Wil Anderson is ready to take on Gillard and Abbott.
After weeks of mounting speculation, the most powerful redhead in the modern world, Julia Gillard, has finally announced August 21 as the day that the Australian public will have the chance to make or break her prime ministerial career.
In honour of the spin and the emotion-laden epithets that are going to be omnipresent in the coming weeks, the Chasers and the Gruens have announced their election season schedules.
Gruen Nation will kick off its new election-orientated run on ABC1 at 9pm Wednesday, July 28. With its self-professed mandate to be the nation's BS detector, the Gruen crew will be dissecting the ways in which we are going to have our emotions and political opinions manipulated over the coming weeks.
The politic-speak has already been initiated in the election announcement, with Julia Gillard using the phrases "moving forward" and "moving forward together" 22 times during her speech and 13 times during the follow-up questions.
Yes We Canberra!
Wil Anderson has already aimed his sights at this type of indoctrination through repetition: "Now the date has been named, I am preparing for the election by having a shot every time JG says 'moving forward'. I hope to sober up in time for the first episode of Gruen Nation."
Anderson should probably brace himself for a month-long hangover.
Scheduled to follow Gruen Nation on ABC1 is the election special from The Chaser team. After producing the election special, The Chaser Decides, during three previous federal election campaigns, The Chaser's satirical take has become a staple feature of the Australian election landscape.
There will be five editions of Yes We Canberra! produced; four before the election, and one once the result is known.
Craig Reucassel acknowledges that the election announcement had been made sooner than expected.
"We haven't even had time to choose a Chaser candidate for Lindsay," he said.
"Although, while we aren't ready to do a show, we are ready to govern."
Remind yourselves of the brilliance of The Chasers approach to politics in the post-poll show following the successful Kevin '07 campaign.
On a more serious note, Nine has announced that its coverage will be broadcast from the tallyroom in Canberra, and will be lead by Laurie Oakes, Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic. There will also be an extensive online presence through social media and the main website.
With the launch of ABC News 24 occurring this Thursday, July 22, the mainstream news media are positioning themselves and are ready for a fierce battle for audiences. It remains to be seen if quantity will reign victorious over quality.
If you want to vote in the election, you only have until 8pm Monday, 19 July 2010 (that's tonight folks!) to enrol to vote. In the words of Gillard, exercise your birthright!
Will you be watching the election coverage?
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