Could the ghost candidates be on the Wombat Trail?

A ghost candidate — one who is nominally up for election but has never been sighted in the electorate — is not an entirely new phenomenon but this is the first election where we have had so many of them.  Particularly from One Nation, which pledged to nominate a candidate for the House of Reps in every seat.  They have done this, technically, but only by fielding many candidates who have no intention of waging a campaign and no expectation of winning.  Many of them live long distances from their electorates and have not been sighted at any media gatherings.  At a forum of the candidates you will find the One Nation candidate noticeable by their absence.

There is nothing illegal in this but it is odd.  The theory seems to be that by putting up placards all over the country, the party gives the impression of depth, and avoids being categorised as a fringe party limited to a particular region.

The only thing that the Australian Electoral Commission requires is that you state correctly your address on your candidate application form and on your electoral material.  Even this simple requirement seems to have been too much for a couple of Liberal candidates who have nominated one address in the electorate but actually live somewhere else.

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How could Macquarie Dictionary have missed the Wombat Trail! I blame myself. It was not in the first edition of the Australian National Dictionary but was added to the second edition in 2016. This is the campaign path followed by the Nationals (previously the Country Party).  It began in the 1977 federal election as a joke from the press gallery but has remained the term used by the campaign team and the journalists who accompany them.  The notion was that the transport was so slow that they wombled on. The planes went up in the air and then waited for the earth to turn before coming down again. Everyone on the Wombat Trail was referred to thereafter  as a ‘wombat’.  The Leader of the Nationals at each election carries a carved wooden wombat, a gift from a constituent, while the journos bring their own soft-toy versions. People who have been on it say that in the days of Doug Anthony it used to be a lot of fun.  And involved a fair amount of drinking, the initiation drink being a Bundy and milk.

Oh for the days when politics could include some fun!