There was a noisy rally outside the office of Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis on Monday afternoon, which focused on an important election issue – needs based education funding under the Gonski model.
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Maurie Mulheron, president of the NSW Teachers Federation, told the assembled crowd that $18 million in federal education funding over the next two years would be ripped from Gilmore if the Coalition was re-elected to government.
Here was a fair dinkum election issue. With youth unemployment in the Shoalhaven running to an estimated 18 per cent, education is critical if we are ever going to lift ourselves from the mire of social disadvantage.
Unfortunately, there was only one side discussing the issue – a passionate crowd of Labor supporters, Greens and union people. Mrs Sudmalis did not address the meeting to put her point of view. The only alternative viewpoint was offered by a yobbo in a souped up car that seemed to be doing the laps, profanity booming from an open window.
Unfortunately, while this important issue received a brief airing, candidates have tied themselves in knots – as they seem to at every election – over campaign posters.
The blue side got theirs out early, the red side cried foul. Council scratched its head and said it would remind candidates to obey the rules and cast their visual pollution over countryside no earlier than five weeks out from polling day.
Really? Was the fuss worth the effort? Do voters actually take note of the signs?
On Facebook, they were asking why we needed to be assaulted by up to 20 images of the one candidate along one 20-metre stretch of fence.
Do the candidates really think the more times they plaster their airbrushed images all over the paddock the more voters will place a one against their names?
And do they imagine for one second a dispute over the rules will sway anyone?
This is going to be an awfully long campaign and the countryside will be infected with red, green and blue campaign posters for far too too many weeks.
If only the effort and money wasted on these blunt-axe marketing devices were redirected to making intelligent pitches for votes. Voters wouldn’t sense their intelligence was being insulted; candidates could actually state their cases. We would all be much better off.
