Australia prepares for 'Google election'

By Neil Sands
Agence France-Presse


SYDNEY -- Google Australia on Friday unveiled what it described as the world's most powerful dedicated election website, capable of exposing inconsistencies in the public pronouncements of political leaders.

With an election due in Australia before the end of the year, Google said the website would be a powerful tool for voters and would help generate debate during the upcoming campaign.

Prime Minister John Howard, who has announced policies online for the first time in the lead-up to the election, said politicians were now taking the Internet seriously.

"I recognize that this medium is not some sort of gimmick but can provide an uninterrupted, direct and open channel between decision-makers and voters," Howard said in a video presentation at the site's launch.

Howard's conservative government has targeted Internet users as it seeks to reverse poor opinion polls and win a fifth term in office.

Google's Australian-developed election site includes a feature called "On the Record," where users can type in a politician's name, along with an issue of their choosing.

It then scours parliamentary transcripts and the politician's personal website to find any statements on the issue, allowing voters to check whether their representatives are being consistent.

It also gives voters electoral information through a range of online tools including YouTube, GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps. Google said it was the first time so many features had been available on a single election website.

Peter Garrett, the former singer with protest rockers Midnight Oil who is now environment spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, said the Internet would have a massive impact on the election.

"This will probably be a Google election," Garrett told reporters.

"I think it's going to encourage a generation of Australians who have used online access as one of their major communications, education and socialization tools from a very young age, to key into what I think will be a very exciting political campaign."

Cabinet minister Joe Hockey agreed but said television remained the most powerful medium for sending a political message.

"Television still remains the biggest distribution," he said.

While parliamentarians have embraced the Internet, its user-generated content means it is also a potential minefield for politicians.

The stoutly-built Hockey appeared on a morning talk show earlier this year and briefly donned a pair of green Shrek ears as a gag. Footage of the incident has haunted him on YouTube ever since.

Garrett conceded politicians were vulnerable to negative comments posted on their YouTube offerings but said allowing people to "vent" was a small price to pay for the benefits of online politicking.

"It makes us more accountable -- it can't be a bad thing for democracy," he said.

Government officials were last month forced to deny editing hundreds of entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to remove negative comments.

Tracking software reportedly showed government computers were used to delete a reference to Treasurer Peter Costello as "Captain Smirk," while a change traced to Howard's department bizarrely stated "poo bum dicky wee wee".

Opponents of the US-led war in Iraq put US Vice President Dick Cheney on the spot last month when they posted a 1994 interview on YouTube in which he said US occupation would result in a "quagmire" and lead to many US casualties.