Author’s Note: In the three years since Labor’s 2022 election victory, and particularly since the 2025 federal election, a growing chorus of progressive voices – once fervent supporters – has emerged online, voicing a profound sense of disillusionment. From X (formerly Twitter) debates to Facebook groups and independent forums such as this site, these voters lament a government that, in their view, has strayed from the bold, equitable mandate they endorsed at the ballot box. This piece distills those shared frustrations, drawing directly from public commentary rather than personal opinion. It’s a snapshot of the sentiment rippling through Labor’s base: not a call to arms, but a mirror to the gap between promise and delivery. As one commenter put it, “We voted for change, but got caution instead.” In echoing these voices, the aim is clarity – may it spark the conversations needed to bridge it.
Introduction: The Red Dawn That Fizzled
Remember May 2022? The sun was rising on a new Labor era – Albanese promising a “fair go” reboot after a decade of Coalition chaos. Progressives turned out in droves. We voted for bold climate action, humane borders, economic justice, and a foreign policy with a spine. Three years in, though? It’s like we ordered a revolution and got reheated leftovers. Inflation’s gnawing at the edges, Gaza’s a moral black hole, and the wins feel like consolation prizes. This isn’t just policy drift; it’s a betrayal of the ballot box. Here’s six sore spots that Labor voters have voiced their concerns or disappointment over, suggesting that Labor’s lost its progressive edge – and why it’s time to reclaim it.
Soft on Israel: Enabling Genocide While We Watch
This one’s been a flashpoint for progressives, with protests and internal Labor rifts spilling into the streets since late 2023. Early on, the Albanese government stuck close to the US line – condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks but giving Israel wide berth on its Gaza response, including arms exports. Home Affairs warned as far back as November 2023 about “social cohesion” risks from perceived bias, with Muslim and Palestinian communities feeling “betrayed.” Over 50 Labor MPs, including Bob Carr, publicly slammed it as enabling “domination” of Palestinians in December 2023.
But by mid-2025, there’s been a shift: Australia recognised Palestine as a state in September 2025 alongside the UK and Canada, pushing for a two-state solution and tying it to reforms like elections and demilitarisation. They sanctioned two far-right Israeli ministers in May 2025 for West Bank violence and boosted aid to Gaza. Critics call it “phony” and too little, too late – visa approvals favour Israelis above 3:1 over Palestinians. Gaza’s death toll topped 65,000 by September 2025, so the “soft” label lingers for many, fueling vote threats in multicultural seats. Fair call – it’s progress, but not the principled stand some wanted.
Climate Cop-Out: Greenlighting Mines in a Burning World
A significant policy contradiction has emerged for the Labor government regarding its climate commitments. While elected on a strong platform of achieving net-zero by 2050 and promoting renewables, its administrative actions tell a different story. Since 2023, the government has approved multiple new fossil fuel developments, including four coal mine projects under Minister Plibersek and, more recently, Woodside’s North West Shelf expansion under Minister Watt. Cumulatively, these decisions commit over 850 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions – a volume that dwarfs Australia’s annual emissions. This discrepancy has been highlighted by the Climate Council as a “disconnect,” a criticism given greater urgency by the escalating disaster warnings in the latest State of the Climate report.
On the flip side: They’ve approved 100 renewables projects, rolled out a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard from mid-2025, and pumped $22.7bn into clean tech via Future Made in Australia. But yeah, the mine nods undermine the 1.5°C push – Climate Action Tracker rates Australia’s targets “insufficient.” This one’s a biggie for eco-progressives; actions speak louder than targets.
Nauru Exile: Cruelty at $1.6 Billion a Pop
Offshore processing is a bipartisan stain, but Labor’s ramped it up post-2023 High Court NZYQ ruling (indefinite detention unlawful). They inked a $408m upfront + $70m/year deal in August 2025 to ship more than 350 “NZYQ cohort” ex-detainees (mostly character-ground visa cancellers) to Nauru as a “penal colony.” First transfers hit in September 2023 (11 people), now up to 105 men in harsh conditions – dengue outbreaks, poor health access. UN slammed it in January 2025 as breaching ICCPR rights.
They closed the centre in June 2023 (evacuating kids/families), but reopened for “border security.” Refugee Council calls it “exile” without fairness. Cost? Over $1.6bn locked in for 30 years. Harsh reality: It’s costly cruelty, echoing Pacific Solution failures. Progressives see it as moral backsliding.
Cost-of-Living Limp: The Unemployed and Pensioners Left to Starve
Inflation’s bitten hard (peaking 7.8% in 2022), and while Labor’s thrown $14.6bn+ at relief since 2023, it’s felt piecemeal for the most vulnerable. JobSeeker/Youth Allowance got a flat $40/fortnight bump in September 2023 (now $135 total since election, +21%), plus energy rebates ($150/household in 2025) and rent assistance up 40% since 2022. Pensions indexed twice yearly (e.g., +$28 singles in Sept 2024), deeming rates frozen to June 2025 for part-pensioners, and 480k fee-free TAFE spots for job-seekers. Budget 2025–26 added student debt cuts ($16bn relief) and super on parental leave.
But critics (ACOSS, etc.) say it’s not enough – JobSeeker still 40% below poverty line, no big structural lifts for 1m+ on payments amid rents up 10% yearly. Pensioners got $250 one-offs in 2023, but ongoing? Meh. With living costs up 3.1% for transfer recipients in mid-2025, it feels like band-aids on a broken system.
Vaping Ban: Nanny State Over Harm Reduction
The UK’s NHS promotes vaping as 95% less harmful than smoking, and Australia’s 24,000 tobacco deaths/year make harm reduction a progressive no-brainer. But Labor’s gone hardline: From July 2024, non-nicotine vapes banned for non-prescription sale (world-first), with prescription-only for smokers quitting. Flavours restricted, ads banned from April 2024, and public vaping was illegal, whereas smoking in public remained legal. New standards hit July 2025 for devices/ingredients.
Rationale: Youth uptake exploded (10% of 14–17s vaping in 2023), allegedly a gateway to smoking (while adult vapers hailed it as a gateway off smoking), and black market risks. National Tobacco Strategy aims for <10% smoking by 2025. But Australia’s 1.8 million vapers and libertarians cry overreach – and bans could drive underground sales. It’s prioritising kids over adult switchers, which rubs harm-reduction fans wrong. Valid gripe if you’re pro-evidence over prohibition.
As a recent media release from a third-party player brutally underscores, this policy is a resounding flop:
The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) CEO Theo Foukkare says Health Minister Mark Butler’s admission today that illicit tobacco has “exploded” in Australia is a late concession that his approach has failed – and that his policies are fuelling the very crisis he now claims to be tackling.
Mr Foukkare said no overseas market faces an illicit tobacco crisis on the scale of Australia’s and the Minister is scrambling to save face as his legacy in tobacco control lies in tatters.
Countries like Sweden and Germany have sensible excise rates, regulated vapes and some of the lowest smoking rates in the world.
The government is presiding over a multibillion-dollar black market empire that is fuelling youth nicotine addiction at record levels.
Summary: A failed policy that alienated 1.8 million voters.
Robodebt Reckoning: No Justice for Broken Lives
The Royal Commission (handed down July 2023) was brutal: Called it a “costly failure” causing distress and suicides, but no number quantified. Referred six public servants (inc. ex-Secretaries Campbell/Malus) for possible prosecution over unlawful debts hounding 500k+ Aussies.
Labor’s response: Implemented 28 of the 57 recommendations by end-2024 – like APS Code tweaks for accountability, vulnerability strategies, and new oversight bill (Oct 2024). House apology in August 2023. But no charges yet (CDPP reviewing), and critics say it’s too soft – no sackings beyond resignations, no structural purge. Feels like justice delayed for victims’ families.
Conclusion: Reclaim the Red – Before It’s Too Late
These six betrayals aren’t isolated fumbles; they’re a pattern of compromise over conviction, stranding Labor’s progressive soul in a sea of caution. From Gaza’s graves to pensioners’ empty fridges, the human cost is staggering – and it demands a reckoning before the ballot box calls us back.
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The ALP lost its progessive soul when Hawke and Keating went neoliberal. It’s been downhill ever since.
And the betrayal started almost straight away. Within something like a week Albanese had cut the number of staff for Independents, rejected Helen Haines proposal on conduct in parliamentary question time, and slithered up to his mate Peter Dutton to work out how to run a protection racket for government MPs past and present by nobbling the NACC.
This after he’d campaigned criticizing the Morrespin government claiming he’d make parliament a kinder, gentler place with more transparency and integrity. He was lying; he obviously had no intention of doing those things.
Can’t have the Independents having enough staff to keep an eye on Labor’s integrity or even wading through the mountain of work coming their way, can we. Had to keep the ‘robustness’ of question time. We’ve seen what that meant, Ministers not answering questions, ambushes on the Greens, Independents and Greens shouted over and Labor MPs with their backs to the camera mouthing insults at them when they address the lower house.
Ask Fatima Paymen or Zali Steggall whether parliament was a kinder, gentler place with more transparency and integrity under Labor.
Obviously I’m not part of the Labor camp anymore, so can’t speak for Labor supporters. But, didn’t the executive ignore the Labor platform on Palestine for well over 3 years?
Are Labor supporters supportive of the worst deal in living history, AUKUS?
Do they look their children in the eye and say I chose to elect a Labor government rather than vote for a liveable planet for you?
What on Earth is going on with the Labor rank and file?
The sad reality is that both our major political parties are subservient to their American masters, prior to that we did what the British told us. The fact that Australia is still a monarchy doesn’t help matters, but provided we still have the “footy” do we really care?
Listening to James Paterson this morning and Andrew Hastie in recent days and Jacinta Price and One Nation and SKY and Newscorp it seems clear that ‘mass, out of control migration’ is going to be at the heart of the Conservative attack in the lead-up to the next election.
Labor need to take note and be very transparent and justify migration policy as there is a wagon load of misinformation being delivered up, both factual and confected.
“Two million migrants will have been added to Australia’s population by the end of Albo’s second term, according to ABS and budget papers.”
Quote from SKY
Newscorp are already geared up daily on the critical shortage of housing in all capital cities and now the regions as well as surging migrant numbers – Labor needs to have answers, it is their Achilles heel!
Labor’s betrayal goes even deeper than this list. They’ve abandoned renters by refusing real rent controls, failed to fund large-scale public housing, and continued welfare rates that trap people in poverty. Add their silence on media monopolies, their obedience to Washington on foreign policy, and their weak stance on corporate tax avoidance, and it’s clear Labor has drifted far from the people who voted for fairness and reform.
We need to start naming every area where Labor has chosen donors and lobbyists over citizens. Only then can voters demand a real Labor movement again, one that remembers who it’s meant to serve.
Here is another list of Labor’s failures: https://socialjusticeaustralia.com.au/labor-government-failures/
Timely article Michael leading readers to a logical conclusion: “These six betrayals aren’t isolated fumbles; they’re a pattern of compromise over conviction, stranding Labor’s progressive soul in a sea of caution. From Gaza’s graves to pensioners’ empty fridges, the human cost is staggering – and it demands a reckoning before the ballot box calls us back.”
Progressive journalism can assist in rebooting our politics away from the advice offered to ministerial office insiders from lobbying networks.
There is more information in the US for journalists about lobbying efforts to entrench support for military industrial complexes and real estate & property giants (e.g. Economics Online https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/managing_the_economy/the-military-industrial-complex-how-ongoing-conflicts-drive-profits-for-defense-contractors.html/):
“The military-industrial complex refers to the close alliance that exists between governments, military institutions, and defense contractors to manufacture and acquire weapons and defense systems. Companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing fabricate a large spectrum of military equipment ranging from fighter jets and missiles to drones and cybersecurity solutions. These corporations get generous contracts from defense budgets whose sizes grow with each passing year.”
Readers might offer more details on the activities of lobbyists in Australia who are making our politics more Trumpish.
Two areas in particular highlight the problems we are facing.
Housing:
550 houses being built (near HMAS base at Stirling WA, I think?) for “rotating” US and UK defence force personnel.
Apparently no funding available for Public Housing though???
Corruption:
Feds have tried very hard to erase Robodebt from memory. I had the time to watch a major portion of the Robodebt Royal Commission. It was absolutely heart rending to hear the details of the pain and torture of the citizens who were at the coalface of this highly illegal process. The subterfuge and hand-balling that was subsequently uncovered should have put many of the ‘higher ups’ (MP’s and Department Heads) in gaol, with their superannuation garnisheered to give them a taste of what that feels like!!
I recently watched ‘The People Versus Robodebt’ on SBS, and that was even harder to watch than the Royal Commission.
If you haven’t already seen it, watch it. Very disconcerting. I made it through, but it was very difficult not to look away.
The Labor governments’ front row ministers are more focussed on international glamour and glitz than attending to existential problems at home.
The (federal) ALP is a mainstream political party, it tends to centre , slightly left.
It has an objective of being a long term government, and it looks like being in office for a decade.
It will introduce policies that are unlikely to be deeply divisive, I expect it to govern carefully and avoid contention.
The current ministry is generally competent
For those that seek a more left leaning government and a faster pace of reform, try agitating for the structural reform of the ALP.
Allowing affiliated unions such a dominant role in the party ensures it is largely unresponsive to the more left leaning orientation of the rank and file members.
Rock and a hard place though isn’t it – we cannot go back to the LNP. The only option is to get enough progressive crossbenchers to stir them up, but I reckon that’s years away. We MUST continue to write, email and call our reps about everything that matters. Especially when it’s close to an election
Having appointed a Zionist as a Jewish anti-discrimination envoy, I didn’t think it could get worse, but there are Labor people among the Zionists and Albo is shown in the background of a Zionist presser photo.
The following people are Zionists and behave like a Zionist:
Josh Burns. ALP
Julian Leese. LNP
Julia Gillard. ALP and former PM
Josh Frydenberg. LNP
Peta Credlin. LNP apologist and fake reporter
Patricia Karvelas. ABC
Gillian Segal. Special anti-Semitism envoy
Lois Peeler. Indigenous
Seems like the only reason Albanese is recognising the State of Palestine is it looks good and he does not actually have to do anything. No visas for Palestinian refugees, no withdrawing from arms and component sales that go to Israel, no expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, no public condemnation of murder of children, medical staff, etc, no condemnation of the starvation tactics and no support for the aid flotilla or the Australians on board.
What he has done seems to be actions of a Zionist in disguise.
And then you have the cartel behaviour with the LNP:
Teaming up to create bad environmental legislation.
Teaming up to make it harder for minor parties and independents to be elected by effectively reducing their funding for elections and he slashed the staffing for those elected representatives.
Woodside gets the chance to make more $billions without any gas reserve policy, no royalty payments and, probably, pay no tax. Meanwhile he ignores the fact that not only do they sell our gas for a profit overseas, while we pay more for our gas here, those countries then on-sell our gas for a profit. And Darwin is plagued by gas shortages.
Rent assistance for pensioners, the unemployed, etc is now down to 15% of rental costs when, in the past, it was closer to 30%. And even 30% is not enough in dollar terms when you consider the high rental prices experienced. Still paying profits to private job network companies to bully the unemployed.
Certainly the unemployed should get an increase in payments, but he doesn’t care.
And he refuses to do anything that would really control rental and housing prices. 5% deposit – That just means they must borrow more, have higher payments still and take even longer to pay off, if at all. For those priced out of the market now, it will actually get worse, not better.
He refuses to see that the highest excise tax in the world on tobacco has created a black market for tobacco, which is not only of low quality, but could possibly contain contaminates. The ban on vapes is pointless and they should have a small excise applied as well.
The only saving grace Albo has is he isn’t a Liberal – just barely, anyway.
Another charge-sheet. The accusations grow by the day.
They have been bitterly disappointing on the ethical issues raised by Lee Capochie.