As a community newspaper it is not our place to endorse one candidate over another. We do, however, believe it appropriate to pose some questions for voters to think about it when they exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities on Saturday. 

Thinking locally, ask yourself if you’re satisfied with the representation you’ve had in Canberra? Is there tangible evidence your local community has benefited from it? Has your life and your part of the world improved, stayed the same or gone backwards?

What has been done?

Will changing the party that represents you in Canberra really make a difference? Is it best to stay with the person and the party you know or take a punt on change?

Through two decades of Liberal representation, six years of which was in opposition, Gilmore has oscillated between being a safe seat and one that sits on the margins. Our marginal status this election has seen a procession of high-profile politicians arriving to pitch their parties’ platforms and made spending pledges. 

The Register’s audience has responded to the visits with a degree of scepticism levelled at both sides. Readers have asked why the pledges and promises only ever seem to arrive at the eleventh-hour in the life the parliament. One reader asked what the point of voting was when the parties would likely ditch their leader halfway through their term anyway.   

We live in a much more complex world than the one which existed in 1996, when the Liberal Party won Gilmore from Labor.

Back then there was an embryonic internet and no social media. News cycles were slower and politicians under much less scrutiny. Opinion polls were less frequent and governments seemed more courageous and capable of making hard decisions and able to explain them. 

The onslaught of constant commentary and information makes arriving at a decision on who to vote for ever more difficult. It’s why we see campaigns reduced to either three-word slogans or interminable interviews with both sides saying the polar opposite to each other. Making sense of the slogans and words takes time and a special kind of fortitude. It’s much easier to ask yourself whether, locally, your expectations have been met and vote accordingly.