I don't think it's apathy that has brought us to this although as with every other country in the world, plenty of people have no interest in politics or their rights with regard to it.
I think the problem is that both major parties are closer to the centre (on the surface) than they'd have us believe, coupled with negative smear campaigns which cause those unwilling or ill equiped to do their own research and inform themselves feel they are all just as bad as each other (which is true anyway) so they cast informal (donkey) votes or just tick any box. Law of averages says there's going to be a pretty equal spread of votes if that's the case.
You can read the indepth analysis if you want to on any Aus news site, and there were some major issues in the mix which seem to have no well developed policy from either side.
I guess if Australians were more actively involved in politics, we might have descended into anarchy by now.
