Denis Bright invites discussion of the importance of linking complex policy issues to the practical concerns of people in a more stridently market economy. The federal LNP has successfully eulogized its policy message in defence of its market ideology throughout the entire post-war period to encourage many constituents to vote against their own self-interest.
In addressing the LNP Party Room, the Prime Minister cloaked support for the Budget (Omnibus) Bill with a new moral authority:
But you know, above all of that, this Parliament faces and we face – our Government faces – a massive moral challenge. It is the task of Budget repair. It’s more than economics. It is more than fiscal matters. It’s not just a technical issue. This is a fundamental moral challenge.
How long are we prepared as a nation, as a generation, to load more and more debt onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren? How long are we prepared to live beyond our means, to live effectively on the credit card of the generations that come after us? We have a task. We have a task and this Parliament has a task.
Peter Costello could be more specific at the Young Liberals Conference in Canberra on 22 January 2016 about the precise limits of fiscal morality:
“Tax changes will not solve the budget problem,’’ Mr Costello will tell the Young Liberal Annual Conference in Canberra tonight. “The budget problem is that spending close to 26 per cent of GDP is still at the ‘temporary’ and ‘emergency’ level that (Kevin) Rudd introduced in 2008.
“If we could get back to where it was before then (and no one was starving in the street at those levels), the budget would now be in surplus.’’ Spending was 23.1 per cent in 2007-08.
Mr Costello will say balancing the budget will put the government in a stronger position on tax reform, warning that while the budget is in deficit there will be a suspicion that tax changes “have more to do with grabbing money than improving incentive and efficiency”.
In this return to comic farce from the musical genre of HMS Pinafore, market ideology now has such moral qualities as defined by the Prime Minister.
The appropriateness of this new political morality is quite easy to dismiss but the LNP’s media communication is sound. Should Labor take the bait, it is likely to lose votes to the cross-benchers at the next election.
Younger people struggle to enter a costly rental and housing market where a median house price of $400 000 would be regarded as an affordable bargain to be paid off over a working lifetime for a place in outer suburbia or a regional centre.
Many potential buyers and rental tenants do not have the finances to enter such precincts. Even rental contracts require substantial cash bonds.
Behind high fences, some caravan parks offer permanent lower cost accommodation as an alternative to the mainstream property market rat race. This type of accommodation offers mixed reviews on the caravan park web sites.
Sites at other localities with accommodation on-site for young children fetch rental prices $80 per day which is similar to the rental price of modest houses and units.
The challenges of housing, work, care of children and access to public transport cannot be viewed selectively and in isolation from each other. Politics is best communicated through a holistic message.
Constituents are not driven into the arms of the Labor Party by their financial frustrations.
In the electorate of Fairfax where the Yandina Caravan Park is located, the LNP won the nearest polling booth with almost 54% of the vote after preferences at the recent federal elections.
A significant number of voters who were actually enrolled directed preferences from One Nation and Family First to return another federal LNP member in Fairfax as a replacement for Clive Palmer. Officially, One Nation issued a spit-ticket in Fairfax.
Bill Shorten’s political communication in the election campaign succeeded in linking macro-policy initiatives to the erosion of living standards. This is a work in progress as many marginal seats in outer suburban and regional seats in Queensland resisted this approach.
The strength of the federal LNP’s vote in some Labor heartland seats like Hinkler, Capricornia, Dawson and Leichhardt reflected a pragmatic management of pre-polling and absentee votes as well as an emotional appeal to working class voters.
Too much co-operation with the Prime Minister’s commitment to budget austerity in the forthcoming Budget (Omnibus) Bill invites Labor’s co-operation in more attacks on the most disadvantaged sections of the community who turn to benefits like Newstart allowances as the best hope for some escape from real poverty.
Opposition to this legislation is justified by the federal LNP tolerance for high income superannuation perks, tax relief for large companies and high income earners as well as a feather brush approach to systematic tax evasion.
Excessive consensus building with the Prime Minister simply prolongs his tenure. In the interests of balance, it is fair game in contemporary politics to contrast harbour side mansions with emergent Texan style trailer parks in outer suburban and regional sites across Australia.
All credit to Bill Shorten for giving Centre-Left Populism a rerun in 2016. Sir Robert Menzies showed us the way in his 1942 radio eulogy on behalf of The Forgotten People.
This was a conservative treatise against the excesses of legitimate government planning. It talked up the role of an embattled middle classes at home who were identified in moral terms as the backbone of the nation in war and peace
It is for progressive leaders to redefine the parameters of contemporary political marginalization as discussed in Fairfax electorate as Prime Minister Turnbull tries to establish political consensus on his terms.
