An excellent article. The new minor party "senator online" interested me, among other minor parties. I was one of the 4% who filled in all 60 boxes below the line with my senate vote.

For the record i put the red/greens last, getup/labour second last, LNP third last, even numbering the "socialist alliance" fourth last because at least they are honest about being communists.

If we had "truth in advertising" for politics by extending the "trade practices" act to parties. Bob Brown would be dragged kicking and screaming before the ACCC and forced to rename his party "the Reds".

Germain Gillard's gayLP would be similarly forced to change their name to the "Clayton's" Communist Party.

The liberals would be renamed the Conservative party, which is not a horrible thing, but lets be honest about it and wear our real heart on our sleeve.

The nationals would be renamed the international party because they are in fact "economic rationalists" who have no problem with importing bananas from the Philippines or apples and pears from new Zealand. They secretly want to import all exotic pests and diseases like "foot and mouth" disease so that all our farmers can have the opportunity to compete on a "level playing field".

What a wonderful world that would be. Citrus canker could kill off whats left of our citrus farmers and consumers could benefit from cheap imports of concentrated frozen orange juice. Stop all irrigation in the Murray darling, save the river and import more cheap food from OS.

What a wonderful world that would be. Make no mistake, Bob Katter is quite correct, the alleged country party has been either passively or actively involved in selling our farms off to the lowest bidder or allowing foreign multi nationals to buy everything from dairy co-ops to mines.

Another fine article, Jo, particularly your points about the imposition of the views of press gallery hacks - the same people who have called Tony Abbott "unelectable" for years. Perhaps he is unelectable in Balmain or Carlton or the restaurants of Kingston, ACT, but the rest of Australia seems to have no problem with him.

New technology makes avoiding the press galleries at federal and state levels so much easier.

There are some excellent journalists, of course, but there are a lot who actually think voters care about journalists' personal opinions.

>>Formersnag, you have seriously misrepresented the Nationals' views on food imports. Their position is pretty much the direct opposite of what you have claimed.

The nationals would be renamed the international party because they are in fact "economic rationalists" who have no problem with importing bananas from the Philippines or apples and pears from new Zealand. They secretly want to import all exotic pests and diseases like "foot and mouth" disease so that all our farmers can have the opportunity to compete on a "level playing field".

"What a wonderful world that would be. Citrus canker could kill off whats left of our citrus farmers and consumers could benefit from cheap imports of concentrated frozen orange juice. Stop all irrigation in the Murray darling, save the river and import more cheap food from OS".

Formersnag: both parties [ie politicians and their Ministers]1998 to date have been responsible during various terms of government, for the decisions made regarding the importation of bananas and apples. Both Liberal and Labour Ministers at the time. No one party's claim to fame on imports. Please excuse my cynicism I come from a long line of farmers on both sides of my family.