Jim Macdougall has tuned out from the world of Australian politics and holds little hope for what's to come in the current election.
For this week's ACM Pub Test Series, Jim is the final profiled participant and expresses his growing frustration with the short term goals of politicians.
Originally from Melbourne, Jim came to Canberra in 2017 to study at the Australian National University and now works for a surgeon in biomedical engineering.
"It's a good field of work because it allows me to be creative and betters the lives of others," he said.
Improving the efficiency of surgical processes can help better healthcare."
The clarity of science is something Jim prefers to the scramble of politics, saying this year particularly has been a nasty election.
"My main gripe is the fact that instead of consistently coming out with things that the parties or the candidates are going to improve upon a lot of the marketing is just to do with how the other party is worse rather than how their party is better," he said.
It really makes it rather depressing, it's just two people basically bullying each other on a national scale and trying convince people that they're less bad than the other person."
Jim acknowledges living in Canberra is "a lot more central rather than in Melbourne" so can't help but take more notice of politics since moving to the capital.
"People are more willing to discuss it and bring it more to the forefront and that's why I guess I've paid a little bit more attention on it," he said.
"I'd rather try and focus on the positive things because I have had this sort of constant depressive mindset about the Australian political climate and hopefully in the next four years there will be more focus on good things that are done."
Sport over politics
Outside of working, Jim has a passion for what Australian sport can give to the community and finds there are many more benefits to his hobby over what politicians give the community.
Whether it be cricket, AFL or car racing, Jim is usually across on what's happening and finds viewers are "always focusing on the positives in sport".
"Especially with team sports you're rallying together, trying to build something that can beat the other team and have some sort of success, I guess that has a lot of parallels to politics as well," he said.
While Jim notes the possible links between politics and sports, he will always show preference for his passion rather than elections.
"I guess with sport you can actually go out on the weekend and perform rather than just talking about your policies and there's always going to be someone unhappy with the policy whereas in a sports team, you win, everyone's going to be happy," he said.
The complexity of climate change
Looking at things from a scientific perspective, Jim finds climate policy to be the most important area of focus, but says things are more complicated than most realise.
"Australia can have a large impact worldwide instead of converting all of our electricity grid to renewables straightaway and focusing on new technology because we have some of the best labs and researchers in the world," he said.
If we can improve a solar panel by 10 per cent worldwide, it's going to impact a lot more."
Jim has found the conversations around climate change extremely simplistic, while he said he "especially disagrees with opening more coal plants" he notes there are more strategic ways to make a worldwide difference.
"If we turn all of our energy into renewables that still won't really make a dent in anything compared to India and China," he said.
"But whether we can export our new technology that could be beneficial for our economy and also help places like China actually reduce the pollution rates and maybe improve our relationship with China."
Week five - voters have their say
Polling booths have opened this week and Raelene Dunstall set out to vote after watching Sunday's debate, saying Prime Minister Scott Morrison "was doing a Donald Trump."
"I thought I know who I'm going to vote for, I know the issues that are important to me ... I think the government's handling of a lot of things have been very poor," she said.
Ash Laing voted for the first time, and said he was surprised by what the experience and process involved.
"I thought I was going to go in there and have to vote between Labor and Liberals like the actual candidates of Anthony Albanese or Scott Morrison. I didn't realise that it happened the way it did," he said.
The debate also frustrated Jeff Bollard, observing it seemed "very much that presidential style campaigning rather than local member campaigning".
For Bri Williams, after watching the debate she has gone back to thinking there will likely be a hung parliament.
"I think Albanese came in with a lot more clear head and I think a little bit of an ego boost with the polls, but after the last election I don't really trust the polls," she said.
