I've been slack, I'll be the first to admit it.  The 1998 Australian Federal Election campaign has been running for nearly two weeks now with not a peep from yours truly.  Admittedly the timing of the announcement of the election date was pretty awful from my point of view, since I was pretty removed from most things political.  I had been languishing in the Melbourne Writer's Festival paying more attention to the likes of Poppy Z. Brite, Paolo Coelho and Andrea Goldsmith than to a bunch of old political hacks clawing their way along the campaign trail.

In the middle of that fine weekend at the end of August I hardly expected to be confronted with an electoral announcement, though I suspect that was very much the point.  It caught people off guard, not so much the announcement itself, but that the date set was so early.  A full two weeks prior to the guesstimates of most political analysts, who'd been betting on an October 17th election day.  Still, when looking from Howard's point of view, setting the date for October 3rd was quite clever in all but one respect, though many could (and probably will) argue that there's a certain slimy element to this tactic.

With so little time between the announcement and the actual election the pressure is placed on the candidates to an even greater extent than in previous campaigns, especially with potential wild cards like One Nation candidates to tip the precarious balance of vote spreads.  For those with a heavy interest in politics there is nothing (or very little) that could divert one's attention from a campaign such as this, however, it is in the interests of most candidates to convince the constituents to vote for them as easily as possible and preferably to do so without having to make huge concessions and pledges.  Thus it is always good to have something with which to distract the bulk of the voting populace and for Australians this inevitably means sport.  At this point one ought to congratulate Prime Minister Howard for managing to schedule his campaign to coincide with two major football Grand Finals (Australian Rules and Rugby), the US Open and the Commonwealth Games.  The only fault, for the Coalition, one might find with a lightning campaign being that some people might come to the conclusion that the Government is trying to rush people into voting for their tax reform package, including the GST, before a truly extensive analysis of it can be made.

Regardless of the short space of time between the announcement of an election and the actual election date it has been no real secret in the weeks prior to the announcement that both major parties were gearing up for an election.  The release of the Government's tax reform package and the promotion of it did, despite the Government's vehement arguments to the contrary, appear notoriously like the product of an election campaign.  Regardless of whether or not the tax package advertisements are technically a part of the electoral campaign, they are certainly perceived as such by the media and much of the populace.  Thus making arguments to the contrary something of a moot point, except over the issue regarding the expenditure of tax payers' money on the tax reform advertisement campaign.  If the Opposition can prove that the tax reform advertisements are, in fact, part of the electoral campaign then heads will certainly roll.  It is, after all, a serious allegation of fraud and corruption.

Speaking of rolling heads, the Opposition has had some to deal with itself since last week's hacking incident.  The hacking of the Liberal Party's election site, which included the addition or linking of pornography to the site, has been traced back to offices of the Australian Labor Party.  Thus Australians were treated to the site of an embarrassed ALP, accusations of criminal activity and the concerted effort of Mr. Lynton Crosby, the Liberal Party Campaign Director, to ruin the career of Paul Gill and anyone else involved in the hacking scandal.  Regardless of whether or not Mr. Gill was actually responsible for the hacking incident, the fact remains that this matter is currently under investigation by the Federal Police and the only trial he's had to date is by media.  Still a little matter like potential innocence (or, at least, as yet unproven guilt) would never get in the way of flying accusations during a political campaign.  It is, after all, a political truth these days that a denial goes a long way towards the convincing of its opposite, a tactic Lyndon B. Johnson used to remarkable effect in his campaigns.

Unsurprisingly One Nation has been sticking its proverbial beak into the campaign, regardless of whether or not it is wanted.  I'm sure, however, that Ms. Hanson's response to that will be to wait until October 4th to see just how much One Nation is wanted.  The Coalition tactic of dealing with One Nation seems to have been having some luck, by not drawing attention to the party or its members they provide the media with less reason to pursue a One Nation response.  There has, of course, been one notable exception to this: the visit to Queensland by Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.  Whether he wanted a confrontation with Pauline Hanson or not, he got one.  Though television does provide a certain amount of distance between the viewer and the viewed, one could almost feel the animosity between the two.  Quite a spectacle - election campaigns are full of them, the question is, though, of who's design?  One could argue that Mr. Kennett went looking for a fight, he is the Premier of Victoria, not Queensland.  On the other hand, he had announced his plans to travel to Queensland prior to a trip to South-East Asia at least a week earlier.  An itinerary is a relatively simple item to locate and it would not have been difficult at all for the One Nation leader to arrange to just happen to be in the neighbourhood.  The latter is certainly consistent with the Premier's claims that Ms. Hanson hunted him down to force a confrontation.  Furthermore since a comparison of Hanson to Kennett and One Nation to the Liberals would certainly show the former as the underdogs in this election and therefore Kennett could gain nothing from the confrontation.  Indeed he has since been forced to defend his actions in going to Queensland at all.

"...and it's like I'm a mother, Australia is my home and the Australian people are my children."
-- Pauline Hanson, MP for Oxley, President of Pauline Hanson's One Nation and candidate for Blair

In the next twenty-three days this campaign is only going to intensify; it will be interesting to see who runs strong, who burns out, when and where the knives come out and generally just how vicious and bloody a campaign it will be.  As I've commented on in the past, it is no coincidence that that an election is described as a campaign, a word also used to describe a series military actions and battles.
 

Thursday September 10th, 1998

Copyright © Benjamin D. McGinnes, 1998

Copyright © Benjamin D. McGinnes, 1998-2001