I haven’t had a moment to breathe, to eat, to sleep. I certainly haven’t had the chance to blog.
Since our panicky pusillanimous Premier sauntered on down to the Governor’s residence and put an end to the current Parliament of Western Australia, life has been non-existent beyond the realms of my unpleasant little box of an office.
Now let me be clear; I don’t want to see a Liberal victory. Good lord no. But Carpenter deserves to have the fright of his life. He deserves to have a slew of sleepless nights in the aftermath of the closest election result in WA history.
Yet on current form, there’s a disturbingly large chance that Carpenter’s hubris will be rewarded with unemployment. I have a vague understanding of political strategy, but this move is surely not the result of any high-minded thinking – rather it is one born of abject contempt for the electoral process, the other parties involved, and the electors themselves.
So little does Carpenter think of the electorate that he tries to sneak in an election while nobody is looking, so nobody will bother.
But in the process he’s somehow made a disorganised rabble of snedgers and sledgers seem like a viable option to a disconcertingly large amount of people.
Fortunately, there are also a good number of people for whom the idea of a Liberal government is totally unpalatable, and so in their droves they are turning to minor parties.
Which is where Alan Carpenter’s attempt on my life comes in. Working for an under-resourced minor party in this election has proved to be the most exhausting task I’ve ever undertaken.
A 41 hour workday. Two all-night stints in five days. A never-ending stream of tasks that fall to me as an “experienced” campaigner. It’s starting to get a bit much and my fragile, arthritic body is starting to pay the price.
The resolve that I, the candidates I’m working for and the teams I’m working with have to ensure an alternative voice is heard in the maelstrom of Carpenter’s creation has been met by the crushing reality of our limitations.
We are few. We are stretched “waffer-thin” (particularly when compared to the Creosote Carpenter Campaign – yes CCC). We are tired, and we’re making mistakes. Too many mistakes.
In my case, I’m also being thoroughly unpleasant to work with, and be around. My colleagues are bearing the brunt of my frustration, my loved ones are feeling the force of my fatigue. Nevertheless, we’ve achieved an amazing amount, in an incredibly short time.
And we’re getting to them. A raft of policy announcements in recent days suggests what we’ve long suspected – that this cruise-control, uninspiring, beige quasi-government will no longer be accepted by people looking for progressive change, and they know it. So they desperately trot out the same promises they gave us last time, in the hope that we’ll reward their dishonesty with our vote.
In the age of climate change, peak oil and economic boom, unprecedented numbers of Western Australians are going to shout from the rooftops to Alan Carpenter and his hand-picked puppets that they haven’t done enough. It’s not OK to open more coal-fired power stations. It’s not OK to have thousands of people unable to afford a roof over their heads. It’s not OK to have social services workers lining up to be their own clients.
Don’t vote Liberal – you know it will just be worse. Yet somehow, it’s more honourable. They don’t even really pretend to give a shit. I’m going to preference the ALP. But they sure as hell won’t be my first choice.
