A rant on the current state of Australian politics

Gender expectations are huge in Australian politics- people either want the women to be ballbreakers, and it seems to some extent that women have to abandon much of their femininity in order to succeed in any way. The way the media and the political sphere percieve and judge female politicians is also very unfair. There was an article in the Herald a few weeks ago about Gillards makeover since the last election. You would NEVER see an article about a male politician trying a new hairstyle. It's extremely condescending- also how the criticized Gillard for not having milk in the fridge in that photo in her kitchen. It's just bullshit. The patriarchy still very much exists in Australian politics- the only way women can get in to the boys club is to take on a more "masculine" persona to be taken seriously.I think that we do to a certain degree expect our politicians to lack humanity to a certain extent- but only in certain areas. People want to see happy shots of Iemma with his kids in the park the day after he won the premiership, but if Iemma ever said "I'm going to cancel a press conference today because my kid is sick" people would probably react very differently. It's like we almost expect our politicans to be robots to the party line and to their job- they aren't allowed to show who they really are beyond some stereotypical images e.g. talking to kids in schools, making a remark about that they hope their local footy team win on the weekend etc. And when they do err, the nation jumps on them so they won't make the same mistake twice. Brogden is a perfect example- his attempted suicide should be waking up people to the fact that politicians are PEOPLE. They have feelings, stresses, problems etc. And do you know what? That to me is what we need. We need more PEOPLE and PERSONALITIES in Australian politics instead of drones that simply tow the party line.I mean, recent example, Sophie Panapoulos and Bronny and the headscarves rant. Totally stupid what they said, but at least Sophie Panapoulos says stupid things sometimes because she reckons she is right (e.g. calling Petro Georgiou a "political terrorist" for wanting to cross the floor on detention policy changes). It's probably because she is from Wodonga, but there is a total lack of personality in Australian politics at the moment. It's like boring drone land. Latham was probably the last person that even resembled a polly with some personality recently, and look where it has got him lol.I don't understand why wea) Vote for boring baby boomer drones all the time- we need charismatic politicians. And anyone who says Johnny is TRULY charismatic needs a bit of a head check- compared to Keating, Whitlam and others he is very boring.b) Condemn anyone who has a view that differs somewhat from their party line. We need that to foster healthy democracy, I really hate the way we expect politicians simply to tow the party line and get mad when someone doesn't. We should vote in people that actually have their own ideas rather than "Liberal party policy 101" or "How to make Labor look mildly unified 101"c) Don't have a bloody opposition in this country at the moment! Why is Kim back! I agree with Latham on this one, he is not leadership material, he is not charismatic and the opposition is so piss weak. Maybe if we voted in some interesting people who have life stories and ideas and vision, maybe they don't have milk in the fridge and maybe they are "battlers" or from the "aspirational suburbs", I don't care, but we need some more diverse voices and fresh faces.In my opinion Australian politics is looking tired and old at the moment- we have had the same government in power for too long, and tragically I really doubt Labor can get their act together for the next election. And for christs sake, why aren't there more women in politics in Australia? NZ has had a female prime minister, we don't even see many women with important portfolios.I think Australians really need to stop voting for these party drones and vote for people with personality and humanity. They are too restrained- I mean they might heckle a bit in parliament but it is all in defence of the party, not necessarily in defence of their own opinions and ideas.