We're approaching snake bite season. It has been a dry winter and there's going to be a lot of angry snakes coming out of hibernation. Now would be a good time to go into the anti-venom business but to do so you need experienced snake milkers and they're as rare as hen's teeth. That's the hard part. You can't make the anti-venom unless you collect the venom itself. People say we should take the venom out of the public debate in Australian politics. I'm not so sure about that. I've been bitten* and I reckon it's a case of once bitten twice shy. As one who has been bitten, I'd now like to bite back!

Oh and by the way, what is all this nonsense about the way elections are called in this country? Howard's the snake charmer. He plays a ridiculous flute, trying to mesmerise us cobras, the voters. We play along, half mesmerised but coldly calculating in our little serpent-like brains. Eventually, the music will stop, the election will be called and that's when we BITE. Yes, the snake bite season is surely approaching and there's a paucity of snake milkers. Since we're the snakes in this little story I suppose we don't care about that do we? That's the nice part about a democracy. In the end, we are the ones with the big teeth, not them.

Many Australians are irritated by the way elections are called at the whim of the Prime Minister. Kym D has written to us with the following comment:

'I have called for fixed term elections in a few letters sent to media outlets - as yet unpublished! However - John Howard's cavalier treatment of the election date has annoyed me, as has the way the media have treated him on this matter. While some media pundits have pressed him for an election date much more serious energy has been invested in filling pages and our air waves with mindless speculation and too clever by half analyses of the conditions that might drive the bugger to the polls - while he is entitled under the current rules to tease the electorate with the prospect of an election, Howard's coyness on the subject is approaching the perverse - and for as long this nonsense of leaving the election date in the hands of the leader this nonsense will happen again and again. John is by no means the first to act in this way but he certainly has milked this little bit of power for all its worth.

The election, nor the parliament nor the government for that matter are John Howard's - they are in fact ours; at the very least the election process should be handed back to the voters under the province of a fixed term to end this foolishness once and for all.'

We agree Kym! Let's stop the games, the snake charming performances, and the general ridiculousness. The way elections are called and the speculation which surrounds the process is profoundly absurd. Playing games is fun but let's not use our democracy as the plaything.

*(and to prove I am not getting confused, I was bitten by a dingo, not a snake - I have to tell you that keeping up with these wildlife metaphors is getting tough. Who's biting who? Hard to tell sometimes! I haven't even started on the marsupials yet and I am waiting for the campaign to start before I get into that particular pouch)