The ABC reports: “Some of the country’s biggest shopping malls are hoping to be politician-free zones during the upcoming federal and state elections.”

I’m not sure what bothers me the most about that intro; the fact that part of our democratic process is to be curtailed by people who condone spruikers with PA systems, or the fact it refers to shopping centres as “shopping malls”.

I’ll put the Americanism aside and focus on the first point. Why ban politicians from shopping centres while on the hustings? That’s the best part of an election campaign. The practice has given us great moments in Australian political history like Bob Hawke’s “silly old bugger” remark, John Hewson’s cake-shop GST gaffe, and a baby throwing up on John Howard.

The beauty of shopping centre appearances is that they can only be stage managed to a point. Even when the party hacks reckon they’ve lined up suitable attractive white-Anglo working mums and dads to shake hands, offer babies to hug and ask the right Dorothy Dixers, there will always be some child, nuff-nuff, wog, pensioner, youth or building worker who will turn the script, and possibly an election campaign, on its head with a left-field question so stupid it’s brilliant – the reaction to which provides news outlets with the perfect soundbite, vision or pic that will forever haunt a candidate.

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