Spot The Difference

November 11, 2002

A monumentally boring election campaign seems to be the common feeling amongst most voters. The unspoken approach from both the Bracks and Doyle camps seems to be steady-as-she-goes, with no big punches thrown, no outrageous TV or radio ads, no big visual stunts, and nothing of substance for the voter to associate with either candidate. You only need to watch the ordinary performances in the debate last week to understand the lack of interest that is enveloping voters. Neither candidate seemed to be on message, and both seemed to be caught up in eye-glazing semantics rather than substantial issues. The debate, unfortunately, is a microcosm of the election campaign as a whole.

An approach like this will suit two groups. The first is the ALP. Steve Bracks is a nice guy, and if we don’t realise it yet, then it’ll probably be tattooed on his forehead come November 30. The best way to preserve the ‘nice guy’ perception is to keep the campaign clean and respectable, and avoid any unseemly stoushes or showbiz stunts that don’t suit the man. For Doyle, however, this means fewer chances to challenge the Bracks persona, and establish a personal following. In this way, the campaign is being fought on the ALP turf, and for the Liberals to get on the front foot they’ll need some more colour and movement – and perhaps getting Bracks into an un-nice-bloke-ish slanging match. At this stage, though, it seems unlikely.

The other winner from a boring campaign is the Greens. With the media as well as the public becoming bored with what’s on offer, they will soon go looking for something different, alternate, and visual. The Greens will act as the circuit-breaker, to offer a counterpoint to the blander-than-bland approach of the other two parties. The Greens have the added advantage of being able to afford a campaign style like this, knowing that they only need to appeal to the bohemian inner-city set (to use an already-overused cliché) and can therefore largely ignore the outer suburbs and country areas. Neither the ALP nor the Liberals have this advantage, and so need to play everything with a straight bat.

The Democrats are also on the campaign trail. With your intrepid columnist being a candidate for the Dems, it would be unfair to try and offer an opinion. Suffice to say, the rebuilding of the party that has occurred federally over the past few months will continue in Victoria.

In marketing terms, there seems to be a distinct lack of product differentiation between what’s on offer from the Liberals and the ALP. Watching a Liberal Party paid TV spot over the weekend, it was initially difficult to differentiate it from its ALP counterpart. A softly spoken female voice speaks with heartfelt concern about the need for quality schools to educate our children, and only at the end are we made aware of what cruel Mr Bracks has been doing to our education system. For those voters whose spaceship only landed post-1999, it’s a highly convincing case.

For those who can remember back just a little further, there will be overwhelming doubts about the Liberals' commitment to education. That voters are expected to be taken in by the colour and movement is remarkable.

More generally, there seems to be the same rhetoric all around about schools, hospitals, transport and a raft of other government (or traditionally government-services). The standard refrain of “we’ll do everything we can to help x, but we won’t be putting the state into debt” can be heard resonating from the mouths of candidates across the state. There is yet to be a substantially different message coming from either camp. No grand visions or projects for voters to get excited about, just more of the same. For voters, however, it becomes the world’s biggest spot the difference. Is there anything to spot? Not really.

Ari Sharp is tthe Australian Democrats candidate for the East Yarra byelection in the 2002 State Election. This is his personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Democrats. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------