Another election, more trees

I find it instructive to compare political systems. Although regardless of the system the results always seem very similar.

There are still many aspects you can’t see from a distance, like political junk mail. The thought came from an article in the SMH: Australian federal MPs will have almost $60 million to bombard voters with flyers, leaflets, fridge magnets, posters and other material before next year's election.

That is $60 million of taxpayer’s money, by the way. The same taxpayers who get pissed off with the steady volume of junk mail they get bombarded with; for everything from pizzas to, well politicians.

My reading of the looming US election is that at least some players would rather voters didn’t – vote that is. But even so, I expect the emphasis is more on junk phone calls than letter box stuffers.

Aussie politicians aren’t game enough to go the phone route, would prefer pissed of residents muttered at letter boxes rather than rant at their phone teams. Voting is compulsory, so they don’t need to stir people with a GOTV campaign, given they actually want people to vote.

A cartoon with the SMH article has a housewife saying: “Here’s a leaflet from a politician saying he’ll stamp out unnecessary mail outs if elected.”

Not while the parliament dishes out the cash they waste on no brainer campaigning.

MPs have calculated that if they are clever about when they spend the money, they can increase the allowance to $300,000 in the four to six months before the next election.

Research, and provable research, shows around a 1.5% return from straight letter drops, and you can divide that again to exclude the partisan recipient. On my figuring, in an electorate contested by three or more candidates, the positive return would have to be under .5%.

I did better than that, according to my phone and door knocking people. It was a December election so we put a handy calendar on the main mail out. Not that the fact people kept them helped my vote, as appreciative as they might have been.

The most successful campaigns downunder are face to face. Candidates who door knock for at least a year before a campaign usually cement their place for many elections into the future. It’s like that bit the ‘Joe Liebermans’ forgot, people really do like to relate to those who seek to represent them.