in the air tonight

There I was, just doing the ironing and minding my own business this arvo when this advertisement comes on the TV about all the wonderful things the (Queensland) government has been doing for the disabled. Mention of lots of sums of money, some individual initiatives as I recall, not a lot of info about what people should do, apart from showing the website for the relevant agency.

"Hullo", I thought to myself, "that looks and very much sounds like a pre-election advertisement. Long on reassurance, short on practical advice."

Trouble is, we aren't in pre-election mode. No writs issued, for example.

On the other hand, it does fit with various rumours I have been hearing, although I always discount rumours depending on who's spreading them. I particularly am sceptical when facts seem to have been retrofitted to support someone's notion that an election is imminent. Especially 'cos lots of my friends and acquaintances are election junkies. Birds, feather, you understand.

That said, I have to say that I object to my tax dollars going on dodgy advertising regardless of which political party does it. And of course they all do - those unspoken rules (let's not even bother about what the legislation says and how it has been interpreted) about what is acceptable seem to disappeared in the dust of the Australia I grew up in.

Now you've got me all nostalgic. Because I did grow up in the dust - our town used to get 11 inches of rain a year. But the river flowed deep and brown and used to flood, before it was dammed. Now it's a series of waterholes. The town? The place is three times the size, the main street is much busier than it used to be. There are suburbs which are all new and, like all new suburbs, look the same as new developments right around the country.

Of course it's irrational to expect new houses in the style of the older ones, but some variation to take account of landscape and climate would be nice. But that would add to the cost of the houses and, not surprisingly, the aim is to make the housing as affordable as possible. But the sameness of residential developments, like the sameness of commercial centres with the same major chains in each one, is something else that gets me a bit depressed. It makes commercial and economic sense and simultaneously doesn't sit right in the gut.

It could be better, it could be different: but is the sameness of commercial development in Australia a direct result of the size and scale of our economy? Can we only sustain a certain number of major chains, and not tolerate a greater number of smaller operators? What price diversity? We know there are lots of people who want to run their own businesses - do they get a fair go at trying?

What was in the air tonight was the smell of an early election. Now it's the tang of a life lived 40 or 50 years ago. I can still smell it, I can still feel it.