Less than a week to go!

Less than a week. That’s right people, is less than one week, the fine people of South Australia (and actually the pretty fine people of Tasmania as well) are counting down the hours (well nearly!!) until they have to get out their favourite pencils and mark those ballot papers once again! With Premier Jay and Opposition Leader Steven out pounding the Adelaidian pavement, drumming up support and scouring votes, I am turning my attention to another pressing political matter COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS TO GO!!

Looking at the main issues being spoken about during this campaign, it has mainly been to do with State issues. Our pollies are promising more money, more resources and even the kitchen sink, if they think it will give them a leg up on the other side. In the name of winning votes, pollies have plastered their face on stobie polls, on billboards and subject themselves to the humiliation of standing on the side of busy highways in order to capture that extra few votes. Upgrades to certain troublesome roads, cutting/capping/halting council rates as well as future infrastructure and building projects are just some of the enticements on offer during the last week of campaigning.

The general consensus is that people are swayed by what they read, what they hear, what they see and what they experience when it comes who to put before whom on the ballot paper. Obviously there are rusted on, or hard core Liberal, Greens and Labor voters but an increasing number of people are becoming swinging or non-affiliated voters with a number of Independents in the mix at the election. Probably due to the increasing centralisation of the major parties on many issues, people are finding it harder and harder to pick a side and stick to it. Furthermore when elections roll around, there is so much negativity and so many games being played, that people are at a loss about which party truly deserve to be in power. Now yes, I guess that mainstream media is kinda, maybe, partly to blame but with the internet being the wonderful magical thing that it is, finding out information is always only a click and a few key strokes away. But many people are still undecided, if the circumstances were different the choice might be easier, but with such a long period of Labor rule it seems that the Liberals are finally making a comeback.

In terms of the election on Saturday, this final week of campaigning will be crucial to the end result. As it stands, the Liberal Party seem to be out in the lead by a fraction of a whisker, but if you referred to Newspoll last week, the result would look something like another hung parliament. Something, despite it being a highly successful federal parliament, in terms of legislation passing- it is doubtful, many people would like to see it again in the near future. That being said, the likelihood of there being the same amount of criticism placed upon the Leader of the Government would seem remote, at the current stage.

Whatever the result on Saturday, one this is certain the government will have a hard time convincing voters to keep them in when their term expires in four years’ time as unemployment will be one of the hotly debated issues in the coming years…