The Politics of Plenty

Election day today with the polls suggesting that Western Australia may buck the national trend and actually increase the liberal vote. If so, one can't help but conclude that the resources boom - the biggest and potentially most long lived the country has ever seen - is a lot to do with it. Enough has been written about the election without me adding to it here. It's just interesting to see how our children of recent voting age are reacting to it all - bored mostly but I do wonder if they think of it in similar terms to "Australian Idol" or "Australia's Biggest Loser".

There is a lot of money floating around in Perth right now - literally floating in some cases since much of it is spent on the next big boat. Times are so ridiculously good that I suspect people will be leery of rocking said boat when entering the polling booth (I seem to be stuck in a nautical language rut, becalmed in a sea of salty similitude !) Not that a sudden injection of cash into the economy necessarily makes life better for anyone: boom towns aren't always nice places to live - even if they aren't razed to the ground by earthquake and fire as San Francisco was after the Californian gold rush. The public transport system, the shops, the roads the health and education infrastructure are all groaning under the strain. Boom towns are good places to make money and get out - bit of a problem if it's your home town.

There is a tide, in the affairs of men, if taken at the flood etc etc. Not sure if that's Will Shakespeare..sounds like him. Anyway, time to turn the box on and see if that tide has turned. I don't have a strong preference either way but, if the status quo remains tomorrow, I do hope, at least, that it's not because the Australian people lack the courage to chance a change.