Image from The Australian
The dust had barely settled on the Australian federal election on May 3 before the hagiographers, mythmakers and revisionists got to work. If history is seen as a set of agreed upon facts, there was a rapidly growing consensus that Labor’s imposing victory had been the result of a superb campaign, sparkling in its faultlessness.
This did not quite match pre-election remarks and assessments. The government of Anthony Albanese had been markedly unconvincing, marked by dithering, short sightedness and a lack of conviction. It had, rather inexplicably, made the conservative Coalition led by that cruel, simian looking automaton Peter Dutton, look electable.
Overall, the campaign on the part of both sides of politics was consistently dull and persistently mediocre. Expansive, broad ideas were eschewed in favour of minutiae and objects of bribery: tax matters, cutting fuel excise, forgiving some student debt, improved Medicare services and child care assistance. Issues such as the parlous reliance of Australia upon US security interests, not to mention the criminally daft obligations of the AUKUS security pact, or a detailed, coherent policy on addressing environmental and climate challenges, were kept in storage.
What did become evident in the weeks leading up to the poll was that the Coalition policy palette, which never went beyond blotches of law and order (terrorism, criminal refugees, paedophilia forefront themes), mild bribes for “cost of living relief”; and illusory nuclear energy, failed to appeal. Its campaign lacked the barely modest bite of Labor, largely because it had been eclipsed by such oxygen drawing events as US President Donald Trump’stariff regime and the death of Pope Francis I.
It had also misread the mood of the electorate in pushing policies with a tangy Trump flavour, notably the proposed removal of 41,000 jobs from the public sector and the establishment of something similar to the US Department of Government Efficiency. (Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price unhelpfully promised to “make Australia great again.”) The Coalition, Dutton admitted after being accused by Labor of being “DOGE-y Dutton”, had “made a mistake” and “got it wrong”. The focus would be, instead, on natural attrition. There were also scrappy sorties on the cultural war front, featuring lashings of undesirable press outlets, such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Guardian (“hate media”, according to Dutton), and the presence of “wokeism” in schools.
Flimsy soothsayers could also be found, many endorsing a Liberal-Nationals victory. “For the first time in my journalistic career,” beamed Sharri Markson of Sky News Australia on May 1, “I’m going to offer a pre-election editorial, endorsing one side of politics […] A Dutton prime ministership would give our great nation the fresh start we deserve.” With vigorous drumbeating, Markson could only see “our values under threat – from enemies and abroad” – and retaining Anthony Albanese as prime minister was dangerous. With the analytical skill of an unread, hungover undergraduate, the political astrologist found the PM a victim of “far-left ideology”, something “out of step with mainstream Australia.”
With Labor’s victory assured, the fiscal conservatives at the Australian Financial Review proved sniffy, noting that Labor’s record on the economy did not warrant another term “but the Coalition has not made the case to change the government.” More explicit, with hectoring relish, was Australia’s premier shock jock of the press stable, Andrew Bolt. “No, the voters aren’t always right,” he wrote scoldingly in the News Corp yellow press. “This time they were wrong, and this gutless and incoherent Coalition should be ashamed.” Australians were set to “get more” of policies that had “left this country poorer, weaker, more divided and deeper in debt.”
One is reminded of Henry Kissinger’s rebuke of Chilean democracy at the election of the socialist leader Salvador Allende. As one of US foreign policy’s chief malefactors, he refused to accept the proposition that a country could “go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” Democracy was only worthy if directed by the appropriate interests.
Senator Price, evidently rattled by the result, returned to the Trumpian well, hoping to draw attention to claims of irregular voting in rural polling booths. The Australian Electoral Commission, she told the ABC, “has been alerted to this over and over and does little with it. I urge the ABC, as a taxpayer funded organisation, to go out and see what is occurring.”
There are other evident patterns that emerged in the vote. The old division between urban, metropolitan areas and rural and country communities has been coloured with sharpness. The Liberal Party, which must win seats in urban Australia, finds itself marginalised before its allies, the Nationals, who have retained their complement in regional and country areas. Party voices and strategists lament that not more was done after the 2022 defeat, with the Liberals refusing to address, among other things, the failure to appeal to female voters or the youth vote.
Disappointing in such stonking majorities is the assumption that minority parties and independents can be ignored, if not with contempt, then with condescending politeness. Labor may well be soaring with the greatest return of seats in its history, but attitudes of the electorate can harden quickly. The move away from the major parties, as a trend, continues, and there is no room for complacency in a new Albanese government.
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Really, the ALP have won a huge unexpected victory with hardly much above one third of the first votes. People seem to have been seeking middle ground security and comfort, so that Greens and Liberals have not done well, while women "teals" float along securely. Here and internationally, the foretelling is grim, unhappy, with much worse to come, probably. So, Trump for pope, Putin for UNO sec-Gen., and Farage for contract village idiot. This should work...leaving Albo to tippy toe ever onwards, by the millimetre. NO Morrison, Dutton, obvious Abbott, but, still Joyce (burp) and Littleprong...Charles and Harry niggling, movies nobbled, Murdoch coughing more...Hmmnn.
The commentary on the election campaign being dull, boring, etc glosses over the fact the the election of a government is a serious endeavour, not 'entertainment'.
When Albanese was made leader of the opposition after the defeat of 2019, I thought him uninspiring and that he would be keeping the seat warm for most likely, Tanya Plibersek, but I was , as were so many pundits, wrong.
In Albenese, we have a leader who, if he ever had one, has left his ego at the door. A humble, thoughtful man, not 'full of himself', as Morrison was, not the 'tough guy' as Dutton tried to present himself. A man focussed on doing the job he was elected to do. Turns out the strength of character belied the label of 'weak' Dutton tried to pin on him.
What Albanese proved during his time as opposition leader was that the development of strong, community focused, people focussed policies was needed. An incoming government, facing high inflation and a floundering economy, he, without fuss and bluster, stirred the ship of state through those turbulent waters and did so with no crisis within the party ranks, Ministers were given time to present policies, to speak for their departments and the contributions being made to better the lives of ordinary Australians, and to develop plans and strategies to build on the achievements.despite an unhelpful press.
Politics is NOT entertainment. It is serious business, it is about the future of our nation.
To belittle as boring a campaign which one side clearly outlined its vision for this nation compared to the other side which had no vision and no realistic plan can only be attributed to a press gallery which wanted fireworks and possibly a rock band instead of a serious debate.
Albo is certainly cautious, but definitely not weak. Given the intensely growing precarity of politics and strategic games across the globe, his caution (and determination) have been warranted. Labor's agenda has been deliberately focussed and targeted to attend to the mess they were handed, and set the trend and groundworks for future reform, and its ministers have been disciplined and determined - no loose cannons. They have navigated the post-covid and war-based financial and supply chain shocks masterfully. And done it all without resort to vacuous celebrity and culture-war bullshit.
The world is changing fast, and Albo and Labor have demonstrated they can be quick on their feet, and not hanging onto errors out of hubris. I am confident they have done everything for a good reason, (albeit AUKUS is a bit of a mind-bender) and that reason is the maintenance of economic viability, whilst at the same time advancing self-reliance amid global inter-dependency, and making ground on equity for all.
It seems the electors appreciated this and gave them a mandate to continue their reforms and tight governance.
I look forward to them advancing social cohesion and equity, and attending more to open government, transparency and accountability, which so far they have made expedient depletive compromises and been half-baked on.
Bert, I agree politics is a serious business but we didn’t see seriousness from Albanese and Labor, what we saw was a government frightened to be bold because of its fear that the Opposition and its media standard-bearers would actually have some clout with the electorate if it was bold. So we got meaningful policies - the environment, gambling — put on the back burner, a few almost meaningless proposals on housing and the economy, a weak-kneed move on HECS debts( who can forget it was a Labor government that introduced them?) a bandaid for Medicare and the big issues ignored. By assuring us that there will be no big changes, Albanese - who constantly rules important things out - has assured us he has no big vision, just motherhood statements like, ‘nobody left behind’ when what we need is this huge majority in Parly used to look not for the light on the hill but the Lighthouse on the hill. A good start would be taxing the billionaires and the resource exploiters to give pensioners and jobseekers enough to lift them out of poverty. Nobody left behind means starting at the back and helping the backmarkers to get up.
Hahahaha! You have to be absolutely STAGGERED by the stratospheric level of self-delusional hypocrisy dished out by the corrupt, totally biased type of depraved, self-serving psychopaths who support the like-minded degenerates in the LNP!
The fact that the rusted-on, totally-biased, LNP-supporting Sky (Lie) News hack and shameless LNP sycophant, Sharri Markson, has the AUDACITY to say, and I quote:
“For the first time in my journalistic career, I’m going to offer a pre-election editorial, endorsing one side of politics […] A Dutton prime ministership would give our great nation the fresh start we deserve!"
shows her complete lack of credibility and her total inability to "read the room"! Markson PROVES the STAGGERING level of hypocrisy by the right-wing, racist grubs who currently (or previously) take up EVERY seat in Sky News who have ALWAYS BEEN (and will ALWAYS CONTINUE TO BE) nothing more than pretentious, thoroughly entitled MEGAPHONES for the totally corrupt, self-serving, racist, misogynistic and elitist agenda of the LNP! You only have to look at the staggering hypocrisy of that openly-biased, Z-rated "journalist", David Speers - who was ALSO a talentless, signed-up ex-Sky News hack and, to this day, REMAINS a signed-up MEMBER of the LNP - to see just how deviously depraved, unspeakably biased and totally malevolent they really are!
SINCE WHEN did the deplorable right-wing extremists employed on that MEGAPHONE for right-wing extremism, ie Sky (Lie) News, EVER - in living memory - provide ANY support, whatsoever, for Labor or the Greens?
ON WHAT DELUSIONAL PLANET does Sharri Markson live if she can make such a staggering, utterly deceptive claim that she is, in any way, a credible, impartial "journalist"? On what parallel universe does this woman live if she doesn't know that the appalling racists, misogynistic predators and undemocratic (even fascist) right-wing extremists employed on Sky News - a Murdoch-manipulated MEGAPHONE for the rusted-on intolerance of ANYONE who wasn't a chest-beating, racist and misogynistic, white alpha male - were EVER, in any way, supporting of compassionate, egalitarian left-wing democratic socialists?
WOW! Unless this woman has recently undergone a frontal lobe lobotomy, her persistent DELUSION that she, David Speers - or any other right-wing-extremist currently or previously employed on Sky News - wasn't RIGHT of Genghis Khan, is convincing PROOF of their total lack of insightful self-awareness in openly and brazenly providing relentless, remorseless support for the diabolical LNP - the worst, most corrupt, hatefully racist, misogynistic and dangerously undemocratic pack of political psychopaths in our nation's history!
There's no doubt about it, that deluded Sharri Markson truly represents the type of gormless, Murdoch-manipulated, hateful and racist type of anti-Australian RWNJs who cheer on their like-minded "heroes" in the lying, conniving LNP! The fact that these deluded fools also openly supported that megalomaniacal psychopath, Scott Morrison - an internationally-condemned pathological liar and signed-up member of that paedophile-protecting CULT of Hillsong - who deviously, surreptitiously and undemocratically attempted to ILLEGALLY take over no less than FIVE political portfolios, shows their TOTAL lack of discernment and zero foresight!
The fact that the megalomaniacal psychopaths in the LNP - and their remorseless, callously inhumane and racist supporters on Sky News - were so thoroughly REJECTED by egalitarian Australians and, as such, suffered such a CATASTROPHIC LOSS at the last federal election, is NO SURPRISE - it was BRUTAL JUSTICE at work and, as such, ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLE! Thank you, Australia!