Vote for me: major parties back self interest

My tax cut is bigger than your tax cut.

My tax cut is L.A.W. Law.

Those were the days, my friends, when politicians shamelessly tried to win our votes via the hip pocket.

But we the people – bloody ingrates – got wise to them.

So now the politicians dress up their promises to us as something a little more noble than personal greed.

They call it a national economic plan for jobs and growth.

Or growth with fairness.

But they don’t fool us, do they?

Strip back one or two layers of the “national economic plan’’ and you’ll find that it’s just a bunch of promises to give tax cuts to some of us.

Same with the other side: they are just offering tax cuts, too, but to a slightly different group of people.

Paul Keating was right: in a two horse race always back self interest.

But it is a little disappointing that we have come this far and not really moved forward at all.

Same on the leaders we have to choose from in 2016.

The offering is not as appalling as it was in 2010 – Abbott or Gillard for goodness sake – or last time around when Abbott beat Lazarus with a triple bypass, Kevin Rudd.

But it is my melancholy duty to report that it is not much better.

Malcolm Turnbull has been a massive disappointment in the seven months he’s been PM.

Bill Shorten is no doubt a fighter but his union links worry a lot of people.

Closer to home, there will be some keen contests in Werriwa and Macarthur.

Werriwa is a grand old Labor Party seat.

It was held recently by Mark Latham, who led the party to glorious defeat in 2004, senior minister John Kerin and the daddy of them all, Gough Whitlam.

After Latham’s escape from politics in 2005 it was held by Chris Hayes, a Campbelltown grassroots politician who looked destined to hold the seat until he got sick of it.

Everyone liked Chris Hayes, including his Liberal opponents.

Unfortunately for Hayes the Labor Party can be a brutal beast and in 2010 he was forcibly removed from Werriwa so Laurie Ferguson could be parachuted in.

Ferguson is retiring at this election after five years in Werriwa and this was a golden opportunity for the Labor Party to right the wrong by installing Chris Hayes as its candidate for the July 2 election.

Hayes will be OK, as he has replicated his Werriwa success in Fowler.

This is not meant as disrespect to the Liverpool councillor Anne Stanley who will be Labor’s candidate in Werriwa.

But with strong suggestions the Liberal Party will endorse Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun in Werriwa, let’s hope the poisoned politics of Liverpool Council are not imported into our neck of the woods.

Macarthur, held for the Liberal Party by the former Campbelltown Mayor, Russell Matheson, used to be what they call a bell weather seat.

This means it always goes with the government, and Macarthur did that at least since 1972.

But in 2007 it elected Liberal Pat Farmer when Labor won office with Kevin ’07.

And again in 2010 Russell Matheson won for the Liberal Party but Labor formed a coalition government with the Greens.

Three years later order was restored when Macarthur went with the government.

In 2016 Matheson has to contend not only with a high calibre Labor opponent, Doctor Mike Freelander – but also a redistribution that has cut back his margin from almost 12 per cent to just three percent.

Luckily, Matheson and the others have seven weeks to persuade us their national economic plan is better than the other mob’s.