I think the second Guardian article that redbruce has linked is a good summary of the vacuous sideshow that Australian politics currently is.
We had a discussion at work more than 5-8 years ago, about whether the problem in Australian politics was due to the politicians, the media, or the population. The best answer was that it was a vicious circle: the population doesn't want to listen to a politician for more than 5secs, so the pollie limits his statements to a snappy 5sec sound-bite, and the media packages up what the pollies delivered and what it thinks the population wants. Hence, we get the mess we've currently got - personality politics with no policy.
How long will it take to fix? Unfortunately it's probably a generational thing:
- to get a new crop of politicians who want to focus on policy, not politics and point-scoring
- a population interested in the greater good than what's-in-it-for-me; and
- 20years for the media to catch up.
Depressing when you think about it.