I was raised in a Labor family. I came from a family of blue collar workers, and people like that vote Labor. It was that simple. The Labor Party looked after the needs of workers, while the Liberals were only interested in the bosses. If I ever ran a business, then I should still vote Labor, because then my workers would still be looked after. If I voted Liberal, I was just wasting my vote on a bunch of bastards who only look after themselves.

These days, I’m a worker. I pretty much always have been someone who works for another company, unless I was working for myself. Which is why I won’t be voting Labor at the next election.

Now before you think I’m jumping on the Liberal boat (one they won’t stop, like all the others), I simply will never even think about voting Liberal, as long as Abbott is alive. You could take to my crotch with a belt sander, then drag me behind a ute through a salt factory, and I still wouldn’t be interested in voting for that prick, or the party he represents.

So that rules out Labor, and it rules out the Liberals, so I guess it means I’m voting Green. Well not the case there either. Please let me explain.

Growing up, it was pretty much a case of voting Labor or Liberal. If you didn’t like either of those, well there was the Democrats. If you lived in the bush, you vote National, because their reps are born with the fly swatting gene, and they use it in parliament too.

Then along came the Greens, who were interested in the environment. So if you were not a worker, a boss, a fly swatting “get around back”, or fence sitter, you were obviously a tree hugger, who liked animals, even the non cute ones.

Then there are the Independents, and other minor parties, who support everything from forcing us to believe in their invisible friend, through to free Tupperware for one legged single mother lesbians who eat tofu burgers.

Gee it all gets confusing hey. Why don’t they just give us all a little card on Election Day, and we can just tick some boxes, grab a sausage in bread, then bugger off back home to sit on the couch and bitch at the Prime Minister and co on the telly.

Well here is the way I’m going to vote this year, and it’s the same way I’ve been voting for many years now. I’m going to do this thing called research. I am going to look at what international, national, state and local issues I believe in, and which ones affect me personally. I’m then going to use this set of ideals to look at the candidate who best matches those ideals. I have a set of core issues that I will not waver on, and if the candidate doesn’t support those views, they will not get my vote.

Yeah, all this takes time, but it is worth it. I know at the end of the day I will be comfortable with the choice I made, for my chance to make a difference to this country.

Then there is the senate, which this year has more boxes to number than an over supplied box factory doing stocktake. Please people, vote above the line. By doing this, you get the politicians you want, not the ones you deserve.

Voting is not something to throw away. There are people in the world who get killed, simply because they want to vote. There are people who wish they had our freedom to voice our opinion, our concerns, our choices. So please, do the right thing by yourself, for your own sake.