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Comment by damncabbage | Hacker News Reader

Snuck in less than 48 hours before the federal election, in the media blackout[1] period that immediately precedes it. Disgusting.

1. http://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/election_advertising.htm#blackout

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And it is not just the policy on porn filtering that has been left to the last minute. The conservative party has waited until less than 48 hours before the election to release the vast bulk of their policy detail, including in major areas like health, education and the environment. I'd normally be tempted to vote for the Liberal party, but not when they perform cynical stunts like this.

Disgusting indeed.

You'd think this sneaky behavior would be a fat red flag that the party doing it was not to be trusted.

FFS, if you can't even slap together, before the last minute, a theoretical document outlining what you are supposedly going to do -- which you're not even going to be held accountable for if you fail to accomplish it or completely reverse your stance on it -- then what good are you?

The sneaky fucks think they have carte blanche from the electorate and so are releasing policies either after the blackout or possibly not at all.

"Vote for us to end the deficit. We'll work out how if you vote for us."

(IMHO more likely to send us into the recession we've avoided thus far)

A recession might be good for rich programmer geeks like us. We can keep on working getting paid through the wazoo and start buying up properties when everyone else is suffering and defaulting.

Just sayin'.

I really wish your average Joe in AU would quit playing Real Estate Tycoon -- it drives up the prices and makes homes too costly to afford for those who want to own a home and have it paid off earlier than 30 years.

Well in my case, currently having exactly 0 houses a drop in the market would be welcome.

That is absolutely reprehensible. This is precisely why blackouts are such a bad idea. It turns out they are extraordinarily easy to game.

Blackouts don't make much sense in our always-connected world, but I think they should be swapped for "all policy must be announced 7 days out".

If you have no economic policy announced the Saturday before the election then you're going in to the election with NO policy and you're not allowed to talk about what you'll be doing in regard to the economy in that last week.

Not that it ever really meant anything; it's not like you lose your job if you don't meet policy goals or attempt to do the opposite. Heck, you don't even lose credibility if no one even remembers what you promised.

Yes, my thought is that you have to submit your full policy plan to be costed independently at least 2 weeks before the election. This is then used by a neutral party to draw up unbiased election material that is the only material that parties are allowed to hand out on the day.

It is crazy to give the public the costings of your promises 48 hours before the election. The average person isn't never going to have or want to take the time in that period to really look into what is released and the liberal party know that.

> all policy must be announced 7 days out

What if an event happens 6 days before the election and politicians are asked to comment on it?

Sorry, I take my policy queues from Abbott and Turnbull. I haven't really thought it that far through. But if you vote for me I can probably muddle through.

The blackout is for election advertising, which these days seems more about muckraking than policy advertising. In any case, it doesn't stop politicians from giving speeches to journalists, only paid advertising. This policy released today (Thursday) is within that blackout period (midnight Wednesday eve).

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