The Guardian’s political editor, Katherine Murphy, recently observed that Scott Morrison and his band of merry ministers were recklessly ignoring the most pressing policy issues while making a pretence of being in opposition. Labor, the Morrisettes insist, is responsible for all the country’s woes, giving the impression that somehow Labor is still in power.
The issues that Morrison et al are ignoring include energy policy and climate change, water policy, the faltering domestic economy, the storm clouds gathering over the global economy, and mounting security threats as China asserts its power in the region and Donald Trump plunges from chaos into nihilism. It’s a cunning tactic for sure; but it means that good governance is being thrown out the window and cheap political expediency, and convenient obfuscations (lies) have become the pathological norm in everyday Australian politics. Labor must get out from under the boot that Katherine Murphy says Morrison has planted on its throat. It’s time for Labor to stand up.
The culture of ennui and self-pity engulfing the ALP since the election is giving far too many free kicks to the Morrison government. This is despite the fact that the Coalition that fudged its way back into government is bereft of a coherent policy agenda. Its prevailing narrative is defensiveness and fear-mongering. It threatens journalists and whistle blowers. It excuses its policy vacuum by blaming Labor’s past even as it enters its seventh year in government. Its leading figures daily bluster and pass the buck on just about every matter of public policy significance. It is led by a Prime Minister who specialises in smirking while ducking away from the truth, even as he parrots a version of politics drawn from glib advertising slogans and the shallowest form of theological thinking. Not for good reason is he acquiring the reputation for being Trump-lite.
The Morrison government is shaping up as the most fatuous, self-interested and complacent government since the Menzies era so brilliantly excoriated by the late Donald Horne in his ironically titled book, The Lucky Country. A sequel to that book accounting for the Morrison era could well be titled The Lazy Country.
It’s time for Labor to get over the election loss and to come out swinging with a clear policy narrative that addresses the concerns of voters who are increasingly alienated from their political representatives. They rightly see MPs as a class apart, feathering their own nests, ignoring the real crises affecting the majority of contemporary Australians. A new Labor narrative has to be bold, clear and simple. Its central theme has to be about “bringing the state back in” – that is, demonstrating clearly that if a healthy mixed economy is going to be allowed to flourish amidst a harmonious and cosmopolitan society, government must take the lead with a clearly articulated policy strategy.
This could be developed around four cardinal issues:
(i) Jobs
There is a crying need for a wide ranging and creative jobs creation strategy for the contemporary Australian economy. There are too many people who want to work in the cities and in the regions. Many of them are the victims of the worst kinds of reactionary responses to globalisation – for example, the wanton destruction (especially by the malevolently ideological Abbott and Hockey) of manufacturing industries. The jobs creation strategy must focus on new industries – for example, clean energy technologies.
Labor must recognise that such developments have to be carefully nurtured by governments. It would be useful for Labor to consider Japan’s industrial development policies during the 1960s and 1970s when government was absolutely central in creating an economy that for a time was “No.1” in the world (a status that collapsed as soon as Ronald Regan persuaded then Japanese PM Nakasone to adopt a ramp of destructive Reganomic neoliberal economic policies). It must also face the fact that so-called free market forces are inept, incoherent, and totally inefficient when it comes to building an economy that functions in the interests of everyone, not just in the interests of fat cat CEOs and off-shore share-holders.
(ii) TAFE
At the centre of an effective jobs creation strategy there has to be a dynamic TAFE sector geared to training people to transition into the new industries being nurtured by government. The courses offered by the revived TAFE sector have to be free – part of a process of investing in people to help them transition to new work opportunities in order to become productive and secure citizens in an inclusive economy and society where they are treated with dignity. This means they will have to be paid sustainable allowances to undertake the necessary training programs.
(iii) Climate Change
This semester I have been teaching a third-year university class with nearly 100 enrolments on issues in contemporary Australian foreign policy. When discussing the issue of climate change what was striking is the white hot anger many of the students feel about the issue. They, and their age cohort in the wider community, many of whom share a similar anger, will be voting at the next election. Here is a major opportunity for Labor to take a principled and unambiguous stand on the matter. This would not only bring a significant proportion of younger voters on board, but maybe even have them stay on board. Moreover, as the latest Lowy Institute and ABC surveys have noted, they will be joined by many others out there in voter land. On its own, climate change could hand government to Labor, provided the party adopts a bold policy and holds fast to it.
(iv) Publicly Owned Bank
Labor has been astonishingly weak in its responses to the report of the Royal Commission into the Financial Sector. The prolonged corruption of the big banks still rankles vast numbers of voters. Now that the big four banks are refusing to pass on interest rate cuts to people with home loans provides fertile ground for Labor to come to understand that what people want is a publicly owned bank to compete with the bastards. This could be a stand-out issue for a social democratic party committed to “bringing the state back in.”
Allan Patience is a political scientist in the University of Melbourne
Dr Allan Patience is an honorary fellow in political science in the University of Melbourne.
Comments
12 responses to “ALLAN PATIENCE. Getting Morrison’s boot off Labor’s throat.”
VI How about asking or demanding the government do its job of regulating, getting organizations to abide by the rules, some state and some federal. Angus Taylor, a Federal ICAC, publication of blatant untruth, building regulations, water regulation, banking,wages etc. I’m no expert but this government and its NSW state seem to let all kinds of abuse of regulations go unobserved and unprosecuted. I suppose that if a government does not want to keep the rules it can hardly enforce them.
Yes I agree these four issues should be on the ALP list for policy and the campaign. We could start with the CBA and have Treasury buy 51% + of the shares and appoint the Board. On TAFE we could rebuild the education fund to at least $1 billion as proposed by the cross bench in the Senate . Senator Lambie presented good reasons. Keep the faith !
I just don’t see how it is possible to counter the power that News Ltd and the rest of commercial media have over the 85% of the electorate which is not engaged. It’s easy to imagine how those interests would react to any attempt to reform media monopoly.
Thanks Allan for a well written poignant article.
Perhaps the problem is that the labour party of today has nothing in common with the labour party of old.Hawke/Keating sold the commonwealth bank and opened the floodgates for howard et al to follow.On the snowy scheme Chifley was required to push the legislation thru under the war act, with total opposition from menzies.With hindsight,menzies and howard,along with hawke keating have done more to damage oz than all the other incompetents put together.poor fella my country
Good article. The Labor Party has an unprecedented opportunity to “own” the agenda for responses to the challenge of climate change, and area where the Morrison government has abdicated.
The Labor party also has to own the transition away from the old “piggy bank” mentality, of the budget must always be in surplus, whilst the nation’s net debt blows out as continues to do under Morrison’s and previous LNP governments since the GFC.
Something clear and progressive has to be done about the national debt, otherwise the austerity plus stagnation will eventually shrink Australia’s economy beyond the ability for the debts to be repaid.
One of the most insidious forms of “job creation” under LNP governments involves giant corporations such as McDonalds to exploit the workforce with low-wage, low-skill and low-quality opportunities, almost akin to slavery. And this because they have been allowed to operate in this manner by the State. The process needs to be thrown into reverse by law and regulation in order to promote high-wage, high-growth, high technology economic models. This is Labor’s territory.
The media environment must also change, and the current monopolistic practices of the current crop of media have to be broken up. For example, the Murdoch media own virtually all the newspapers in Queensland. These sorts of monopolies should be outlawed and media outlets forced to break up.
There are plenty of areas the labor party can thrive, they just have to get on with it.
The analysis is first class. Unfortunately it is just another bit of first-class analysis amongst a forest of not so good ones. The problem seems to be that the quality of the words is excellent while the inaction is everywhere. I have no idea how to break the logjam but I think it is time for a coalition outside government which is based on a controlling body of sensible people who can contribute policies which are beneficial to the masses who must surely be waking up to the fact by now that they have been well and truly Ripped off by the Coalition which has left them trailing behind in practically every way while giving benefit to themselves and their rich mates. It would be nice if we could get an organisation funded by Getup but not controlled by Getup which aligned itself with the Lowy Institute and other independent think tanks to provide an alternative policy which would put real pressure on both Labour and Liberal to come up with policies that meet with community expectations and not their own political ambitions.
Morrison got back into power with no public policy other than his use of fake news etc.,
the only way to stop Morrison’s big boot, is his permanent departure from our Parliament. Labor needs to keep its policy position powder dry until near the next Federal election. Labor has time on its side to starve Morrison of any further oxygen of fake news and lies on Labor’s final policy direction for the next Federal election. Trashing Labor on a daily basis is Morrison’s top priority as it deflect’s the real truth of who is Scott Morrison and his incompetency as Prime Minister.
A People’s bank would be a great public policy that Labor could promote ASAP that could make it difficult for Morrison to trash.
Professor Patience is right that Labor must change the narrative and put up bold ideas. Are there the bold, nation changing reformers in the Labor Party today such as Chifley, Whitlam and Dunstan and their supporters? Labor needs to constantly debunk the lies and propaganda put out by the LNP and remind people about the massive improvements achieved for all Australians when we have had Labor governments and how that great legacy can be carried forward in today’s Australia. The latest lie from the government is Menzies was responsible for child endowment and devising the Snowy Mountains Scheme. There is bitter irony in the idea of a publicly owned bank. We had one, the Commonwealth Bank, a Labor initiative, sold by a Labor government.
Hmmm, “… a major opportunity for Labor to take a principled and unambiguous stand …”.
No, doesn’t ring a bell.
Would this be the party with Joel Fitzgibbon the Member for Hunter, who recently warned, re Adani “we’ve gotta get the coal out of the ground asap – in 50yrs (?sic!) it’ll be worth nothing.”?
To that list you might add:
5. Effective data communications infrastructure
While I agree that (iii) is important, to me the Coal Quexit indicates not the anger of youth, but more the desire of families and workers for a meaningful transition program. Labor used to call this “structural adjustment”.
Omitted is (v) Migration. It is a matter of record that Green Labor were rebuffed in Sydney with their open-ended migrant-parent visa, yet Albanese and Keneally continue to brand eagerly as the Party of High Migration. How does that work?