Where are the policies and agendas?

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Politics leaves me completely and utterly bamboozled at the best of times. The current political drama that is being played out has left me more baffled than usual. Leadership spills and cabinet reshuffles – what does it all mean?

I have never proclaimed to know anything at all about politics and I never would. In fact I am probably what most people would call extremely ignorant about it all.

I rely heavily on main-stream media and the massive campaigning in the election lead-up to help me decide who to vote for. Is this the best way? Probably not. Am I alone in this? Probably not. Do I need to change my ways? More than likely.

Life gets busy and unfortunately I don’t have time to watch all the news, read every newspaper or catch-up on all the expert opinions. I catch grabs here and there and the snippets I've grabbed in main-stream media lately are:

• Thanks to "that speech", Tony Abbott is a sexist misogynist and attended Peter Slipper's wedding.  Julia Gillard was offended that he stood next to a sign depicting her as a man’s bitch.


• Thanks to new.com.au, Julia Gillard is wearing some “hipster” glasses and her hair seems to have more neutral tones.


• Thanks to the Tony Abbott interview on 60 minutes, I found out he surfs and his friends are also sexist misogynists. His Faith is important to him; it helps shape him and his values but not his politics. In University he had a strong opposition to homosexuality, especially lesbians. Then we found out that one of his sisters is a lesbian but he still doesn’t condone same sex marriage. He is putting product in his hair and moisturising and he admits to being loose with the truth on occasions.


• People are still talking about whether Julia Gillard was drafting her leadership acceptance speech two weeks before she took the top spot from Kevin Rudd in 2010. 


• Rumours are that Julia Gillard was told not to go to Perth during the State election because it might hinder the Labor parties’ chances.


• People are outraged that Julia Gillard had Kyle Sandilands at Kirribilli House during a Bear Cottage Easter egg hunt because they say he is Australia’s biggest misogynist. 

I am sure this is all very important stuff, giving us a look into the leader’s characters and lives, but where are the policies and agendas?

Oh, do I have to go looking for those? It seems I have to watch everything and read everything all the time to catch these snippets.

I can find out that Tony Abbott puts product in his hair on a Sunday night with a cup of tea in my hand and see “that speech” by Julia Gillard played again and again on TV and online, but to find out their political policies I clearly need to work a little harder.

Will I know by September what is being promised to the people of this fine nation? I hope so. Or will I still be bamboozled by spills, reshuffles and hair product usage? I hope not!