Well, everyone knows that this whole election business is fucked, so there's no need to dwell on that. I handed out how-to-vote cards for 10 hours, got sunburnt, attempted to make conversation with the Mormon-resembling Family First volunteer (wearing a white shirt, black pants, a tie, a name badge, who got involved through a "community group", read evangelical church, who only listens to Christian radio...) and still nothing. Or worse than nothing - I was handing out cards for the Democrats (the demise of which has seen votes go back to the major parties, not wholly towards the Greens) and whose preferences seem to have been at least partially responsible for the Family First party getting a senator in Victoria. Jesus Christ.

It really does make it seem that the political landscape of the 1990s was just a dream. A dream in which support for the two-party system looked to be wearing thin, in which John Howard was just a minor inconvenience... But now, it looks as if Paul Keating really was just a flash in the pan.

The upside of handing out things at the polling booth is that I got to see just who it is that votes in the Australian election. It's not pretty. But more on that later. I still feel nauseous.