Do you hear that sound, beloved reader? That tinny, distorting sound that sounds a bit like Fatman Scoop being played through a phone sitting in a coffee cup?
It can only mean one thing: you’re in the region being visited by Scott Morrison, Prime Minister and Federal Beat Bringer, who is traipsing around Queensland in his own party bus. You know, like a Vengaboy.
Queensland is set to be the decider in the forthcoming federal election, expected in May next year, and polling for the government has been diabolical.
First Labor won the state election, then won the Longman by election with what were record by election swings away from the government (at least, until Wentworth went “really? OK, hold my beer”), and polls indicate that One Nation and other microparties are picking up disgruntled LNP voters.
Hence the PM is spending four days cruising the highways and byways of our Queenslandiest state, promising infrastructure and talking about how the government is getting on with the job of running the country. By, um, driving around it?
Why is Scott Morrison campaigning if he hasn’t called an election yet? Hasn’t he got important business to attend to such as, oh I don’t know, RUNNING THE COUNTRY? Just answered my own question. https://t.co/hyYXhcdN64
— ?Queen Victoria (@Vic_Rollison) November 4, 2018
And sure, we can bemoan the apparent state of Trump-style continual campaigning, where our leader doesn’t take a break to actually do his goddamn job in governing the country – and recall that Labor leader Bill Shorten did a similar thing in April last year, so this sort of grandstanding is certainly not limited to the conservative side of politics.
Heck, One Nation had a plane for their 2016 campaign – and, as it happens, a company owned by Pauline Hanson’s advisor James Ashby is looking at a court date in December over the matter having failed to comply with requests by the Australian Electoral Commission to clarify exactly where said plane came from. So hopefully Scott has the bus receipts.
Still, it’s nice that Scott’s getting a taste for travelling around the nation in an oversized vehicle, like so many of our proud grey nomads.
After all, if polling doesn’t improve, his retirement might be sooner than expected.