At election times some things don't matter much. They're placed on the bottom of the inside pages of newspapers, while the things that do matter blare from the front page and the opinion pages.
On a typical day in The Australian the things that matter were interest rates, boat-stopping, riotous or dumb behaviour by candidates, company taxes, polls, paid maternity leave, and leadership and the lack of it. Among the things on inside pages that by definition don't matter much were two thoughtful pieces on the most disadvantaged areas in Australia. Most of these areas were Indigenous settlements. Others were on the edges of cities and towns.
Disadvantage was measured by the unemployment rate and the number of unmarried mothers. One might expect these measures to be matched by a higher proportion of criminal convictions and lower educational attainment.
All these things are signs of isolation and disconnection from society. Experience shows that unless children and those who care for them receive support to help them make connections through work and in other ways, they will perpetuate these patterns of disconnection. Disconnection will be an enduring feature of Australian society.
It is hard to imagine that those living in disadvantaged communities would find great personal interest in the things that matter at election time. Interest rates and mortgages, rates of company tax and paid maternity leave are issues for the advantaged. They are problems of managing income that those without it might like to have.
The punitive attitudes adopted to asylum seekers might be seen as welcome because they would divert vengeful attention away from the unemployed who usually bear the burden of electoral antipathies. Leadership might be of passing interest, but neither it nor the qualities of the politicians elected would take away the impression that their needs or desires would not receive much attention under any government. They do not matter enough.
From their perspective, the rhetoric of elections might seem to express disconnection within the wider society. They would note its adversarial and negative character and its preference for abstractions and slogans. It is less about seeking the good of a connected Australia than about managing, in a way that perpetuates exclusion and division.
It can be argued that this is the way elections have always worked. They appeal to self-interest, are adversarial, provide scapegoats and never touch on what matters deeply. Their function is to keep society going.
The argument is true but despairing. Elections are