In Singapore you can be fined for chewing gum, in Australia you can be fined for littering, in Queensland you can be fined for swearing in public, but …

If I were elected to office …

… in Australia there would be a fine for using the phrase “un-Australian”. It’s a horrid, lame and lazy expression used by people who want to denounce something by appealing to a vague and non-existent higher principle without the irksome bother of having to articulate, justify or defend their denunciation.

We’ve had “Clean up Australia Day” for years – enough of that! Why not a “Clean up un-Australian Day” where all the uses, users, and abusers of this toxic phrase can be rooted out and flushed away. What a beautiful country we’d have then.

So here we are with election day tomorrow. In 35 days of campaigning I’ve given you 35 policy ideas/pledges and I’d like to finish by saying “vote 1 for me”, but sadly I’m not running for office, so…

Vote 1 for someone like me – you know it would be un-Australian not to.

Dene Hughes – Thanks for your thought-provoking posts this last month.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #73]