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Some of these communities are grappling with high youth unemployment. Others are confronting alarming suicide rates. Lots need better infrastructure and access to services. Many are beset by the worst drought in decades.
Today, as Australians contemplate the self-destruction of the Coalition Government and the prospect of a seventh change of prime minister in a decade, we're asking the man and woman in the street for their unvarnished view of this week's events in Canberra.
Or the "madness", as Malcolm Turnbull described it on Thursday.
NSW
Drought relief, improving the National Disability Insurance Scheme and generally making Australia a better place – voters around Newcastle have no shortage of ideas on how government MPs could be spending their time rather than plotting leadership coups. Younger voters in particular are disillusioned with the constant instability. Several people approached by the Herald declined to comment because they said they too disillusioned to comment.
At midday on Thursday, Albury’s Dean Street was bustling, with many on their lunch break turning their thoughts to the ‘chaos’ happening 200 plus kilometres away, in the country’s most powerful building. If Peter Dutton becomes Prime Minister some Border voters are considering breaking their long-held Liberal ties, while others are contemplating moving back overseas – but on both sides of the political divide the men and women on the street are simply sick of revolving door politics.
QUEENSLAND
In sunny Queensland, some Redlanders were not quite sure what exactly was happening in Canberra, with others dismayed at the antics of elected representatives. “They are kindy kids,” one man told Redland City Bulletin. “They are meant to represent us. They are elected by the people for the people, like Caesar said. They (only) want to keep their $180,000 per year and free car.”
Shoppers on the streets of Jimboomba were more concerned with the daily shop and getting the kids home from school than a Liberal leadership challenge and who might be the next Prime Minister of Australia
VICTORIA
Infuriated by Liberal in-fighting over the office of Prime Minister, Eaglehawk woman Tara McGrath headed to the local store and bought a sheet of poster paper. On it, she wrote two simple words and two symbols in bold, capitalised font: #ELECTION NOW! For the next hour, she sat outside Bendigo Town Hall and sparked conversations with passers-by.