It is said that politicians are like nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.
Saturday’s poll will be our third trip to the election booth in just over a year; our third chance to discard those who are a bit on the nose and start again – washed clean, as it were.
Every time we are told to go to the polls, it feels like we have only just been.
It’s a sensation akin to being a toddler and our parent orders us to make a deposit in the smallest room in the house before a car trip, even though we swear we don’t want or need to go.
Of course, poll fatigue is a problem undemocratic nations envy, and consciously adopting an attitude of gratitude can be the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down this election.
And there is the hope that if individuals did not get what they wished for before, maybe the third time’s a charm.
We just have to hope others think as we do.
It is like waiting for a group assignment mark and hoping the others didn’t fluff their parts.
It would help if politics was a bit more fun, and if those who entered society’s most lucrative popularity contest had a bit more spark and colour.
They should put on a bit more of a show for us, demonstrate that they really want the job and sell themselves.
After all, former US President Ronald Reagan said: “Someone once said that politics is the second-oldest profession. I’m beginning to think it bears resemblance to the first.”
In particular, the TikTok generation would connect with a show of personality and, given young Australians will outnumber baby boomers at the polls for the first time this federal election, the power of the persona has never been more important.
The go-tos of donning hard hats, holding babies and hugging old ladies is passe for all but pollies in our society.
Let them go, for Pete’s sake.
The current leaders this time around are particularly lacking in warmth and vim.
One Queensland voter on the hustings put words around something many of us feel: “Albanese makes me queasy and Dutton doesn’t push my button.”
Good thing we, on the Sunshine Coast, are not being asked to vote for either of them.
But a bit more daring, a little more light and a few more laughs would have helped us brighten our way to the polls.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.
