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Voting for the unloved

By Richard Stanton - posted Thursday, 6 September 2012


And they spend enormous sums of money – a number of candidates I know of in regional cities are spending upward of $30,000 on TV advertising, posters, coreflutes, brochures, flyers and newspaper ads. One will get no change from $50,000.

The pay rates for this part-time position - if they are lucky enough to get a quota of votes - vary between $10,000 and $20,000 a year. Who spends $50,000 to get a $20,000 job?

These are things that voters want to know. They need information about the spending habits of candidates. They need to know what qualifies a candidate to act on their behalf beyond 'wanting to make a difference'.

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What does the candidate want to make a difference to? Why does nothing change when these candidates who want to make a difference get elected?

Why does the councillor who got elected for a four year term on a single issue want to get re-elected this time even though the original issue has been resolved?

If candidates and elected councillors are afraid to communicate with their wider stakeholders there is little hope for the councils they control to act creatively and innovatively as they drive deeper into the 21st century.

A lack of communication skills means councils cannot build solidarities of interests - the important laminates that engage them with their stakeholders.

Ratepayers may be the primary stakeholders for councils because they provide operating income but neglect of secondary and tertiary stakeholders - children, young adults, students, trainees, non-property-owning retirees - leads to damaging inequity claims.

A large number of the 5 million NSW residents who traipse off to their local primary schools, mechanic's institutes or schools of art this Saturday between 8am and 6pm will stand in line, complain about having their Saturday disrupted by politics, take a handful of how to vote papers from enthusiastic volunteers representing a jamboree of candidates, then stick a tick in the first box and get on with the rest of their lives.

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Many will carefully consider their vote - the most important engagement they have with the democracy in which they live - and mark the requisite number of boxes below the line.

Somewhere in between the majority will vote according to their national political interests - for Liberal, Labor or Green candidates and they will follow the party how-to-vote cards with a single number in a box above the line.

Which answers the question of why candidates and councillors don't attempt to communicate.

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About the Author

Richard Stanton is a political communication writer and media critic. His most recent book is Do What They Like: The Media In The Australian Election Campaign 2010.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Richard Stanton

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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