There are strains of disappointment evident on social media and elsewhere with decisions made by the Albanese government. They turn on the fact that this is a new government, and that this creature needs to be different from the one turfed out in the May 21 poll.
This is understandable, and nobody can deny people their feelings that expectations have been unmet. The talking up of new extractive industry projects — which appear to contradict Labor’s stance on getting to net zero by 2050 — and the third round of tax cuts are two issues that have angered ALP supporters.
But could these expectations be a problem more for voters looking for something from the new government rather than for the politicians themselves?
People watching the new government should note that the world is very different when you view it from the ministerial wing as a politician than when you are trying to convince the electorate to give you the keys to the kingdom.
There are things like service continuity in the case of power, for example, that ministers need to worry about in real time, as opposed to keeping up a constant supply of clever media sound bites that get run on the six o’clock news.
Question time remains the bearpit it always was, despite the trotted-out notion of “new politics”. It might be worthwhile noting that the prime minister once tearfully proclaimed he was in the business of fighting Tories. Did anybody seriously expect that his demeanour — and that of the “new” opposition, for that matter — would change simply because there was some renovation in the nation’s administrative arrangements?
Some of this comes down to what is in the political DNA of people entering politics as a career. They are blooded from the outset by elbowing out other contenders for preselection within political parties in the hope they will knock an entire field of candidates away on election day.
Progress within the parliamentary party and, indeed, in government relies on a combination of ruthlessness, opportunity and an ability to flog yourself as a product somehow better, brighter and a more likely victor in an electoral contest than your internal competition.
Did you seriously expect them to behave differently when they have been conditioned to participate in political hardball?
Members of Parliament are there to either stay in government or remove the other mob from its perch. It gets to the point where the behaviour of the political class, regardless of party allegiance, becomes the same.
How can we ordinary folks outside the fun parlour of politics view this? Think about a tub of neapolitan ice cream. There are three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Sure, you can argue about the merits of each flavour — but ultimately the damn thing is still just ice cream.
Have you been disappointed by the Albanese government after its four months in power? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
There is an old story of two men being chased by a tiger and one stops to put on running shoes – “one sez “You’re crazy, you cant outrun a tiger!” to which the answer is “I just have to outrun you”.
Politicians don’t have to good at anything so long as they are better than the other lot.
Did someone mention a low bar?
Most voters want strong action on climate change. Backing new coal/gas isn’t about them staying in power, it’s about protecting their donations. It won’t matter which flavour of ice cream is in power when the world is burning and flooding and society is collapsing. Just why politicians refuse to see that, is mind boggling.
Despite the claim that “Most voters want strong action on climate change” the conventional political view is that very few are willing to be inconvenienced by such ‘action’.
I believe that most of us have children and grandchildren
Ergo?
Are you suggesting that precludes cog-dis?
Everyone chuffed about their brick veneer on a 1/4 acre being worth multiples what they paid then moan that their kids can’t afford to buy.
Even childless misanthropes like me would like to know that the biosphere will continue beyond our passing.
Labor have been big reformers in the past. They have followed through once elected. I’m puzzled by the climate BAU – approving the new exploration fields was abysmal optics given they only won a majority on Green preferences and their primary vote was 5% less than the former government’s.
Otherwise what you’re saying looks a lot like “they’re all the same” which is something strongly pushed from the right.
Labor was a lot of things “in the past” – many good in the distant past but, more recently, far too many appalling, the Hawke/Keating mad embrace of neolib nutbaggery being the most damaging to date, HECS, selling off the Commonwealth bank & War Service Home Loans, the Accord, SerfChoices lite -aka the FWA etc etc.
In 1970, addressing the ALP WA State Conference, Kim Beazley Senior remarked ruefully, perhaps thinking of his useless son, “When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now, all I see are the dregs of the middle class. When will you middle-class perverts stop using the Labor Party as a cultural spittoon?”
The ideologies may be different but there is a way in which politicians are the same and that goes back to how they won their preselections, parliamentary party positions, and – in some cases – leadership.
Better politics requires less of the combative nature. One conversation I had this afternoon with a reader of the article was that the system may well benefit with people that are not professional politicians such as the new independents. I am inclined to agree with them because those individuals have been selected via a different process.
Your point on climate is valid, but things might look a bit different to politicians sitting in the ministerial wing than they do when they are trying to pry somebody else’s hands off the governmental steering wheel.
“The ideologies may be different ….. ” That is a mighty big “may” Tommy!!
So ‘big’ that an electron microscope would be required to detect any difference (assuming one exists).
“Labor have been big reformers in the past”. God help us!!
Are you talking 100 years or so ago Nick?
Yes, maybe when Ben Chifley took a bank nationalization policy to the election in 1949; or perhaps when the ALP firmly opposed our involvement in the Vietnam War. But absolutely nothing since the shysters and con artists Hawke and Keating took over the party.
Actually I dispute the basic tenet of this commentary, I don’t have a sense of disappointment in the general community with the progress of the Labor government, and the opinion polls would tend to support my view. Labor is moving carefully, listening to other voices, and has gained the confidence of the majority of the nation. Much as some folk don’t want to accept it, Labor won the election, not the Greens. Labor is remaining consistent with its promises and is under no obligation to simply adopt the agenda of the Greens and independents. Maybe it’s because I am old enough to have lived through the Whitlam, Hawke and Rudd governments coming to power, but I feel that patience rather than ‘crashing through’ is what will work. If the Tories stay out of power for the next two or three terms, great changes can be achieved, but if the opportunity is wasted and progressive parties lose the confidence of the electorate, then we face the prospect of a right-wing backlash such as we are seeing in Europe. I agree with other commenters, this commentary smells of “politicians, they’re all the same” which is grist to the Tory mill.
The only reason that many in the community seemed to have raised expectations for a ‘Labor’ Government was that the pack of mongrels that they threw out was so bad. Anything would have been a ‘breath of fresh air’ after Scummo and his mob.
Labor is showing its true colors already.
I had no expectations for them and so I will not be disappointed. I have seen too many ‘Labor’ Governments perform in the past. Often (but not always) it is difficult to discern any real difference between them and their cousins in the LNP.