labor actually be running the country, or will the Greens and Palmer be pulling the strings?

The other issue Labor faces is that Australian’s don’t easily forget what has happened over the last few years, especially in Victoria. With ‘Dictator Dan’ as he was coined during pandemic, Victorians were forced out of work, could not be with their families when they were sick, nor attend the funerals of their loved ones, and it did not stop there. Labor created a society of the vaxxed versus the unvaxxed with the unvaxxed being treated like they were the undead. Ironically, just before the election, the rules surrounding the unvaxxed have nearly disappeared, yet COVID still abounds – maybe Labor is hoping to win the unvaxxed vote? And we have not even dicussed the increased mental health toll we are now facing nor the sexual grooming agenda that seems to be invading our primary schools, where children as young as nine are encouraged to go home and discuss their father’s ejaculation and masturbating habits. The Labor Premiers have a lot to answer for in a lot of areas.

How will Australians vote? Many people we have spoken too are unsure how they will vote. In less than two weeks one thing will be for sure, someone will be in government. God help us all.