Unwelcome party invite

If punters see generations of emotional investment start to slip away some get angry and spoil the race by making nasty threats.

But rarely do players froth so much they dumb themselves down to the point of self-strangulation.

In the great game of thrones that is politics, robo-calling is the equivalent of sacrificing all your pawns, bishops and knights in one disastrous move to protect your king.

Maybe the algorithms show that 100 replies out of 500,000 texts sent is a success. But I can guarantee without any algorithmic research that half a million unsolicited texts will get you a lot of angry people who were in the middle of dinner, a conversation, a journey or a book, and who are now definitely not going to vote for your candidate. Perhaps they were undecided and considering your candidate, but now they are not.

You have effectively peed on your own boots.

But National Party text messages received by thousands of Shepparton people over the past week claiming independent candidate Rob Priestly is a stooge of the Labor party have done more than just anger people.

They have poured petrol on an already smouldering fire by reminding us of the anger around Dan Andrews’ lockdown policy during the pandemic. This was an anger that led to ugly threats made to the Premier and his family.

So the texts are seeking to build on that anger and sow division in our community. It’s scurrilous and shameful behaviour, and as Rob says “it plays the man and not the ball”.

More than that, the texts paint a picture of desperation, and manipulative top-down party political management — exactly the sort of behaviour fuelling the current wave of independent candidates across the nation.

I have known Nicholls Nationals candidate Sam Birrell for more than 20 years as a friend, a musician and in a professional capacity as the former chief executive of the Committee for Greater Shepparton. I have also known Rob Priestly as a smart, community-minded businessman in my former life as a journalist.

They are both decent, honest blokes.

I find it impossible to believe either would sanction any low-blow personal attacks on someone they know personally and professionally.

The conclusion must be that Sam had no say in the matter and that the decision was made way above his head — which is a solid enough reason to vote for someone who can make their own decisions in the best interests of their community.

Again, the Nationals have knocked over their own chess pieces and exposed their paranoia and demand for control. This does not signal an easy path for any member of the party room pushing for a local focus when wider agendas are in play.

As we head to the polls tomorrow there are more than a few issues to concern us in our neck of the woods — water management, climate change, a second river crossing, affordable housing, aged care, health and the cost of living are some things to bear in mind when ticking those boxes. But wrapping all these individual demands is the wider issue of integrity.

Without integrity, there is nothing but a hollow system based on self-interest and power for its own sake.

We will head to our nearest polling station to vote as a family as we always have done. We will say hello and wave to those people we know because we celebrate the act of people coming together as a community in this wonderful, safe place we call home. Our friends may make different choices to us, but that is their right and not what we talk about on the street.

Ultimately, we believe we are not a collection of individuals pursuing our own interests; we are a community of individuals with collective aspirations. Any party system that attempts to disrupt us with division and disrespect deserves to be ignored and even dismantled.

The party system in Australia has been around for more than a hundred years, and this particular government for nearly a decade.

I think it is indeed time for a change.