​Leadership = Intelligence Vision Maturity Compassion Clarity Honesty Inclusion Wisdom Confidence Consultation Follow-Through Gratitude Integrity Humour Commitment Respect Empathy Wit Kindness Humility Trustworthiness Appreciation Attentiveness Courage Composure Tolerance.
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Excellent to see the First Nations' flags - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander - with the Australian in the first Blue Room Press Meeting.  Albanese and Wong have left for the crucial Quad Meetings in Japan with leaders of the USA, India and Japan. 

A vote in a democracy is one of the most valued privileges a human can have. All adult Australians have the freedom to vote this Saturday by following their conscience and preferences. Please don't vote for corrupt people or people you've never heard of, or single-issue parties.

The Australian Electoral Commission, the independent body that runs elections, says there are 17 million people enrolled to vote in the 2022 federal election – 96.3% of the eligible voting population.

Multi-billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer's splash of millions in advertising and sweetheart deals with the conservatives swung the last election to the extreme far-right. He's at it again and vowed to put Liberals and Labor last on the ballot paper. Those who have done their homework will have discovered that the United Australia Party has essentially given the ultra-conservative Liberal Party second preferences again. 

Voters are wise to triple-check anything coming out of UAP and the biased Murdoch Press, and above all, DO NOT BELIEVE THE POLLS. Voters were led to believe that Labor had it in the bag in May 2019 but didn't count on Morrison's deals with the minor far-right parties - deals which have effectively all but destroyed this country in ways too numerous to mention.  

The party leaders traditionally address the National Press Club in the week prior to voting day. Anthony Albanese showed up on Wednesday 18th, but Morrison was a no show again - the first time that's happened for over fifty years when Billy McMahon also wimped out. 

There has never been a more critical vote for Australians than this Federal Election on Saturday May 21, as the next three years will bring obvious and unknown national and global challenges to navigate. By Saturday evening, we 'might' know the voting results, but I fear it will be close. I'm praying for a Labor landslide. 

By now, all interested voters will have studied many aspects of the big political picture and many of the parties' policies and be clear about who they're voting for and why. Meanwhile, undecided and uninformed voters could do something creative like leaving all the boxes blank rather than vote for unknowns who could further damage the country. They could also write an honouring sentence on the ballot paper about what they'd like to see implemented in Australia. 

Tragically, the winners will inherit a massive mess, considerable global ill-will and over 1.5 trillion dollars in government debt that many generations will have to pay off. It is little known that two-thirds of the debt in the budget was borrowed before the start of the pandemic.

In an ideal world, we'd be enjoying a very different system of governance, but as we have to work with what we currently have - Anthony Albanese (born March 2, 1963) is a man of integrity and experience who would be a strong and compassionate Prime Minister and has a competent Team behind him forming a government that I could hopefully feel proud of. 

I respect many ALP politicians, and I care deeply about their policies on education, addressing climate change, homegrown jobs, innovation and manufacturing, aged care, disability care, childcare, humanitarianism, farmers, medicare and health care, First Nations care, fiscal responsibility and accountability, women's equality, women's safety, integrity in governance, anti-corruption, investments in training and skills, better-funded ABC, being an exemplary neighbour to Pacific countries, competence and diplomacy in foreign relations, etc.  

Phillip Adams tweeted 'Will the Biloela family, Bernard Collaery, Renewable energy, the Uluṟu Statement, the ABC, a federal ICAC, the Murray Darling, the Climate crisis and animal extinctions lose the election?'

IF Labor wins, I'd like to see among PM Albanese's first jobs be to return the beautiful Tamil family to their welcoming community of Biloela, Queensland. Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, have been incarcerated since August 2019, and as a matter of urgency, to work to free Julian Assange from extradition to the USA and be returned to his wife and children. 

I'd also like the winning party to tone down party politics over the next term and cherry-pick the wisest and most skilled people as advisors and diplomats regardless of political persuasion. Otherwise, we'll undoubtedly have more of the same aggression, opposition, bullying, wastage, incompetence and corruption that we have witnessed in parliament and the press over the past decade of LNP rule. 

Anthony Albanese tweeted 'The approach I want to take if I am elected as Prime Minister: solutions, not arguments.'

May we ALL seek solutions, not arguments. May we all work together in peace and unity to heal the people of this nation and propel this country forward. 

Wishing you good luck for stupendous success Labor and exemplary management if you win. 

​- Cedar Rivers