AFL legend goes nuclear over ‘absolutely ridiculous' election issue

News.com.au

04-05-2025

AFL legend Jason Dunstall is not happy with the Australian Federal Election.
The 60-year-old icon of the game was left airing his grievances surrounding the election in a fiery spray on Friday night.
As the entire country prepared for the 2025 election, Dunstall was left seeing red at the state of it all and how ridiculous the spending was from some parties.
The 269-game Hawthorn great pointed to the astronomical amount of pamphlets he had received in his letterbox as one of the major issues.
'I've made it known a number of times that I'm not thrilled with the state of our political system or politics in general if I'm brutally honest,' Dunstall said on Triple M.
'Can we start with the bombardment by mail, by text and by email that just continues to come relentlessly.
'Clean out the mailbox and there's four or five envelopes or posters or folded up cards telling you how to vote and who to vote for.
'A couple of days later the same things are there again. It is absolutely ridiculous, we are spending millions of dollars on advertising. Most of the television advertising, all they do is pot the opposition.
'Could they waste any more money?
'What about telling us what you're going to do and how you're going to do it? Less sledging more sales pitch would be a nice start.'
Dunstall found himself in the same position as millions of Aussies through the week who needed to get out and vote early due to commitments on Saturday.
But like countless others, he found that not only were his options limited … he was greeted with queues as far as the eye could see.
'I wanted to vote earlier this week because I have to work Saturday and I didn't want to be rushing around trying to find a place to vote.
'You talk about all the money they're wasting … how about spending some on early voting centres.
'It's about a tenth of what it was last time. I'm in Southbank and the nearest place I could go to was in North Melbourne, St Kilda and Abbotsford.
'I'm also absolutely pee'd off with the number of people that shove stuff at you telling you how you should vote and asking you how you're voting.
Dunstall continued: 'And here's the worst part, if I don't vote I get fined $100. Now let me ask you a question: do we want to force people to vote, should it be compulsory and I want to know why. Do you want the people that don't care and aren't invested in an election to be influencing the decision on who runs the country?
'Why make them vote?'
Dunstall admitted he hadn't yet voted and would look around on Saturday morning but if his nearby voting centres were chockers he would instead be taking the fine on the chin.
Anthony Albanese is in pole position to win on Saturday — with the majority of polls and the bookies marking him as the strong favourite.
But Peter Dutton remains 'absolutely' confident he'll triumph, thanks to the votes of millions of 'quiet' Australians.