Politics & Council
15 June, 2026
Straight talkers are earning voter favour
FROM football grounds to the footpaths in Loddon communities, there’s three topics popping up in conversation.
FROM football grounds to the footpaths in Loddon communities, there’s three topics popping up in conversation.
Two are very much seasonal - the fortunes of local sporting teams approaching the half-way mark of the season and another few useful drops of rain to aid our most important local industry, agriculture.
And then there conversation about the state of Victoria and Australia - politics - where for probably just the third time in half a century, people are wanting to be engaged and enlightened on just what government decisions are meaning for the future.
There’s the hot topics in Loddon of renewable energy farms and transmission lines likely to be “imposed” on local communities, the State Government’s emergency services tax and yes, debt that attracts a daily interest bill outstripping what could be spent fixing local roads where potholes are almost as populous as kangaroos and gravel shoulders droop centimetres below the bitumen on roads and highways.
But the real frustration I’m detecting is that those responsible for the sorry state of affairs now impacting country communities cannot give straight answers.
The current crop of political leaders and bureaucrats across the tiers of government have taken spin to new and dizzying levels. Even some of the language coming from Loddon Shire of late fits into that category.
We’ve heard about a “reprofiling” of government grants that was really federal money not flowing into the shire as promised.
There’s apparently been an “uplift” in income in another report when really it was fees being increased.
Putting things simply, it’s time to cut the crap and be up front. Whether that’s why the State Government reneged on its promise of an ambulance station in Wedderburn, the constant delays in knowing if Inglewood’s much-needed and long-awaited streetscape project (we’re still waiting to see the final designs after community consultation) has funds or why designs for long-promised overtaking lanes on the Calder Highway between Bridgewater and Marong were sent back to the drawing board.
Straight answers to simple questions have become a thing of the past. As if politicians and bureaucrats don’t want to upset anyone, are trying to mask reality in what could be called a snowflake world where everything is sugar coated.
Does that explain the rise in opinion polls of One Nation, the political party storming ahead despite having no endorsed candidates for November’s state election.
Are voters more open to straight talkers like Pauline Hanson than conventional party leaders would like to accept?
Hanson has no shortage of detractors - never has - but why, now, are voters embracing her? It cannot be just for the policies - broad brushstroke statements from a party yet to sit on any government benches in an Australian parliament.
The real difference is that Hanson seems to call things as they are. And that’s heaping pressure from a disguntled and increasing alienated electorate on people like embattled Premier Jacinta Allan who now cops a caning from online followers every time she and her party make a social post.
No matter the tier of government, whether elected or appointed, my reading of opinion polls is that people are sick of spin and want straight talking.
Read More: Loddon Shire