New Politics: Australian Politics, News, Analysis & Commentary

The anti-corruption commission is one step closer to reality – the Labor government tabled its Bill in Parliament this week, despite all the claims from conservative media that the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, was stonewalling the commission and using excuses, such as the death of the British monarch, to withhold the legislation and stymie the commission.

It can never be underestimated how far the mainstream media will go to de-legitimise this Labor government, with the Australian Financial Review fabricating a story where, supposedly, Albanese was solely negotiating with the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, on the anti-corruption commission, and sidelining the Australian Greens and the teal independents. And this was going to result in a watered-down anti-corruption commission, and cause trouble for the Labor government in trying to get its legislation passed by the Australian Greens in the Senate.

The only problem: it wasn’t true. The crossbench seems to be very satisfied with the legislation, although there are sticking points on public hearings, protections for whistle blowers and a guarantee of funding.

Legacy media has had a habit of supporting conservative parties, even when there’s an inept leader such as Dutton. He’s currently going through a makeover, and being rebranded into a leader who’s more palatable to the public. While we can never underestimate any political leader – John Howard was told he could never be Prime Minister, until he became Prime Minister. Tony Abbott too. And Scott Morrison. Donald Trump was an idiot who could never become President of the United States, until he became the President of the United States.

Any politician can become the leader of a country, given the right circumstances, and with the incessant support of the media. Which is currently happening with Peter Dutton. With any political issue; Dutton is the go-to for the media. Problems with an Optus hack? What does Peter Dutton think about this? Cost of living issues? Let’s speak to Dutton, he knows the answer. Petrol excises? Dutton, he’s out go-to man, he speaks the truth.

But polishing a turd has its limits – although the popular science show MythBusters once did show that it’s definitely possible to “polish the turd”, it’s different for Dutton. He’s been around for far too long and has accumulated such a negative public image, that it’s hard to see how this could change. But aside from this, where’s the gravitas? What’s the intellectual and political substance behind the man? Where’s the creative curiosity?

There isn’t any, and this is the failing of Dutton: it’s all anti-union; anti-immigration; anti-Labor; anti-intellectual, littered with the racist undertones. And it’s not a recipe for success in contemporary Australia, which discarded this type of thinking at the recent federal election in May 2022.

Senator Jacqui Lambie has issued an apology – of sorts – for voting for Stage 3 tax cuts all the way back in July 2019. She’s made the claim that the economy can’t support it – which is absolutely true – but why has she waited until now? The economy has been tanking and was in an incredible dire position in 2019 when she voted for these tax cuts – as it is in 2022.

Lambie is an opportunist – which is what you’d expect from a Senator, trying to get the best deal for their state; in this case, Tasmania. And Tasmania had a $157 million debt waived for her support for the Morrison’s government Stage 3 tax cuts legislation. But she’s never owned up to what the deal was for repealing the Medivac legislation – pushing that idea that people just had to trust her – even though she claimed in 2021 that there was no deal and nothing was negotiated.

Lambie can’t be trusted on these key issues but it’s also unclear what she is trying to achieve with these latest ramblings. It’s a mystery.

After a fortnight where most of Anglosphere was preoccupied with the death of a British monarch, life is getting back to normal and to the real things that matter: there’s a Budget coming up soon, and there’s been a hint from the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, of “substantial temporary taxes” to repair the national figures and start managing the trillion dollar government left behind by the Coalition.

Already, the media and the Opposition are pushing the idea that Labor is the party of big taxes and spending, and not to be trusted with managing finances. What they ignore is that the three biggest taxing governments in the post-war period are the Howard, Abbott and Morrison governments – and in the case of the Morrison government, not much of substance to show for all of their spending.

But, it’s not the amount of taxes that matters, it’s the quality of spending. And there’s not much evidence of quality over the past nine years. Of course, we’ll have to see what the Labor government will spend taxpayer’s money on in the Budget, but surely it won’t be as profligate as Morrison’s final term in office.

And how super is Albanese’s renewables superpower? It’s rhetoric that was pushed during the May election campaign, but it’s time for this to be matched with action. The Australian Greens have recommended the $1.9 billion the previous government had allocated to a “gas-led recovery” – a strange choice for a response to a pandemic – be re-allocated to renewable energy. And it makes sense: it fits perfectly into the Labor government’s agenda, and it needs to take this first step if Australia does want to become a renewables superpower. If the Labor government is actually serious about this…

The former Prime Minister – Tony Abbott – has been re-appointed to the board of the Australian War Memorial. Is this a lost opportunity for Labor and should they start putting in their “own people”? No, it should be the best and the most appropriate people for the position – it’s just that the Coalition always inserts its own conservative people and supporters into high-powered government boards, without any concern whether these are the right people. And it results in $500 million being allocated to a renovation at the War Memorial, without a question about whether this is value for money. Why not spend this money on the veterans of war, rather than an already overblown budget for a memorial that glorifies conflict?

It’s actually mind-boggling to see how many breaches of protocol Scott Morrison seemed to immerse himself in – a sole-person committee where he could decide whether an official Cabinet meeting had taken place – or not – and therefore, he could keep any details of a meeting a secret for 20 years. It’s almost like Alice In Wonderland. Except this was a real Prime Minister. There were 739 ‘meetings’ and 665 of these are actually unaccounted for. 665. It might not be so important to find out the details of these unaccountable meetings but it is important that someone of the calibre of Scott Morrison is never allowed anywhere near Parliament again.

And with a return to normal life after the insane and incessant media coverage of the British monarch, we can also start to have normal discussions about Australia’s transition to a republic. But as much as we’d like it to happen soon, it’s probably not going to be enacted for some time to come. In our estimation: with a benign and invisible King? Perhaps in 2026 or 2027. However, if there’s more scandals to come through (hint: Prince Andrew), perhaps 2024, at the earliest. There’s still a long road ahead.

Australia lost a head of state last week, and gained a new one, even though nobody voted for King Charles, and nobody was asked about it. And this will keep happening until Australia becomes a republic.

The Queen has died, and people can pay their respects if they wish to, but it’s time for Australia to move on with its own future and its own destiny – it can’t be hamstrung by some dysfunctional family in a faraway country that couldn’t really care about what happens in Australia.

And it needs to happen soon. Several years ago, the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull proclaimed “we are all Elizabethans”, and suggested that the right time for Australia to move towards a republic was after the passing of the Queen. That time has now arrived: what are we waiting for? And to use the words of the current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when he described the need for the Voice To Parliament, “if not now, when?”.

Australia is republican in nature, but there are tight strings holding us to the monarchy, and the mainstream media is a part of that system that keeps nailing these strings down. The media reportage after the Queen died was incessant, one dimensional and left no room to move for alternative perspectives or other voices to outline their reasons for why they might not be so enthused about the role of the British monarchy within Australian society, or the death of the Queen: Indigenous people; Irish Catholics living in Australia; Fijian Indians; Indians from the sub-continent; republicans.

And this is how soft power is exercised: dissenting voices are removed, and not even considered; unknown protocols are implemented; everyone is told what they need to think and feel about the Queen. But who are we trying to avoid offending? The Queen? The royal family? British sympathisers in Australia? Monarchists?

History needs to be an unvarnished truth: no one is perfect, not even the Queen of England, the Queen of Britain, the Queen of Australia. We should receive a clearer understanding and fuller picture of political figures: the colour and shades of grey, not the overloaded black and white clichés that we’ve been presented with through the non-stop and uncritical media transmission over the past week.

Where does this leave an Australian republic? Today is the day the path towards the republic commences: it can’t wait until after the Queen’s funeral, or wait until the new King settles in, just to “see what he’s like”.

And not just any kind of republic: the current Constitution is broken; it needs to be repaired. Today is the day to talk about the republic.

The federal government is still feeling the warm inner glow after the Jobs and Skills Summit, which was the first public display of the consensus politics the Prime Minister talked about during the federal election campaign. And getting corporate, union and political leaders together is no mean feat: agreement is the harder part though, and it seemed to work out well.

But now the difficult part – the Budget. Anthony Albanese has been pushing out the messages that we’re in difficult economic circumstances and because there’s a trillion dollar national government deficit, high inflation and a wide range of other economic issues, the Budget will be a particularly harsh one. Governments accumulate baggage as time goes on – that’s the nature of politics – and how they manage the October Budget will determine the rest of this term of Parliament.

The media has never supported union action – even when there’s a just cause – they’ve always depicted any form of action as moves by ungrateful and greedy workers – forced upon by the also greedy unions – greatly inconveniencing the public. And, of course, this theme is also pushed by the Liberal Party, with their rhetoric of “union thugs” and making it seem as those unionists and workers are soiling the wheels of capitalism and affecting the wellbeing of the economy.

Yes, a one-day strike is an inconvenience to the public – but low pay and poor working conditions are an inconvenience to workers every single day of the year. Union bashing isn’t good for anyone and it’s a pity the journalists who rail against unions don’t understand where their sick pay, holiday pay, higher wages, leave entitlements and working conditions, came from. A clue: it’s not from the goodwill of their employers.

And the unbridled ambitions of Scott Morrison have resulted in another victim: the Governor–General, David Hurley. It seems his silence on the secret ministries he signed off on for Morrison did have a price: $18 million, in the form of some kind of obscure leadership program. We’re not suggesting any corruption here, but it does seem like it. The Governor–General does have some questions to answer.

The poor opinion polls are continuing for the Liberal Party – this is not the end; we’re only four months into this parliamentary term, but it’s an Opposition with few redeeming features and seemingly bereft of ideas. Using “Kermit the Frog” to lampoon Albanese is their idea of a political strategy, and if this continues, it’s not going to end well for the Liberal Party. And of top of this, there are Pentecostal groups who are seizing control of branches in Victoria and South Australia.

It seems like a long hard road ahead for the Liberal Party.

Robodebt was one of the most disastrous acts of public administration in Australia’s history and the condemnation has arrived from all sides of politics – former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Labor, the Australian Greens, the federal court – and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a Royal Commission into this scheme.

All up, it’s a scheme which cost taxpayers $1.8 billion, over 2000 people suicided from the stress and anxiety created by the scheme, and over 470,000 were asked to pay money to the government, for debts which they never owed. It’s rare for governments to create such a high level of extortion upon its own citizens, but that’s exactly what the Coalition government achieved between 2015–2020.

And their response? To double down and blame Labor for the scheme, even though the scheme was introduced two years after they left office in 2013. And for Peter Dutton to also claim that Albanese’s Royal Commission is a ‘witch hunt’. It’s essential for anti-human and insidious – and illegal – governments acts to be investigated, to ensure that they can never happen again but, just like they did in government, the Coalition always looks to play the blame game. It’s always someone’s fault.

The Labor government has been in office for 100 days and is travelling well – but it’s hard not to travel well in this period because there’s not much that can go wrong in such a short amount of time. Problems accumulate for governments as the years roll on, and it’s still too early to assess how well Labor is travelling.

One issue for sure is the conundrum of the economically irresponsible Stage 3 tax cuts and the rate of the Jobseeker payment. Labor hounded the previous government over the low rate of Jobseeker – $40 per day – but now they’re in government, they’re saying that it’s fiscally irresponsible at this stage to raise it any higher.

Raising Jobseeker to $65 per day – which is a rate broadly supported by the business sector and many people in the community (and the Labor Party too, when they were in Opposition) – will cost $3 billion per year. The Stage 3 tax cuts will cost between $20–30 billion per year, so it’s a strange hill for Labor prepare to die on.

It’s also irresponsible to campaign so vehemently on an issue in Opposition, and do the opposite in government and Labor will have a large credibility problem on equity and fairness – and on key Labor values – if it continues down this path.

And the Jobs and Skills Summit is over and Labor now hopes to create a pathway for low unemployment, secure well paid jobs, expanding employment opportunities, addressing skill shortages, maximizing jobs from renewable energy and the digital economy and addressing equal opportunity and equal pay for women.

These are noble intentions but it will take many years to see if the summit was a success. The Coalition – once again – decided to deal itself out of relevance and felt that it was more important to shout from the sidelines, rather than be a productive part of future solutions. It’s their choice, but with this approach of negative carping and opposing everything in sight – electric utes, unions, royal commissions, jobs and skills (to name just a few issues among many), it seems that Peter Dutton is preparing the Liberal Party for a long stint in Opposition. And seems quite happy to do this.

As the rumblings of Scott Morrison’s secret ministers become louder, the Liberal Party – and their friends in the media – are keen to dismiss Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to hold an inquiry into how and why these appointments were ever made. No suitable explanation has been provided by Morrison – or the Governor–General David Hurley – and it’s essential to find out why.

Democracies depend on people of good will, but our system shows that it doesn’t cater for people of ill will or ulterior motivations. Morrison proved to be one of these bad seeds and laws will need to be enacted to ensure this kind of secrecy in government never occurs again.

During the 2022 federal election campaign, the Liberal Party claimed “it won’t be easy under Albanese”, but it’s very easy at the moment, with the Prime Minister – and the Labor Party – riding high in the opinion polls. It won’t last forever, of course, but it seems that the Liberal Party is keen to stay in the doldrums and continue with their ‘business as usual’ approach of opposition for opposition’s sake, and quickly adopting a culture of complaint, rejecting everything – even the good ideas – because this, apparently, represents their best chance of electoral success.

But looking at the results of the 2021 Western Australia election – the Liberal Party reduced to just two seats – and the diabolical status of the Victoria branch of the Liberal Party – it’s a foolish decision. If the party wants to gain political relevance again, it needs to change tack. But does Peter Dutton have the ability to do this?

And what does News Corporation have against Joy Division? Usually, nothing. But if Anthony Albanese wears a Joy Division T-shirt and goes to a gig at the Enmore Theatre, it’s not very prime ministerial, and it’s unbecoming. It’s an outrage. Perhaps Murdoch’s minions need more joy, and less division. It will be good for the soul.

Irrespective of how much effort conservatives and the mainstream media are putting into downplaying the significance of the secret ministries of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the fact that the two people at the apex of Australia’s political system – the Prime Minister and Governor–General – made secret executive decisions, will reverberate for some time to come.

Secrecy and low levels of accountability – or in Morrison’s case, no accountability at all – are the hallmarks of autocratic societies, and are not the basis of democratic governments. It is of great concern that two journalists from News Corporation knew of these arrangements at the time, which remained a secret to everyone except for Morrison, David Hurley, the Attorney–General, the Minister for Health – and certainly remained a secret to the Australian public.

For sure, these two journalists are the reason why the public now knows about Morrison’s secret appointments, but they sat on this knowledge for well over two years, and decided to release it only after Morrison and the Coalition was out of government, and safe in the knowledge that it wouldn’t spoil the Coalition’s re-election chances at the 2022 federal election.

Australia’s mainstream media is among the most mediocre and corrupt in the western world, and this is another example of how vested interests will always act to protect conservative governments and leaders, even when there is clear evidence they have acted improperly and, possible, corruptly.

The only clear course of action is for Morrison to resign from Parliament, and Hurley to resign from the position of Governor–General: there is no public trust for either of them and both of their positions are untenable.

And should Labor repeal the Stage 3 tax cuts? Morally, ethically and economically, yes, they should. It’s a tax cut legislated by the Coalition, it’s not Labor policy, and it’s not a part of the Labor Party’s philosophy to provide massive tax cuts to high income earners and virtually nothing to low and middle income earners.

So, what are they waiting for? The big issue is that, historically, any politician or political party that repeals a promised tax cut is asking for political trouble, irrespective of how valid or economically responsible it might be for the circumstances of the day. It gives the mainstream media – most of whom would be the beneficiaries of tax cuts – and the Opposition of the day to weaponise against the Labor Party, and they’d be shouting about it from the rooftops everyday until the next election.

The Labor Party doesn’t have enough political capital to repeal the Stage 3 tax cuts and, perhaps, no party every would. For the Albanese government, keeping the Stage 3 tax cuts is the lesser of two problems: they’ll have to recoup the $157 billion of lost revenue in other ways.

A lull in politics gives us some time to assess how the political parties are travelling, and since the May election result, most of the focus how been placed on the Coalition – the messages that it can take from their election loss and how they can become a better political party and return to office at some point in the near future.

But what are the lessons for the Labor Party? The did win the election, but victory tends to gloss over any problems a political party might have, and move those problems into the ‘too-hard’ basket. But both major political parties received record low primary votes in 2022 and while it’s possible to win elections through strategic preference voting flows, these types of election victories are difficult to navigate.

While it’s difficult to see the Liberal–National Coalition gaining enough traction over the next three years to pick up those 18 seats it needs to win the 2025 election, it’s easier to see Labor losing seats to Greens or other independent candidates. It’s something they need to be careful of, and their main opponents at the next election might be the Australian Greens and teal-styled independents, and not the Coalition.

And after being thoroughly outplayed on the Climate Change Bill, Peter Dutton has tried to get the Coalition into the climate change debates by throwing in nuclear energy into the mix, even though countless government reports have established that nuclear is not a viable industry in Australia. Including a report the Coalition commissioned in 2019, less than two years ago, which confirmed all of the findings of previous government reports.

If the Coalition had the courage of its convictions, it would have installed nuclear power many years ago – they’ve been in office for 51 of the past 73 years – as well as installing a nuclear reactor in each of their electorates. But they didn’t and never will. The time for nuclear energy in Australia was in the 1960s, and that time has passed. In 2022, it’s a conservative tool to wedge Labor and cause political trouble: that’s all it is.

It’s the gift that keeps giving to NSW Labor – John Barilaro, the man who is now claiming he’s “the victim” in the New York Trade Commissioner debacle, arguing that just because he changed the job from a public service appointment to a political appointment, it can’t be possibly argued that it was purely to benefit himself. Even though – lucky man! – he ended up being benefitted and was appointed as the New York Trade Commissioner. All purely on merit, apparently.

The worst part of this is that these political figures expect the public to believe these fantastic stories and accept them as truth. Politics in NSW has been corrupt for a long time, and it’s hard to see this changing. And Victoria is not too far behind, with corruption and misconduct apparent in both the government, and the opposition. Why is there so much corruption in state politics?

The details for the Voice To Parliament have been released by the Prime Minister, and it’s three simple changes to the Constitution, but already, conservatives are circling the wagons and claiming that that it’s a document that has kept Australia safe since 1901 and is too precious to change.

But it’s an exclusionary document; it was founded on a racist agenda from yesterday and Australia is now a far more sophisticated society than when it was founded in the early part of the twentieth century. There is some resistance from within the Indigenous community, and from different sides of the political spectrum – Senator Jacinta Price has suggested it does nothing to address disadvantage, so she’ll actively campaign against it, while Senator Lidia Thorpe has suggested a Treaty and a truth telling commission should come first. But surely governments can work on more than one issue at a time: why not implement a Voice To Parliament and address disadvantage at the same time? The two processes are not mutually exclusive.

The problem with constitutional recognition of the Voice To Parliament is that it has to be decided – through a referendum – by a system that ignored those rights in the first place. But 250 Indigenous leaders and elders from all around Australia have requested this voice, and it’s because of this reason that it should be supported, and should offer a clearer pathway towards a Treaty and reconciliation.

The state of the economy is becoming more dire and, once again, the Labor Party finds itself in government at a time of severe economic problems. They were in office during World War I, The Great Depression and World War II; the oil crisis in the early 1970s; the 1983 recession; the world recession of the early 1990s; the global financial crisis from 2008; and now, the pandemic economy and massive government national debt.

The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is laying out the economic narrative of the difficult circumstances. The Treasurer needs to be in control of the politics of the economy, as well as the economic output: it’s not just a case where some fine words and Shakespearian delivery can make all the problems go away. Different narratives need to be provided to the electorate; the business community; bankers, the money markets; the share markets. And if any of those areas decided that Chalmers is not up to the job, he’s going to be in for a rough ride over the next parliamentary term. We think that he is up to the job, but which economic levers will he use?

His job – and Labor’s – will be made easier by the current performances of the Coalition, which is finding the transition from government into Opposition quite difficult. And recent opinion polls are also confirming how poorly the Coalition is travelling, who seem determined to ignore the messages they received from the electorate at the May federal election – to paraphrase James Carville, ‘it’s the climate, stupid’.

Peter Dutton refused to support Labor’s Climate Change Bill, assuming that forcing them to deal with the Australian Greens – just like Labor did in 2009 and walked away with nothing – would create mayhem, and the Coalition would reap the political benefits on yet another carcass of a discared climate change policy: anything to kick start the climate change wars.

The only problem: the Greens supported Labor’s Bill and will pass it in the Senate. Dutton was defeated on ideas, on policy, and on politics. If this is the best the Coalition can do, they might be in for a long stint in Opposition.

Anthony Albanese, while he was Opposition leader, declared he would be constructive and support the government wherever possible, especially during a pandemic crisis. Constructive, not de-structive.

Today, Anthony Albanese is Prime Minister. There might be lesson in here for the Coalition, if only they are brave enough to look for it.

The 47th Parliament has commenced and the new Labor government wants to implement its agenda as soon as possible. After nine years of a Coalition government seemingly unwilling to implement anything meaningful, it’s a shock to the body politic to see new leaders wanting to do things, rather than applying the dark arts of politics to spin, diffuse, negate, and ultimately ignore acting on behalf of the community.

Climate change comes to mind, and the Coalition has decided to play itself out of the action on an important issue, an issue the electorate strongly supported at the 2022 federal election.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has implored Parliament to think about their legacy, and reflect on that point in the future when they leave politics: how do they want to be remembered? As members of parliament who sat around, obfuscated and wasted their own time – and the time of their electorate – or implementing programs and policies that were in the benefit of as many people as possible in the community as possible?

The answer seems straightforward, but many in the Coalition want to fight the losing battle from the last election, and happy to waste their time and every body elses. It’s a nihilistic political force that doesn’t know what to do: they were incompetent in government, and now they’re incompetent in opposition.

There were many questions from the media during the 2022 election campaign: who is Anthony Albanese and what does he stand for? We are gradually finding out. This is an ambitious Labor government, but the quality of this government will be based on achievements and actions, not just the words and statements that it releases to the public: the public had three years of a meandering Morrison government; the demands are quite different now.

If the ambitions of this Labor government are becoming clearer – what are the ambitions of the Liberal and National parties?

It appears they haven’t learnt the lessons of the federal election and are looking at the behaviours of the Howard, Abbott and Morrison governments for guidance. But this is a dead end: they need to make a clean break from this era and forge a new path if they wish to achieve political success.

And part of this process has to be disowning the actions of Scott Morrison on election day, when he broke convention – as well as his own unofficial code of not speaking of ‘on water matter’ – by publicising the interception of an asylum seeker boat at 12.50pm, with only five hours before the polls closed.

It didn’t making any difference to the final result – and it was unlikely to make a difference – but Morrison and the Liberal Party decide to trash convention and their own reputations to try and win an election. The party needs change, it needs reform. And until it does, it’s likely to be spending a long time in political obscurity.