Halfway through this 2007 federal election campaign, Danksta Downunder is coming to the conclusion that voting is very similar to the way we all go shopping.

Every day my mailbox is crammed with glossy colour catalogues full of the latest declarations of Everything Must Go; the even more extra special offers; ever bigger, cheaper, deeper and steeper discounts; bonus points; fly buys; markdowns; fire sales and final clearances.

All that's just the political party campaign flyers, which I can no longer differentiate from the diurnal mound of chain store chaff, supermarket spiel or franchise fiction.

Indeed, it's a fair analogy to compare the political parties to the retail companies, because, from the voters' perspective, they are becoming more and more alike.

Shopping for democracy, anyone?

The ALP and the Coalition are as much a duopoly dominating the electoral consumer spending patterns as are their respective supermarket counterparts, Coles and Woolworths.

The ALP, like Coles, started out as a small local enterprise bargain shop around a century ago, whereas the Coalition, like Woolworths, has always been more influenced by and subsidiary to the barcodes of the American hypermarket.

Both John Howard and Kevin Rudd come across like the chairmen of their retail company boards, while Peter Costello and Wayne Swan have responsibility for buying wholesale goods and recommending their retail price.

The Woolworths Coalition accuses the Coles ALP of being run by a collective of checkout counter and night-shelf shop stewards.

The Coles ALP accuses the Woolworths Coalition of flooding their stores with foreign imports and abandoning the local suppliers.

Yet both parties insist that their policies and platforms are the surest Safeway. The retail faction of both parties also manipulates and massages the economy rather more directly than the Treasury and the Reserve Bank combined.

Then there are the minor parties: The Democrats and One Nation are reminiscent of former widespread grocery chains that no longer seem to be around: Flemings, Franklins and the like. No frills, no party supplies, no political thrills – and who shops there any more anyway, now that the Aldi party have started opening local branches?

The Greens tend to be found at farmers’ markets and in organic produce outlets, and are symbolised by the verdant and seemingly ubiquitous recyclable shopping bags.

Then there are the indpendent grocers who are locally popular but nationally not very well known.

They are rarely in a position to add their suggestions to the shopping list, and they tend to disappear like grocery carts when you really need them.

It would not at all surprise Danksta Downunder if the Australian Electoral Commission started playing a citizen-motivating selection of shopping muzak to calm the electors as they gather to vote at the polling booths on November 24.

Last-minute policy specials and party product demonstrations will be announced over the PAs that will soon be installed at every polling booth.

The electoral checkout staff will be drilled and instructed to offer fly buys, petrol discounts and bonus points to all those who correctly fill in the ballot papers.

They will also have to keep a vigilant watch for shoplifters attempting to remove ballot boxes, and those informal loiterers and malingerers who have no intention of buying even one item of what all the parties have been spruiking ad infinitum and ad nauseum over six weeks of nationwide shopping spree!

Danksta Downunder's prediction: We will end up with the ongoing political retail pair of Coles and Woolworths in perpetual mercantile parliamentary competition, no matter who gets our votes.

In other words, the logo may change from one supermarket aisle to another but the shopping jingle remains the same!

Australia, we're all looking for the shortest queue in the fastest express lane at the same time as we're stacking up the entire stock in our trolleys!