Samuel's Blog

A levitating election

May 15th, 2024 at 06:36am

Last night while I was watching the federal budget (or the “Magical Mythical Numbers Night at the Federal Circus” as I have taken to calling it, given I don’t think there’s been a believable budget in almost 20 years, apart from one about ten years ago) I noticed Bill Shorten sitting at the far end of the front bench and it reminded me of a dream I had just before the 2019 election when he was the opposition leader.

In that year I was booth captain for a political party at one of the polling places in Canberra. This meant I was effectively the supervisor of the volunteers for that party at that polling place, there for the full day to set up and pack up, and coordinate the volunteers through the day while also speaking to voters myself and handing out how to vote cards, etc. I recall taking a 45 minute break for a late breakfast / early lunch but that was my only real break in the day, and I was there until well into the evening as a scrutineer for the vote count as well. On that day I also helped set up signage at a number of other polling places around Canberra, so it was a very long day, and the days preceding it were very busy with campaign activities too. I am no longer a member of that political party, or any political party for that matter, having become very disillusioned with much of politics and governments since.

Naturally the election was on my mind quite a lot in the days before that election, and it is no surprise that it entered my dreams.

In the dream it was Election Day, probably early-afternoon, and Bill Shorten turned up at my polling place.

The voters didn’t pay much attention to him so he decided to get their attention by making things levitate, including the building being used as the polling place.

The election official in charge, my Year 6 teacher Mrs. Brophy, came out of the polling place and furiously told Bill that “levitating is not permitted within the 6 metre campaigning exclusion zone” and he must “put the building down at once”, so Bill put the building down and Mrs. Brophy closed the polls early and started counting the ballots in the middle of the road.

Seeing Bill Shorten down the far end of the front bench on the TV coverage of the budget, with seemingly a bit of a gap between him and the rest of the front bench, made me wonder if he ever dreams of being back in the leadership role of the Labor Party, and if he could, if he would levitate things in the House of Representatives to make it happen?

Samuel

Entry Filed under: Samuel's Dreams

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