Australians live in dread of the months ahead. When the workplace relations minister recently responded to the Oppositions’ industrial relations policy, he within a few excruciating minutes repeated over and over again that Abbott’s plans “should send a shiver down the spine of every worker”. In the run up to the elections, we know we’re in for more of this back and forth.
Thank providence, then, for a couple of new kids on the block with something different to say. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and mining business magnate Clive Palmer will save us from the longest and most boring election campaign in the nation’s history. And depending on how they fare in the September poll, they may even have something to teach the major parties.
Palmer, who has applied to register Palmer’s United Party, is sent up mercilessly by the media: lots of money, very few policies, very little detail. But then, we don’t know much about the Coalition’s policies either – a far more serious issue, because they’ll more than likely be running the country. Palmer talks about the need for more respect in politics and the dangers of coal seam gas technology – both will strike a chord, the first more broadly and even among the disengaged. At least, unlike Gina Reinhart, Palmer isn’t trying to buy a newspaper to further his own interests. He’s asking people to elect him, and is putting his money where his mouth is (though many will suspect he is putting his mouth where his money is).
As for Assange, he already has a significant supporter base. Despite unresolved sexual allegations against him, polling suggests his party has a real chance of winning Senate seats in NSW and Victoria. He is David to the US’ Goliath, a Ned Kelly like figure fighting injustice while being hounded by the authorities. His platform – transparency, accountability and social justice – cuts across policy areas and is a good fit with the remit of the Upper House.
On the other hand, our major parties are led by almost equally unpopular leaders. Public trust in them is at an all-time low. Mainstream politicians are seen to be too self-interested, too keen to win at any cost. The electorate can smell it – we are talking stench proportions.
You probably did not need the recent University of Melbourne survey to tell you that a majority of voters think our level of political debate is the worst ever: they despair at the quality of political leadership; an even greater majority has even less confidence in the media. Voters are tuning out.
The prime minister scored a major coup earlier this month when she snookered the Opposition leader into supporting a rise in the Medicare levy to partly fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme; people who lead desperate lives will be the beneficiaries. But even this victory is too late to change her fate at the election, too late to change our perception of her. We have become the selfish culture, addicted to handouts and tax cuts never justifiable when extended to others, especially special interest groups. While those in the top tax bracket moan endlessly about the amount of tax they pay, there is little acknowledgement they also benefit from tax breaks useless to the poor; and the healthy breeding majority – “working families” – can sit back and auction their vote. Abbott is currently the highest bidder.
Both parties have been bereft of policy based on principle. They have also failed to develop the engaging, inspirational and transformational narrative required to lead. They merely capitulate when they have to be pragmatic, as Gillard did on the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The Labor leadership row is a farce the public have long ceased to find funny. The media, too busy egging it on, haven’t noticed. Labor reached a new low point when respected party elder Simon Crean recently self- immolated. As for Abbott, his favourite pastime is staying fit. You might ride to and from work; he rides while at work. Never mind honing policy, his priority is sculpting a six pack. Why aren’t we hearing what he will do, not just undo, when he wins the election?
Politicians and mainstream media are locked in a narcissistic dance – an endless repetition of 10 second grabs, sloganeering, mantras, spin and speculation. Music to their ears, noise to the public. Then there is the small matter of truth and accuracy. Both Gillard and Abbott love the term “illegal” for people they disapprove of – for Gillard, it’s Assange and Wikileaks, for Abbott, asylum seekers. Their policy on boat people is similar and guess what, the courts decreed it illegal.
True, Clive Palmer will not be prime minister come September and the party of the man behind Titanic II may go the way of Titanic I. But his professed commitment to issues of equality and a less draconian attitude towards asylum seekers remind us it is possible to be economically conservative and socially progressive – an anathema to the Coalition.
Assange may be Australia’s first senator unable to take up his place in parliament. Whether he is elected or not, the Wikileaks Party will be raising issues that are not big ticket items for the mainstream parties who prefer to be left alone to quietly do as they please on matters relating to freedom of information, whistle-blower protection, privacy, surveillance and government accountability to citizens. The Wikileaks brand is associated with empowering citizens – it may just be a little party with a lot of grunt.
Come September, poll results will force Labor into the wilderness for a rethink. If the size of the Coalition win is a landslide, as it is expected, they won’t have to think at all. We will all be the losers. We need leaders more engaged with policy than power, and a media more engaged with nuance, less with noise.