Alienated from active political participation and low membership rates for trade unions, Australians are now responding more positively to far-right ideologies from the LNP and beyond. Encouragement for the LNP always comes from the Murdoch media and especially Sky News.
Some bosses even scrutinize new recruits to weed out applicants with past trade union affiliations and critical comments on Facebook and other social media to maintain the integrity of their self-proclaimed non-union work sites.
Federal Labor should not be so afraid to travel an alternative left-populist road. Support from the progressive sections of the crossbench particularly in the Senate is essential.
Political identity across the crossbench can still be maintained with support directed to the Albanese Government on the big issues of national security at home, strategic security abroad and more flexible economic diplomacy. Trading and investment ties need to be consolidated with a vast swathe of profitable trading partners from Egypt to Northeast Asia.
Don’t expect responsible conservatives to oppose these initiatives for change and economic security. Here in Queensland, the Crisafulli Government has maintained Queensland Labor’s long-established outreach to China (Ministerial Statement 2 November 2025: Crisafulli Government drives largest-ever trade mission to Asia – Ministerial Media Statements). This press statement is worth reading as an exercise in bipartisanship in adversarial times generated by media staffer Brendan Morris.
Federally, in the generation of the True Believers prior the 1993 election, Paul Keating snatched victory out of almost certain defeat in the worst of four post-1945 recessions to that date (From Paul Keating’s 1993 Election Speech):
“But if the Coalition is elected, within six months there will be no Accord – instead, discord – no universal health system, no safety net. And there will be a GST. There will be much less equity and access in education. Workers will lose the protection of awards and be forced to negotiate individual contracts with their employers or take the sack.”
Three of the four recessions to that date had occurred under the LNP in 1953-54, 1960-61 and 1980-82.
Our treasurer Jim Chalmers avoids pressing the recession button but must also keep the Australian dollar at an optimum level. In contrast, the Trump era has not been a co-operative with global middle powers. America First strategies are written into the official website of the US Trade Representative (USTR) with its networks of influence in US Embassies and Consulates worldwide.
The Queensland LNP government still plays its more conservative cards. This conservative government wants more largesse from Canberra. Federal financial infusions account for over 40 percent of the state’s revenue base. Queensland’s budget deficit is running at almost $9 billion for 2025-26 or twice the deficit left by Labor.
Goodwill across the partisan divide in mainstream politics is a precious resource. The far-right of Australian politics relish in promoting adversarial politics as I hope to discuss next week after the release of the RBA’s interest rate call for March.
Writing in The Saturday Paper (21-27 February 2026), former LNP leader John Hewson warned of a new era of instability in LNP support as far-right tendencies in sections of the mainstream media and grassroots conservative networks push the LNP further to the political right that paves the way for more associations between the LNP and One Nation to protest its grasp on the regions, some provincial cities and a new support base in more disadvantaged outer metro areas as well as coastal resort and retirement areas. Empathy for One Nation’s flamboyant political style is strengthening as claimed by Peter Lewis in The Guardian (25 February 2026).
Federal Labor can retrieve its own Left populism to revive support in the more disadvantaged regions and outer metro areas which are being targeted by One Nation and the far-right of the LNP.
Some federal electorates went against the national trends on 5 May 2025 which gave Labor its historic majority. Canning was one example.
Canning Bucks the National Trends in 2025
In Canning, Outer Metro Perth, some rural districts and large areas of coastal resorts south of Perth, Andrew Hastie MP has a real hold on the former Labor seat. It lost its temporary centre-left colours in 2001 when the LNP made immigration and fears of multiculturalism major issues against WA’s own Kym Beasley as Opposition Leader.
The demographic mix of Andrew Hastie’s Canning electorate south of Perth is repeated in federal conservative seats in sections of Outer Brisbane and the adjacent coastal areas on the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast with strong conservative majorities that often hold out against national voting trends.
The Once Volatile Electorate of Canning
Labor’s resistance to the delivery of its own more populist communication agenda may be waning as the next interest rate call approaches. It will take a lot of convincing to explain away a second-interest rate hike.
Such issues foster a drift away from the traditional two-party voting system in Anthony Green’s summary of voting trends since 1975. The primary vote for both sides of mainstream politics is in sharp decline.
This is a new era of regal (leader-centric) and imperial (sovereignty-obsessed) politics. The antics of sections of British royal family are a sideshow event to these times. Large sections of the Australian electorate have already switched on their narcissistic coping mechanisms according to Gemini AI.
Australians have increasingly turned off from permanent political partisanship. These are emotionally changed times with fleeting glances at mobile phones offering glimpses of mainstream news events without much in-depth analysis from the negative side of the social divides in our cities. Constituents cope by turning off from social reality.
I recall chatting with someone on the bus to Springfield Central. He was an unemployed middle-aged tradie at the time in receipt of Commonwealth rental subsidies. However, he avoided all forms of political participation including electoral enrolment. My own take from 2023 is still available on life and planning priorities in Outer Metro Brisbane.
Coping mechanisms have evolved to compensate for the alienation from mainstream politics which brought out a renewal of activism in the earliest of the post-1945 recession:
Australian Survival Mechanisms in the Late 2020s
If humanity survives the Trump era, the next decade might emerge as a more politically aware era. The gullibility levels of political leaders of middle powers from Japan to Chile are one of Trump’s greatest global political assets.
The most recent ABS Consumer Price Index (25 February 2026) results are a real challenge to the Albanese Government and may result in an unfavourable interest rate call from the RBA next week.
A quick look at the ABS graphics shows that housing costs, educational expenses, clothing and footwear as well as diversions into alcohol and tobacco and the non-listed illicit substances are currently leading the inflationary charges of the price brigade:
The Charge of the Price Brigade in the Latest Consumer Price Index
Releasing unclassified AI resources at work to refine policy settings in Canberra and at all other levels of government can assist the media and readers in anticipating the trendlines of our future. It is my claim that a critical understanding of those trendlines for the future virtually writes next week’s news and in the weeks ahead to the approaching 2026-27 budget scheduled for delivery on 12 May 2026. It could be brought forward in anticipation of the need for more responsible left populism to assist in the election of Independent Michelle Milthorpe in Farrer on Labor, Green and other progressive preferences.
A little more responsible left populism can sharpen the appeal of the Albanese Government which needs to become a coat of many colours that coalesce on the need for more needs based political communication. Our governments have the capacity to communicate better as their AI resources expand to bridge the chasm between the needs of the electorate and responsible policy options. The unclassified sections of these AI databases can be used by the media and the wider public to promote more policy discussion on topical issues.
Politics should be about our needs and not a commercially generated escape valves for our own alienation from power politics as presented in Snoopy for President from the year that Richard Nixon won by a landslide by wooing the silent majority. The commitment to war and social austerity came later when the old jingles relating to outstanding leadership ability had faded away.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article. Your comments on this and related articles can be recorded on theaimn.net site.
Keep Independent Journalism Alive – Support The AIMN
Dear Reader,
Since 2013, The Australian Independent Media Network has been a fearless voice for truth, giving public interest journalists a platform to hold power to account. From expert analysis on national and global events to uncovering issues that matter to you, we’re here because of your support.
Running an independent site isn’t cheap, and rising costs mean we need you now more than ever. Your donation – big or small – keeps our servers humming, our writers digging, and our stories free for all.
Join our community of truth-seekers. Please consider donating now via:
PayPal or credit card – just click on the Donate button below
Direct bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
We’ve also set up a GoFundMe as a dedicated reserve fund to help secure the future of our site.
Your support will go directly toward covering essential costs like web hosting renewals and helping us bring new features to life. Every contribution, no matter the size, helps us keep improving and growing.
Thank you for standing with us – we truly couldn’t do this without you.
With gratitude, The AIMN Team
Labor’s policy insiders need to interact more with voters who are finding the going tough with the real estate sector cheering on +$2 million home sales and rents of over $5,000 a month in those median electorates like Canning.
The far-right opinion demands a return to old style capitalism with more tax concessions for investors.
Does the property sector speak for average Australians in wanting to talk up housing prices for both mom and dad investors and the professional speculators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8iNcHeBUCU?
Thanks denis for an interesting commentary of Australian politics.
A fair analysis of the government’s dilemma with interest rates next week.
Let’s learn from the Opposition with some responsible left populism to explain complex issues
Addresses the major challenges to the longevity of the Albanese Government: Failure to communicate with disadvantaged voters and the costs of housing and rents which grew by 7 per cent in the past year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has the skills to address both these problems and is the likely successor to Prime Minister Albanese when the time comes.
In the short term, the new budget can address these problems preferably before the Farrer by-election.
Labor must rationalise the value of tax concessions for smaller investors which are inflating housing prices and rents. Investors leave the market when housing prices rise. This whole model is an exercise in government funded speculation in typical LNP fashion.
There are better ways of expanding the affordable housing supply and this needs to be canvassed in Treasurer Jim’s Budget for 2026-27 and preferably before the Farrer By-Election.
The RBA Interest rate call adds a bit of drama to politics each month.
A good background read to next Tuesday’s interest rate call by the RBA and to responses in Uncle Jim Chalmer’s 2026-27 budget. Labor must seize the day in the next budget on overly generous tax concessions to small-time investors who sometimes own multiple rental residences and take profits from rises in property prices when the time period for exemptions for capital gains has passed. New approaches to social housing are needed in the next budget, Jim Chalmers. The LNP’s model for social housing was inherited by the incoming Albanese Government to reward LNP investors for their loyalty.
Labor’s media minders need to lift their game substantially. Albo’s recent gaffs have been significant, and hugely magnified by the Oz mainstream media.
Albo’s & Wong’s statements 1Mar2026 on the weekend’s US & Israeli attacks on Iran & Iran’s response, are agonizing to those in the know. But then again, so too is the BS and disinformation from the Oz mainstream media.
And that’s not to say that Iran’s brutal Shia cleric control needs to be unwound – it does, but not by unlawful ballistics initiated again by the US-Zionista alliance.
Extract from ABC-online article today:
“Former Labor senator Doug Cameron condemned the government’s position.
“Albanese’s backing of Israeli and US attacks on Iran shows that we are completely devoid of acting independently from Trump and Netanyahu. There was a time when Labor pursued peace, not war. That time is long gone. Leadership needed not sycophantic capitulation to militarism,” he posted on X.
The government has also copped flak from the Greens, with defence spokesperson David Shoebridge posting online that: “Australia’s support of Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal attack is disgraceful.”
Cameron may no longer be in the parliament, but his comments are shared by some current politicians from Labor’s left flank who find it difficult to stomach any support for the conflict.”
The history of the ‘west’, particularly Anglo-America destabilizing Iran’s leadership goes back almost 100 years – all for the sake of harvesting / controlling Iran’s oil & mineral wealth.
There’s a good article as to the current state of play for the Iranians, Iran future leaders
Support your comments, Chakka: Denis right is a bit of a dissident within Labor circles. I have no affinity with pro-Labor lobbyists and stay with my MEAA in critical reporting
Come on Albo: Be more committed to national sovereignty: Trump cannot hurt you. Most Australians regard Trump as a joke.