Let’s bin election campaigns

A new year, a new you and a new federal government. Yes, this year we will be having a federal election — and if you are lucky enough to be a New South Welshmen, a bonus state election as well.

We have all seen election campaigns before. We hear promises, watch attack ads, and maybe enjoy a scandal or two. Each side will harangue the other to stop focusing on the trivial and talk about policy.

Each side will tell the other to stop politicising an obviously political event. And — my personal favourite — we get to watch the cringe-inducing nightmare that is a politician visiting a supermarket to talk lettuce with the ordinary folks. What fun we have to look forward to.

Why not save ourselves some time, money and cringe? Skip the whole campaign charade and get straight to the voting.

Election campaigns prove who is good at campaigning, not who is most qualified to hold public office.

Anyway, the impact of campaigns is dubious. A 2017 American study concluded general election campaigns have zero effect on voter decision making except in notable circumstances such as when a candidate takes an unusually unpopular decision or persuadable voters are identified and heavily targeted by campaigns.

Furthermore, think of the amount of bureaucrats and political apparatchiks we could jettison. Politicians employ whole teams to run campaigns.

There are laws around what you can and cannot do in an election campaign and these laws come with the necessary enforcers. The Parliament of Australia even produces a guide to ‘Campaigning in the new millennium’ and if counting sheep doesn’t alleviate your insomnia, perusing its pages should do the trick.

There are some logistical necessities associated with election campaigns such as nominating candidates and managing polls. But these could be easily administered without an expensive PR spectacle.

Election campaigns are like an unsexy beauty contest in which the one who takes home the sash and tiara is the one who promised the most free stuff. Let’s scrap this anachronism.