We see both sides upset with the other each claiming the other is biased
But can we ignore side is often just that, the thin edge of politics
It seems easy to support the view the very real power is held, on both sides, by a center
That LNP and Labor, while shedding first preference votes, a truth they seem unable to handle, they have on both sides, tried to hold the center
And that without that center no party can win government

Sir Robert Menzies owned the center, his biggest fan John Howard did too
Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd too took the center with them to win elections
In my view only two parties can take the center with them Liberals [not their mate the Nationals]
And Labor
In about equal numbers in both parties the center includes swinging voters
This election, maybe the next two, will see some centerists wandering away to small parties
But in the end only the center can deliver government, to any side
Some debate could be made for both sides, that the edges, left and right, are a bigger problem for their own side than the other
Nationals? protected by agreements with Liberals it holds coastal seats, less firmly than in the past
But faces a truth, they have drifted from their place of birth and will suffer in this election

Dear Belly,

Michelle Grattan points out in her article for
"The Conversation," that a key point about this
upcoming election in May - is that whichever
side wins they're going to inherit a bitter,
sceptical, exhausted electorate.

Grattan tells us that Australians are over their
politicians. They're over all the in-fighting,
the strident bad behaviour, the lying, the
back-stabbing, the political ambitions, the
relentless campaigning, the fear-mongering,
the toppling of multiple PMs in a remarkably
short-time, the judgements by opinion polls, the
media shrillness. They have all taken their toll on
the tolerance of the average voter.

This election will as Grattan rightly says, be fought
in this climate of unprecedented public distrust of
politics and cynicism about its practitioners.

She also tells us that if voter disillusionment
and distrust has become so heavily ingrained in the
electorate's psyche it is going to be hard to either
prescribe or expect a cure.

Sorry to be so negative - but things are not looking
good at present.

'Sir Robert Menzies owned the center, his biggest fan John Howard did too'

Belly forgets that some of were around when daily he lambasted Howard for his 'right wing' policies on a very regular basis

Howard, without workchoices could still be PM
Workchoices was right wing
Foxy yes true, but for some not understanding is reason for disliking politicians
Labor, no less than Liberal, has lost contact with its voters, and expected them to be better informed than they are
However, it will win the election, because they offer the center the best of two sets of policy
Labor will AGAIN, win office just as a global financial crisis hits the lot of us
And knows it, for the sake of its future, must handle the economy

No Belly, Labor has not lost contact with its voters, it has simply moved on from people like you.

Today it is the party of big unions, [not the working members of those unions], & big industry. This is where their money comes from, & where their interest goes. Add their new constituency of academia the bureaucracy & the less radical greenies & you have their interest.

Fossils like you, [& me], are not on their radar at all, apart from keeping you on side as long as possible, for whatever they can get out of you. You know as well as I do that this is true, but you can't bear to admit it to yourself.

You & I, & so many others are in the same boat. Neither major has a single thing to offer either of us, but it is taking some a lot longer to awake to this fact, meanwhile we are being taken for fools.