![malcom glare](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/malcom-glare-1.jpg)
Unrelaxed and Uncomfortable
Six weeks before July’s federal election, in a shopping plaza in suburban Australia, a Liberal candidate intercepted a middle-aged woman as she carried her modest purchases towards the carpark. Would she care for a shopping-list pad with the candidate’s smiling face and the Liberal Party logo printed at the top? The customer politely declined but took the opportunity to speak her mind. Why was the party she had supported at every election since 1996 trying to grab a slice of her retirement savings?
This was not Mosman, Toorak or Peppermint Grove, and the woman displayed no sartorial signs of conspicuous wealth. This was hardly the kind of constituency where the rule changes were supposed to bite.
“Would you mind saying what line of work you’re in?” the candidate ventured.
“Public transport,” replied the woman. “I drive buses. And in the evenings I help out at an aged care home.”
Pencils lingered uncertainly over ballot papers in the federal election as the…
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