When toilet paper is held to a higher standard than democracy |
There's a particular kind of exhaustion that settles in during an election cycle; not from the debates, the door knocking, the policy vacuum that so often passes for campaigning. It's the lying. The deliberate, persistent, cynical misrepresentation of facts that political parties continue to treat as a legitimate strategy rather than what it is: an assault on democratic decision-making.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
Login or signup to continue reading
The Farrer by-election has been a masterclass in this. Not in policy, not in vision, not in leadership, but in how far some actors will go to keep voters distracted from the issues that actually matter. The most absurd example has been the relentless insistence that Michelle Milthorpe is a "teal", despite her repeatedly and publicly identifying as a community independent, including in interviews with The Guardian.
The claim is not just wrong; it's boring. It's a tactic designed to keep her on the back foot, answering a question that was never real in the first place.
And that's the point. If you can force a candidate to spend half their campaign saying "No, I'm not a teal," then you don't have to answer questions about water security, regional health access, cost of living pressures, or the structural neglect of rural electorates. You can keep the conversation stuck on a label instead of the lived reality of the people who actually live here.
It's political strategy by way of schoolyard rumour: repeat something often enough and hope it sticks, even if it's nonsense. And it's lazy campaigning.
But here's the part that should alarm every voter, regardless of who they support: this is allowed. Not just tolerated - allowed. In Australia, political advertising is one of the only forms of advertising where you can lie outright about yourself, your opponents, your record, your intentions, and your affiliations, and face no meaningful........