THE CLOWNS ARE ABOUT TO TAKE OVER THE COUNTRY
(the end of parliamentary democracy as we’ve known it)
(Image: AAP)
A decade ago (in the days when Morrison was PM) these pages drew attention to the fact that our political class was floundering. No matter who was in power our political leaders had become increasingly preoccupied with vote chasing and internal power plays for party leadership, not just at election time but all the time.
Every day our politicians spruik generalities and puff pieces about their empathy with ordinary Australians and the shortcomings of their opponents. All claim to have superior policies, greater knowledge, deeper insights and the most sincere
of ‘for the betterment of all’ motivations. They blame everyone and anyone for failing to get on top of the many critical problems that have confronted our Nation for decades. At the same time our political class has become ever more skilful (they think) in telling wordy, high sounding spin stories as to the herculean efforts they’ve taken to fix these persistent problems. They pride themselves in mastering the art of lying with statistics and the skilful use of little sweeteners to buy votes (68 cents a day tax cuts, a cut in petrol excise, a grant here, a gesture there).
Unfortunately their boasts, over time, have produced ever diminishing returns in terms of getting things done in the real world .As that reality dawned voters became more aware of, and more immune to, their empty promises. The gap between what our political class said and what they delivered grew wider and wider. And voters noticed it.
VOTERS AS CONSUMERS
Why has our political class become so dysfunctional?
The simple and uncomfortable answer to that question is we voters not only let them do so , we actually encouraged them to adopt such carpetbagger techniques by responding to their marketing games. If voters didn’t respond to this way of practicing politics our political class would quickly change its ways.
Our political class knows three things about modern voters.
First, today’s voters have high expectations. They expect governments to deliver to those expectations…..all at once. The range of those expectations is wide. Economic prosperity, childcare, school education, subsidised university education, hospitals, health care, aged care, aged pensions, disability care, gender equality, wage equality, affordable transport, closing the gap programmes, unemployment benefits, housing programme , adequate national defence, support for the arts…..and on and on the list goes.
Many voters regard all these things as their rights, their entitlements and they expect all of them to be delivered, pronto.
This wasn’t always so. Previous generations of Australians, those who lived through WWI, the Great Depression, WWII and the Financial Crisis, didn’t expect government to provide them with everything they want. The further we go back in time we find most Australians were grateful if governments met their basic needs. Heightened individualism has changed all that. Now they expect governments to satisfy everybody’s wants, including the right to happiness.
Second, even in good economic times voters are reluctant to bear the cost of providing for this ever-expanding cornucopia of benefits/services by paying increased taxes. Most voters argue that there’s always someone else who deserves to be taxed first – and harder than they are. In relatively stagnant times like these this propensity to resist tax increases hardens. Higher taxes cost votes when living standards stagnate. Our politicians then resort to using sleight of hand tricks to hide the fact that they are taking more in tax (eg via bracket creep) while pretending to cut them (eg a tax offset of $250 on your annual tax bill). They do that because that tactic works – for a while.
Our political class also know lots of voters focus on the immediate to near future rather than the long term. Voters tend to pick the best show-bag on offer on election day, the show-bag with the most goodies (sweeteners and benefits) at the lowest price (to minimise any damage to their hip pocket nerve). This model of voter-as-consumer works until per capita living standards fall. They’ve been falling in Australia nearly a decade now. The inability of government to keep pretending all will be OK first turns into voter frustration, then anger and then desperation as time goes by. That’s the point when a movement away from the major parties starts to accelerate.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE RUN OUT OF NEW PARTIES TO VOTE FOR?
Third, in spite of their best efforts to sprinkle weak policies with wordy stardust, the movement away from the major parties started to gain momentum ‘til we’ve now reached a point of near collapse.
First the TEALS won votes away from the Liberal Party with their gender and progressive policies. Women and affluent/educated suburbanites moved to/voted for this loosely affiliated group of next generation, fresh to politics women candidates. The break-up of the Coalition had begun.
At the same time the Greens increasing focus on matters esoteric weakened their traditional appeal as environmental warriors. Labour’s first term focus on the Voice referendum (and other virtuous causes) alienated many, in part because more pressing problems were left neglected.
Dutton’s attempted come back at the next election scarred voters to the extent Labor was re-elected with a huge majority despite its historically low primary vote.
Then the Coalition collapsed. The Liberal party split, then the Liberals and Nationals split -and then rejoined – before both the Liberals and Nationals changed their Leaders. On top of all that Labor (in pursuit of a higher tax intake) launched its generational equity policy as a cover story.
In the process Labor broke many of the promises it had made before the last election .
While all this (‘look at me’- ‘listen to me’) politicking was going on inflation continued to eat away at living standards, interest rate increases stretched mortgage holders yet further – and nothing of consequence happened in terms of building Australia’s housing stock. Then the fuel crisis hit to expose another vulnerability in Australia’s sovereign infrastructure.
Our political class response was to run around in chaos like a flock of headless chickens. The old model of ‘politician as vote buying broker’ fell apart as tough times deepened.
Public sentiment went from frustration, to irritation, to anger. It has now reached desperation. Having tried the Coalition, the Greens, the TEALS, the Nationals and Labor who could voters turn to, who could save them? They chose the only party left, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
A FALSE PROPHET
In 2019 One Nation polled around the 5% to 6% mark……seven years later it tops the poll, marginally ahead of Labor, well ahead of the Coalition with all the other parties buckling or already on their knees. Why?
Well it isn’t because Pauline had changed her mind or ways. Pauline 2026 is the same as the Pauline of 1996. She trots out the same ideas in slightly updated guises year after year. Her major attribute is her honesty. She says what she believes. And while that’s a rare and commendable attribute in politics it does not qualify her to run the Country.
Hanson’s vision for the future of Australia is the nostalgic one of returning Australia to the country it was around 1970 – an imaginary land of milk and honey. That’s the message she’s interested in getting across – ie. that is the best way to go forward is to retreat to the past.
She herself admits (or at least did until this week, June 3) she doesn’t want to run the Country. She realises being PM is a job she’s unqualified for.
Her newly found colleagues are, in the main, disappointed politicians who lament their fall from past positions of power, people who want a second bite at the cherry. They are first and foremost men of personal ambition – and angry ones at that. On the other hand, potential candidates flocking to the Party are a motley lot who have very different ideas as to what the Party should be doing, when and why. They are not signing up to a clearly articulated manifesto and they too will want to put their stamp on things.
And if there’s one thing we know about Pauline Hanson it’s that she sees herself as the Party’s fountainhead – it’s her party. She will not take kindly to being told what to say or do. She will wield her sceptre against the heads of dissenting colleagues quick smart.
The above combination is an explosive one. It will end in chaos no matter how many seats the Party wins in the next election. Our Federal Parliament will become even more of a circus, a tower of near meaningless babble.
THEN WHAT WILL WE VOTERS DO?
One Nation is the last cab left on the rank. Once it’s driven off on the road to oblivion who’s left? Do voters start recycling and start voting for what’s left of the major parties? Such a response offers little prospect of success without huge, chronic pain.
The answer to this conundrum lies in changing the way our political class operates
and our politicians will not change their ways unless we the people insist they do. That will entail us, we ordinary Australians, stop voting as individualistic consumers and start voting as citizens who recognise the social contract that underpins our democracy means we have responsibilities as well as rights. We voters will have to change our mindset before we can expect our political class to change theirs. Unless we do that all we can look forward to is more of the same.
Remember, if we continue to vote for clowns all we can expect (at best) is a colourful spruiker as ringmaster.