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VICE Australia's Election Podcast: Why is Turnbull v Shorten So Goddamn Dull?

In Episode 1, Aamer Rahman talks political apathy, feminism, Recognise vs Treaty, and George Christensen's attempted turtle bribery with political pundit Heath Pickering, activist Nayuka Gorrie, and journalist Jarni Blakkarly.

Catch VICE's new weekly political podcast Soundcloud, or subscribe on iTunes.

Elections: they are usually the only time when the world outside Twitter cares about politics. But unlike the juggernaut campaigns of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Bernie Sanders in the US, and Justin Trudeau in Canada, neither Bill Shorten nor Malcolm Turnbull has been able capture the public's imagination—particularly young voters.

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On VICE's new election podcast, host Aamer Rahman is joined by activist Nayuka Gorrie, Election Watch's Heath Pickering, and Young Walkley-nominated journalist Jarni Blakkarly to try and get to the bottom of what's missing from #auspol.

"It's been a pretty boring election, hasn't it?" Heath said. "We're almost half way there but is it ever going to come to an end?"

"Just to give you some poll numbers, the preferred PM poll has Turnbull at 45 percent and Shorten at 30 percent," Aamer told the panel. "So even the winning preferred Prime Minister has less than 50 percent approval from the Australia population."

"I don't think that Turnbull has really lived up to the excitement," Jarni said, when asked why this election isn't engaging young people.

"In September when he took over the leadership there was a real excitement. I have friends who are not Liberal Party supporters who were expressing a sense of relief that Abbott was gone… expressing hope for same-sex marriage, for the environment."

"I don't anyone has ever been excited by Bill Shorten," Nayuka added. "I don't think Bill Shorten has ever been excited by Bill Shorten," Aamer said.

"Australians are super chill about everything. To the point where it's like, 'What will it take for us to actually get a bit pissed off?'" Nayuka asked. "Because these dudes are boring."

Catch the whole conversation on Soundcloud, or subscribe to the weekly podcast on iTunes.