This week’s election results should be of little surprise to those who pay attention to trends.

I am referring particularly to the fact that both major parties have continued to lose voter support. Much of the commentary is directed towards blaming poor policies, poor performers, and/or lack of trust in politicians.

There may well be an element of truth in all of that however, I believe the problem is somewhat more general in nature.

The major parties do not seem to understand that common sense and decency still lies at the heart of most people’s thoughts and actions as they go about their daily lives. I put this lack of understanding down to technology, especially modern-day methods of communication.

There are ideas and ideologies flying around the world at warp speed being embraced by individuals and minority groups. These are then picked up by politicians, all with very little application of common sense.

A progressive thought popularly adopted in Southern California is not necessarily going to be a good thing in the Western suburbs of Sydney.

The notion of a ‘One World Culture’ is thankfully still a long way off, despite the internet’s best efforts. The saying, horses for courses comes to mind. But in Australia’s case, the peripheral and accidental subjects of these thoughts too often become mainstream. This leaves what should be the core election issues fading into oblivion.

No party worth its salt should go into an election without three or four core issues central to their platform, clearly understood and enunciated by all of their candidates at every opportunity.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that at least 80 per cent of Australians would have at least the following three issues somewhere near the top of their priority list.

National security

The Libearls appeared to be all at sea on the Solomon Islands issue, while Labor’s deputy leader was criticised for having numerous secret meetings with China.

Jobs

Scott Morrison was bubbly about the low unemployment figure without knowing why or having a plan to keep it that way, whilst Albanese didn’t even know what the figure was.

Housing

Labor released a convoluted unworkable affordable housing plan for a mere 10,000 people. The Liberals came up with what looked like a last-minute desperate pitch for votes to counteract the issue.

In the meantime, women’s equality, the so-called mean girls, transgender activism, and other Woke issues received the bulk of publicity despite being low on everyone else’s agenda. Oh! And we must not forget Albanese’s dog or Morrison accidental crash tackling of a kid at footy training.

Three or four-point plans should not be beyond the reach of any candidate but Albanese had a six-pointer, or so he said, but couldn’t think of any of the points when asked to elaborate.

Climate Change held its place as the darling of social media and MSM, but neither leader particularly wanted to talk about it. Probably because both of them knew in their heart of hearts that, no matter how one looks at it, the topic is a stinker. In the end, Climate Change was probably the decider, with the Greens enjoying a surge in support. We may not like their nutty and undesirable policies, but at least we know where they stand.

The net effect of all of this was that the sensible conservative voters on both sides of the equation were largely ignored. Is it any wonder that the major parties continue to lose votes?

The notion of the swinging voter has been replaced with voters selecting candidates they have never heard of offering policies neither they nor the public understand. All of this is reminiscent of the game of Blind Man’s Buff (which I played when I was a kid), where the outcome was anyone’s guess.

One does not need to look too far into the future to perceive a circumstance where all parties will be minor and elections will devolve into nothing more than a rowdy babble of voices with the media dictating the agenda.

Federal Parliament is destined to become a place where, it will be said, common sense and true democracy have left the building.

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