The Federal Election hasn’t been called, but its annoying campaign antics have already begun.
‘Sign Wars’ are a common feature of the election landscape.
A tedious feature.
It’s that environmentally wasteful behaviour where political parties blanket the electorate in painted cardboard, plastic stickers, and huge banners all strung up with serial-killer zip ties. They battle for real estate on lawns, fences, poles, bus shelters, cars, pigeons, people’s chests, people’s dogs – anything that can fit a ‘Vote [1] Candidate’ message.
I always found this reminiscent of those university noticeboards where one activist comes along and wallpapers the space only for the next one to do the same thing five minutes later. At the end of the day, a cleaner tears off the thick wad of unread propaganda, throws it in the bin, and leaves behind a corkboard riddled with holes and bent staples.
In any case, Teal MP Monique Ryan’s husband has apologised after he was caught on camera allegedly removing a Liberal Party sign belonging to candidate Amelia Hamer.
The man holding the camera followed him down the road as he scamperd off with the giant sign, ‘So… Hang on mate, what are you doing?’
Monique Ryan’s husband replied, ‘I’m taking the sign down … it’s on public land … if it goes back up, it’ll be taken down again.’
He has since apologised, ‘It was a mistake. I believed the sign was illegally placed but I should have reported my concerns to the council.’
Ms Ryan also said it ‘should not have happened’ and that ‘concerns around signage should be reported to the council’.
Is the whole thing a storm in a teacup? Probably, but the overwhelming takeaway is one of pettiness which the Liberals (for once) have been quick to jump on.
Liberal Senator James Paterson said of the incident:
‘The Teal politicians are the first and the loudest to preach integrity … the first and the loudest to preach honesty … but when they think no one is looking, they behave very differently indeed. The footage that’s emerged today of Monique Ryan’s husband, Peter Jordan, reflects very badly on her and her campaign and the way in which they have conducted themselves.’
The Liberal Party also put forward a spokesperson who commented, ‘The Teals preach integrity in public, but then behave like this when they think no one is looking.’
And we are absolutely positive that no Liberal MP or their relatives have ever taken down someone else’s signage…
Perhaps I am alone it this, but it feels pretty tedious.
Early prediction? Every time a sign is taken down, it will become fodder for the headlines. A sort of proxy war that allows everyone to ignore the very serious political issues that voters feel are being ignored because the major parties are all guilty of making the cost-of-living catastrophe worse.
This is what happens when you get into a competition about moral purity and virtue. Here we are, arguing about promotional material instead of the growing poverty thanks to the vanity of the political class.
In my view, the far bigger controversy is that all the Teal candidates consider themselves to be ‘independent’.
Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.