FUSE 16 is out now — Its our special election Issue.

It seems to me that the most important race this election season has already been decided — with Adam Liaw winning the 2010 MasterChef title. Channel Ten’s culinary juggernaut is so popular with Australians that they actually moved the election debate from it’s original time slot so it did not compete — and just as well as MasterChef drew a whopping  5.74 million viewers (over one quarter of the whole Australian population).

It was certainly no competition for this editor. I never even once considered not watching MasterChef. I could spend an hour listening to politicians spin the same-old same-old, with deception, false promises and distrust — or watch two genuine people do what they love, with integrity, honesty and friendship. What I also love about MasterChef (and Channel Ten) is that they’re inclusive, even to the point of standing up for gay equality by running a series of community service announcements during the finale calling for viewers to speak up for an inclusive Australia (www.thisisoz.com.au).

Makes you wonder how much better things could be if the political system could work on the same principals and ideals — and why the two main political parties are still against ‘a fairer Australia’ with current polls showing between 60-75% of Australians are in favour of same sex marriage and equal rights.

So you may have noticed by now that this is our ‘election issue’ — but never fear, we’ve tried to make it as painless as we can and even fun in places! It was our goal to ensure our coverage was as fair as possible and we offered all the major political parties the opportunity to have a say in FUSE — some taking up the offer with real excitement and others just not interested in talking to us at all. So that being said, here we go.

We have a few political must-reads this issue: Make your vote count, which will give you a bit of background on the different parties and where they stand on issues such as the environment, asylum seekers, animal welfare and equality (p08); ACT MLA Andrew Barr talks about the progress of social change, the reforms achieved and the battles still to be won (p18); Rodney Croome, from the Australian Coalition for Equality, writes about some of the missed issues such as youth suicide and intersex discrimination (p24); we interview Lin Hatfield Dodds, the new Senate candidate for the ACT Greens (p30); and lastly we end with a bit of a laugh as Tony Hamlyn writes about the ‘real’ issues — Julia Gillard’s hair, Tony Abbott’s dress sense and who would make best better drinking buddy (p45).

Of course it’s not all politics though. This month you can also find out how to spice up your sex life (p20), make your own fashion statement (p26), stay healthy during winter (p38) and get the low down on property investment (p42). And don’t forget to check out what’s on (p4) and the community pages (p46) for all the other stuff that’s going on in Canberra.

Enjoy and happy voting, Alex

Oh and do the FUSE poll - Top Right on the HOME Page!