Dear Jules and Kev

Excuse me could I have your attention for a minute? Excuse me. Hello. CHILDREN WILL YOU STOP YOUR BICKERING FOR A MINUTE AND LISTEN.

Right, now that I’ve got your attention.

It seems we’ve got a bit of a situation happening. Obviously the two of you have issues, there is no denying it, but I think there’s a few things you need to consider.

I realise you have both made politics your life’s work. I understand that your daily world operates in the glass bubble of Canberra populated by politicians, bureaucrats and the media scrum. Where every person lives and breathes lobbying, deal making, you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours, strategy, leak this to make them look bad, spin, spin, spin, deny, deny, deny, oops changed my mind, count the numbers.

However, in what we lovingly call the real world people aren’t as obsessive. Out here the big issues include who’s getting the kids to soccer training this afternoon, who lost the coin toss and has to get time off work to make the orthodontist appointment and has anyone remembered to pay the phone bill?

We simply don’t have time to keep up with who has done what to whom in our country’s capital. The lucky among us have jobs to go to and bosses aren’t keen on us following the twitter debate in the time they are paying us to work. We don’t have a desktop radio to tune in to the press conferences the two of you are throwing together every second hour. Quiet frankly we are tired. We don’t have the energy to worry about your dummy spits when we have our own tantrum throwing children to discipline.

Here’s where we stand. We want honest and sincere representation. We want you to cut the bull**** and just tell us what you really believe not what you think we want to hear. We want bravery, politicians who have a policy that isn’t poll driven. We want folks in charge who we know care about people and consider the human impact of every decision they make.

In the land of the people we are freaking out about stuff like will the interest rates go up? Can we make this week’s pay stretch to cover the bills that need to be paid? We are passionate about our kids getting a good education (whether we can afford to pay for it or not). We want quality medical care even if we long ago ditched those private health insurance premiums. We worry that our jobs are secure and when we find they are not we want to know there are alternatives available other than the dole queue.

We want confidence that the people in charge are looking at the big picture and not just their own personal pride.

I hope you get it sorted and we know that getting it sorted means there will have to be a winner and a loser. Whoever the loser is has to just suck it up and either play nice or take their bat and ball and go home (not slink off to the backbench to sling insults from the rear).

In the meantime, note to the other side, we know you are waiting in the wings rubbing your hands with glee as your enemy self-destructs, but remember the stuff we want applies equally to you – honesty, bravery, care for others, education, health and jobs.

sincerely,

An overworked, overwrought constituent.