The first couple of days after an election is called remind me of the first ten minutes or so in an AFL Grand Final.
Everyone is toey, nervous, keen to get into it. There’s muscling up to one’s opponents, a bit of what Mark Latham would call biffo, some aggressive elbowing behind the main play. The key players on each side are keen to get the first kick, control the direction of the ball and then score the first goal.
An election begins with a similar battle to kick the message straight and squarely into the goal square of the evening television news and the front pages of the daily newspapers. Minor players on both sides make their appearances but are swamped by the political ruckmen.
And so it was this past weekend when the nation’s 27th and first female prime minister came to the courtyard in Parliament House to announce that the nation’s 25th and first female Governor-General had accepted advice to dissolve the 42nd Parliament and hold the nation’s 43rd general election.
We do not know this Australian’s name and we never will. We do not know his rank or his battalion. We do not know where he was born, or precisely how and when he died. We do not know where in Australia he had made his home or when he left it for the battlefields of Europe. We do not know his age or his circumstances – whether he was from the city or the bush; what occupation he left to become a soldier; what religion, if he had a religion; if he was married or single. We do not know who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children we do not know who they are. His family is lost to us as he was lost to them. We will never know who this Australian was.
Mr CALWELL (Melbourne) (Leader of the Opposition) – The Government’s decision to send the First Battalion of the Australian Regular Army to Vietnam is, without question, one of the most significant events in the history of this Commonwealth. Why I believe this will be explained in the course of my speech. Therefore, it is a matter for regret that the Prime Minister’s announcement was made in the atmosphere that prevailed around the precincts of this Parliament last Thursday. When one recalls that even two hours before the Prime Minister rose to make his statement it was being said on his behalf that there was no certainty that any statement would be made at all, it can hardly be said that the Government’s handling of the matter was designed to inspire confidence or trust.