The beauty of the by-election

Well this is the last day for the Victorian by-elections. It will no doubt be a final binge of materials for each of the seats, probably more so for Kororoit with it’s very short campaign time.

The ALP has, as noted by the political commentators in the major dailies, been waging a war against Les Twentyman. Although they have strangely been quiet since the ALP candidate announcement. Obviously they wanted avoid adding more fuel to the fire as a result of their disastrously public pre-selection battle. It does raise a question about the ALP’s capacity to have campaigned effectively as local members express their disgust on their preferred candidate losing. The amazing thing about the Kororoit campaign is the claim by the ALP as being a stooge for the Liberals. It does beg the question as to why the ALP swapped preferences with Tania Walters who is standing as an independent but is strongly connected to Family First and is an anti-choice campaigner.

The Liberals have been spending a lot of money on the Kororoit and Gippsland campaigns. The spending has concentrated on the traditional forms of campaigning. Although they and the Nationals have been more active in maintaining their YouTube presence, even if it’s only the TV ads they’re uploading. It shows that their claims over the last few years of being broke were far from accurate. Although paid advertising space is not as expensive in regional areas but the sheer amount eventually adds up.

The Liberals seem to be the obvious stooge for the Nationals in Gippsland.  Although Julie Bishop would have us believe that the Liberals have a large enough voter base to justify the enormous expense of a by-election campaign.  It is probably more of an attempt to legitimize themselves and to hopefully do well enough to dispel some the rumours about their capacity to campaign (being in Opposition in all of Australia’s governments).  But the interesting thing is the Liberals have chosen to preference Les Twentyman in the Kororoit by-election.  One would have expected them to preference Tania Walters but it seems Labor got in first.  It’s not surprising though since the Victorian Labor Party is obsessed with right-wing dogma (lest we forget they preferenced Family First in 2004 federal election and their preparedness to preference Family First in 2006 Victorian state election).

The Greens in each by-election have made sensible choices for their preferences.  In Gippsland they have quite rightly preferenced no-one at all.  None of the parties deserve Green preferences with their pro-coal and pro-forestry positions. In Kororoit the Greens have preferenced Les Twentyman as the only other candidate that shares similar views on public transport, health, education and pokie machines.  He is also a well known identity for helping residents throughout the Western suburbs, albeit he does come with some tendencies to be populist.

Kororoit still remains the more interesting of the two by-elections since Brumby has so much to lose if there is a big swing against the ALP.

If you live in either seat make sure you vote.  I don’t care who you vote for (although I would recommend voting for the Greens) but please make your vote count.  Find the voting centre closest to you – Kororoit and Gippsland.

I don’t agree that the Kororoit by-election is a barometer for the state’s 2010 elections.  These are very different to general elections but it will be a good barometer for how voters may be feeling now, 2 years from the next elections.