Photo © AFP Photo/William West/Greg Wood

As Julia Gillard hammers home her beloved “Moving Forward” mantra, she’s not really telling us where she wants us to go; Tony Abbott says he wants to “Stand up for real action”… which we’re yet to see signs of.

The lead-up to the August 21 election is already being cast as “not really about the nation’s future”, but more about “which leader can get through the campaign which making a blunder,” according to the Herald Sun’s Phillip Hudson.

It’s like both major parties are taking the Steven Bradbury approach to politics… last man or woman standing gets the gong.

Both leaders are being accused of giving mixed messages, lacking ambitious ideas or a clear vision. The ghost of K-Rudd and the reinvigorated Mark Latham continue to hamper Gillard’s ascent.  

The issue of boat people continues to be rehashed, despite acknowledgement that they have a relatively tiny impact on Australia’s population. Somewhat awkwardly for Gillard, East Timor continues to deny any agreement over hosting a refugee processing centre, with Timorese parliamentarians howling down the proposal.

Abbott keeps trying to convince us WorkChoices is “dead, buried, cremated”, though how one cremates something that’s already been buried is anyone’s guess.

Population continues to play a key role in this non-policy election - there’s talk, but no ‘real action’.

Climate change is also on hold as Gillard has proposed a Citizens’ Assembly.  150 randomly picked people to have a talk-fest on climate change. Again, this will be after the election.

Only one week down, and political pundits are describing this as one of the lamest federal election campaigns ever… well, actually, they probably use words like ‘disappointing’.

How can you choose who you want to vote for if none of the political parties risk sticking their head up on any of the key issues?

Steven Bradbury won gold for Australia by merely staying on his feet. Do we really want a leader who takes the top job by not screwing up as badly as the others? This is, after all, a federal election… not Masterchef.