Australia currently has laws mandating a 3 day blackout on electronic election advertising prior to polling day. I was thinking of extending that to a week in my policy pledges, but after seeing the ads airing last night I’ve decided that …

If I were elected to office …

I’d have a total blackout on electronic election advertising for all time. Seriously. What I’ve been seeing is 1% information, 10% misinformation, and 100% manipulation. I know those figures don’t add up to 100%, but that’s exactly how I feel about election ads – they don’t add up.

Let’s conduct a little thought experiment here … imagine that there were no more dodgy, deceptive and emotionally manipulative election ads on TV, and instead the parties had to explain their position and views in person, in their own words. Can anyone credibly argue that our democracy would suffer as a result???

No more TV election ads. Ever. Vote 1. Me.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #69]