By Callen Sorensen Karklis
Neoliberalism is an illness: unregulated capitalism, it is not just a political theory, it is a sick, deranged blight on the way we run our society. If anybody hasn’t watched the John Carpenter film “They Live”, I recommend seeing it. It is a film where society and the capitalist class who run it are revealed to be aliens hiding in plain sight using humanity and their world for its natural resources and slavery. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
When you look at society today it’s clear that most are struggling with a gas energy crisis, rental crisis, cost of living crisis, high inflation on the back of a pandemic in the early 2020s, and a return to Cold War thinking with rising tensions and conflicts overseas.
The policies introduced by John Howard, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Regan have done ever lasting damage to communities across the globe. The fantasy of unrestrained individualism has provided a pathway to decades of endless greed in the housing market and the business world much like a prelude to the fall of Rome in a culture of hedonism and self-indulgence. Endless population and business growth is a complete fantasy as property developers are a big part of the problem developing in environmental habitats where species are being pushed to extinction, and fossil fuels and gas companies continue to pollute without considering the long-term consequences. It’s little wonder why there are growing crimes among our youth population because they are losing hope in themselves and their future is hijacked by sociopathic cold-blooded lizard thinking morons in the Murdoch press, and fossil fuel lobbies bribing politicians for a quick buck like greedy businessmen in a brothel. What is clear is that society needs a total rethink on how we conduct ourselves.
Transitioning to renewables and sustainable mining to sustain the transition is one way forward to save ourselves, which the safeguard mechanism in Australia, carbon tariffs in Europe and IRA in the US are doing. Even China now has a national ETS and Brazil is considering the same as 40 nations have carbon prices (as the developing world will need to adapt to this soon).
But so is the need to move away from blindless commercialism and the fantasy of individualism over community. We need to use our city spaces for farming and agriculture and green spaces to enhance not just our own mental health but assist the environment around us as well while finding ways to conserve water as best we can.
The Hawke and Keating legacy is one of complacent reform after the tumultuous Whitlam years in the mid-1970s. Although Whitlam changed a great deal for Australia after 23 years of conservative rule from 1949 – 1972, Labor was hesitant after his brief time in office since “Its Time” moment. Yes, long-lasting reforms came out of Labor’s 13 years in power in 1983 – 1996. Some good, some bad. The problem with Hawke and Keating was they went too far to win votes. Labor must evaluate its future by learning from both its success and failures. Particularly when analysing the legacy of this era which successive governments under the Coalition took great advantage of particularly John Howard during his 12 years in office from 1996 – 2007.
While the Australian Labor party is the lesser of two evils in the major parties in Australia, unfortunately, it has become riddled with short-sighted factionalism and careerist attitudes sacrificing principals much like the LNP. With revolving leadership doors in the top job in The Lodge the electorate has become sick of it and may have contributed to both middle- and working-class voters turn to TEAL independents and an increase of Australian Greens as the 3rd option force in politics.
There is a particular dissatisfaction among voters about the job performance of our leaders since 2010 and it stems from the electoral success and potentially the decisions of the Hawke/Keating and Howard eras to this day. Neoliberalism has made issues far harder to resolve leading to the rise of popularist movements on the far left and right with their own issues. Cases in point: the rise of Donald Trump, Brexit, and the resurgence of One Nation since 2016.
To analyse where Labor went wrong in past decades, we must look to the success and failures of its longest period in government. Under Hawke; Australia’s 3rd longest serving PM and his successor Keating. Arguably so far, the best electoral performing Labor government in Australian history which hadn’t seen back-to-back Labor governments during the Curtin/Chifley era in World War 2 and the Fisher/Hughes governments in early federation. Following the simple titles associated of the cult classic spaghetti western era in the Eastwood Dollars trilogy we’ll analyse what social democrats must learn from.
The Hawke/Keating Era (1983 – 1996)
The Good:
- Introduced Medicare and superannuation.
- Introduced the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act. Protected Tasmania’s Franklin River from damming.
- Banned Uranium mining in Arnhem Land.
- Introduced gender discrimination protections.
- Introduced our own national anthem.
- Native Title introduced.
- Led awareness response during Aids crisis.
- Made Australia more competitive in the region.
The Bad & the Ugly:
- The Prices Income Accords. (Had the best of intentions but arguably part of the reason unionism is in decline from flood to ebb tide since the 1980s)
- The sale of Commonwealth Bank.
- The sale of Qantas and began sale of Telcom (later Telstra sold under Howard).
- Introduction of offshore detention centres for asylum seekers.
The Pros and Cons of the Rudd Gillard Era (2007 – 2013)
Take the Rudd Gillard years while there was success with the Apology, Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, NBN, carbon pricing, mining tax, NDIS, enhanced education, LBTIQ financial rights, the Fair Work Commission being introduced in its 6 years of office while it kept Australia out of recession during the GFC. While also maintaining strong relations with both China and India. But some of the measures of the Howard era’s WorkChoices policies stayed in place such as keeping striking restrictions and employer lockouts as well as keeping job agencies privatised locking out prospective workers from opportunities.
What the Albanese Labor Government and Greens need to do!
- Fixing public housing and more of it is not enough! Fix negative gearing!
- Raise the rate for Centrelink.
- Fix the Medicare crisis with Drs and bulk bill crisis.
- Include dental care into Medicare plans.
- Introduce fairer rental legislation and caps.
- Hold gas companies and banks to account for exploitation, more red tape!
- Reintroducing the Commonwealth Employment Scheme.
- Introduce Full Employment measures nationally that feeds the demand for people with qualifications looking for work! Look at people as people not commodities, this is the issue with job agencies today!
- Fix the growing indexation of University HECs for students who can’t afford its constraints; the growing financial strain and less job pathways for students must be resolved and reformed. Not enough attention given to domestic students cuts our future short in tertiary education!
- Abolish tax cuts for the rich!
- Invest in Lithium, nickel, cobalt mining in outback Australia to fuel the next mining boom!
What QLD Labor and Greens in state government, BCC & other SEQ Councils should do!
- Open more community gardens in urban spaces, introduce more affordable public transport, introduce better water management and conservation!
- Rate rebates for pensioners and people struggling financially.
- Stop proposals to build in Ramsar wetlands (Toondah, Cleveland) and heritage listed sites (Deebing Creek, Ipswich). Restructure regional planning to balance conservation of habitats.
- Reintroducing green spaces in King George Square & compulsory preferential voting in local government elections to ensure increased democratic say on the local tier.
Conclusion: Once we have an economy self-sustaining itself with a community focus and an education system that feeds into a promise of jobs where people can strive to look after themselves as well as each other as a whole collective we can succeed. The exploitation of the middle class which is in decline (as the economic gap widens), working class, and First Nations population must cease.
The Albanese Government initiating Free TAFE for trades is one solution. The main goal is to move away from thinking of endless growth and think in a sustainable sense. There is no bottomless pit; the problem being there isn’t enough money or people on welfare. We’ve all been taken for a ride by multi billionaire companies and politicians selling us out for an endless future that doesn’t exist if we don’t sustain what we’ve already got.
Greed is not good, and it has harmful effects for all of us. It is a sick disease that needs full medical attention and needs to stay outside of policy making. What is the point of fighting if we don’t know what we’re fighting for? I’m not advocating for a communist revolution by any means, but a total rethink is needed in day-to-day life and economically. We can’t keep going the way we are with endless pollution, increasing population, and spending resources we just don’t have.
We need to conserve our resources for tomorrow and future generations. Or else there is no future not just for the labour movement but all of us.
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Callen Sorensen Karklis, Bachelor of Government and International Relations.
Callen is a Quandamooka Nunukul Aboriginal person from North Stradbroke Island. He has been the Secretary of the Qld Fabians in 2018, and the Assistant Secretary 2018 – 2019, 2016, and was more recently the Policy and Publications Officer 2020 – 2021. Callen previously was in Labor branch executives in the Oodgeroo (Cleveland areas), SEC and the Bowman FEC. He has also worked for Cr Peter Cumming, worked in market research, trade unions, media advertising, and worked in retail. He also ran for Redland City Council in 2020 on protecting the Toondah Ramsar wetlands. Callen is active in Redlands 2030, Labor LEAN, the Redlands Museum, and his local sports club at Victoria Pt Sharks Club. Callen also has a Diploma of Business and attained his tertiary education from Griffith University. He was a co-host from time to time on Workers Power 4ZZZ (FM 102.1) on Tuesday morning’s program Workers Power. He is currently a public servant for the Qld Government.
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