By Melissa A. Frost
It’s Sunday afternoon. A week since the Federal election. The mood is sombre and the online political group I administer on Facebook is quiet.
I sit here on my balcony in the fading afternoon light reading the latest articles. Searching for a glimpse of what the hell is happening. Has Turnbull won another term with a minority?
Did Bill just concede via a SBS Facebook feed? I scroll back to the group. No. No real anger.
I look out over suburban Gold Coast. Where is the fire in the belly of Aussies? There isn’t any. Just the quiet Sunday afternoon slumber of Aussies desperately grabbing a window of peace and quiet. There is a lady on her balcony reading the paper. A young couple walking their dog. My neighbour is hanging out his weekly washing. Don’t they realise that this country is about to fall into the hands of the wrecking ball that is the Liberal National Party? Again? Of course they do. I know they do.
This scene on a Sunday afternoon of complacency is parallel to the scene I read online. One of complacency. These scenes of complacency reflect the discussions I had with colleagues on election day. My boomer colleague “didn’t care”. Our millennial team member voted “for the Liberals because they look after nurses, didn’t you know?”. Another boomer who didn’t want my update of election day proceedings said “what’s the point?”. “What the hell?” I thought. What has happened to Aussies? I looked at my colleagues as they dragged themselves around the ward. They are buggered. Tired. Weary. Weary of it all. The future of Australia is one thing but their very lives is another thing entirely.
I see this on the Facebook group as well. This weariness. Aussies work harder, have more bills to accommodate, have more red-tape to deal with and are struggling to keep that roof over their heads. So after putting the kids into bed and clearing the kitchen of dinner, most Aussies fall on their sofas by 9pm eagerly flipping through the channels in search of light entertainment, sipping on that wine and settling on Googlebox. To rally their energy to demand a better way of living is simply not on their agenda. They are simply happy to pay the rent this fortnight and keep that boss from reducing their hours.
So how far do Aussies have to be pushed from their Sunday afternoon slumber? History shows us not far. Where is the electorate’s Eureka Stockade moment? And a Eureka Stockade moment is what is needed to jolt Aussies out of their slumber.
Perhaps this second term of Malcolm Abbott’s will be that moment.
