James King

I sometimes see Linkedin posts begin with the words “I am not usually political but …” and then I see a bunch of comments that, regardless of whether I agree with them, are nothing to do with work, networking and “Linkedin like things”.

So it is with cynical joy that I post my own thoughts on politics after the last election, even knowing that the comments will appear in Linkedin.

I am in the Bradfield Electorate in NSW Australia and the seat is still in doubt with counting continuing. After counting over 110,000 votes, one woman is ahead by 80 votes.

I will not tell you who I voted for but I will share some observations.

Firstly, both candidates actually seem competent and worth voting for.

They both have great experience with impressive resumes. They both seemed articulate, committed and capable of discussing ideas with people in the street, which I saw them doing as they campaigned in the electorate.

So whomever finally wins, I will be happy to have them doing the job, knowing they are well qualified and that they worked for it.

Secondly, there was a lot more passion and campaigning than I am used to in our seat.

I had to “walk the gauntlet” through campaigners for both these candidates, and some others, several times when catching the train to work. Each time, there were people handing out pamphlets and politely engaging in conversation with anyone not quick enough to avert their eyes.

So rather than “running the gauntlet” the experience was actually one of being part of an engaged community. Having said that I managed to stay mostly unengaged so that I could avoid any decisions or accountability and then complain when others finally made a decision :)

I also noticed that campaigners were out in the community shopping in the supermarket and walking the streets. This, combined with posters outside a few houses made it clear that there was a debate going on. But there was no arguing, no sabotaging of each others’ signs and generally nothing to suggest that the debate had to involve personal attacks or aggression.

When I went to vote, one kid came and tried to convince me to vote liberal. Hey was too young to vote but was definitely passionate about why the election mattered. The adults did not bombast me but gave directions to where to go to get inside and they handed out pamphlets while politely engaging with each other.

I read the pamphlets and the independent candidate had the better one.

She had clear focus areas for her politics, with desired outcomes and a guide to how she planned to operate. The Liberal one had a pamphlet that focused on areas relevant to the local seat, but had a noticeable lack of some of the key campaign topics that the leader was espousing and it was mostly headlines with no real connection to how policies would achieve the outcomes. But both had enough detail for me to be informed about where the candidates stood on issues important to me and what issues they saw as important.

So this is not a post about a particular political view, but rather an observation that politics can be both positive and inspiring.

It’s good to see positive debate with competent people.