SMALL MARGINS BETWEEN THE BIG DOLLARS

 

Above – “Aussie Money” – Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

 

Again Tasmania is teaching us political lessons here in inner Sydney. Yesterday the Prime Minister announced another big money splurge on Tasmanian hospitals. The $35 million he promised yesterday comes on top of a $45 million community takeover of the Mersey Hospital in Devonport.

That’s a lot of money for such a small community. You are absolutely right. It gives us an insight into how Labor and Liberal politicians work. Seats on small margins get the big dollars. Seats held by big margins are deemed safe – presumably they mean the seats are safe from attracting cheesy political announcements worth big dollars.

The two seats that benefit the most from this announcement are Bass and Braddon. Both are held by the Coalition with very slender margins, just 2.63% for Bass and 1.13% for Braddon. These figures are the tiny amounts of voters Labor needs to win over in preference to the Liberals for the seats to change hands. When it’s that close, everybody wants to be your friend.

So how are things in Grayndler? Well, in 2004, 72.6% of voters in Grayndler preferred Labor to the Coalition. The Liberals would have to nearly double their vote in order for the seat to change hands. It’s so huge that Centrebet aren’t accepting bets made on the result of the election.

Unfortunately, the protests of Grayndler will fall on deaf ears but they do not have to. Politicians will respond to a change in the voting trends. If they smell change, they will listen. You can start by voting for me. Every vote I get is a vote they don’t and it is one more vote towards the big money that comes with small margins. $35 million could go a long long way here.