Colin Benjamin - The Futurist@SmartCompany

Smart companies will heed the call from Santa to get out and grow their business before Christmas. Next year is going to be very different now that Treasury secretary Dr Martin Parkinson has been encouraged to walk the plank.

‘Our leaders are the finest men’ – Pete Seeger, What Did You Learn in School Today?

Well it’s over, or rather we have the half-time score. The people, and the media, have spoken and the people have voted for change.

As we wait for the date of the double dissolution that we don’t have to have because the minor parties are the new cavalry (http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/detours-ahead-as-minor-parties-claim-senate-balance-20130908-2te36.html), we can observe the impact of the billionaires on the ballots.

As electors buy their celebratory bubbly or a consoling slab, the best indication comes from two sources – the bookies and the redundancy packaging industry.

Now that the media and the bookies agree that the results are a foregone conclusion, with potentially more than 20 new bums on green seats, we can consider voter motivations for change.

As we head into the home straight, an analysis of the views of the responses of 700 respondents to the Morgan Reactor indicates that we can see why the bookies have already paid out in favour of a change in government next weekend.

The pre-election debates only go so far in helping us understand the way in which undecided voters might vote on September 7.

Analysis of elector responses to the political advertising that will be banned before we are likely to see final costings suggests that those rusted onto the major parties like their own party’s ads and hate their opposition’s efforts.

Roughly one in six households are still undecided and waiting for their walk down the gauntlet of card carriers to determine where they will allocate their votes.

Unless the next three weeks are very different from the last three years, the people who are uncommitted to either of the major parties will opt for a change of government in Australia on September 7.

While Kevin is promoting a new way and Tony announces his jobs and growth plans next week, small business must put its hand up and offer to invest in national reconstruction. As we head into the final month of faux conflict between the parties, smart companies need to address their own strategic place in all of this.

Smart companies should look beyond today’s negativity to see what is happening in the UK, US and European economies that are all are heading for significant expansion.

By this time next week we should know the date of the next election. But we may have a long wait to know if any of the parties has gained control of both houses, or if we have won another hung Parliament controlled by fractionally supported lucky dippers.

In the next month we will have a flood of announcements including regional barriers to economic migration, education agreements and finally the date of the election.