Published: 20 May 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
The country needs a national reset: we assess the readiness of Labor, the value of the independents, and the role of the Jewish vote in key seats
AS THE CAMPAIGN descended into a predictable battle over the cost of living in the run-up to election day, it’s hard to believe that six weeks ago the media was dominated, bizarrely, by Liberal Party attacks against the “teal” independents that questioned their loyalty to Israel, links to BDS and related questions of Jewish allegiance.
The Coalition’s use of the “Israel card”, played by Dave Sharma against Allegra Spender in Wentworth and delivered through News Ltd, was cynical, even if there were legitimate questions for the independent candidate for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, to answer over her signing of a pro-Palestinian petition in the wake of last year’s Gaza conflict.
But despite sustained attempts by the Coalition, and certain sections of Jewish communal leadership, to imply that Jews’ concerns for Jewish matters trump all other considerations, the past six weeks have highlighted the broad range of issues that Australians need to be concerned about.
At the top of the list is climate, demonstrated by the prominence of the teal independents, a substantial cohort of largely female candidates with “small l” liberal sympathies who feel alienated from a Coalition dominated by reflexive ties to the carbon lobby and an indifference to the disadvantaged in our community.
These independents, organised and funded in large part by Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 group, have campaigned vigorously on climate action, a national integrity commission and the status of women. They project the identity of a political movement, if not a party.
Their impact has been significant on several fronts: they have put climate front and centre of the debate, they threaten to unseat several members in Liberal strongholds such as Wentworth and North Sydney, Goldstein and Kooyong, and they have also taken the spotlight, for much of the past six weeks, from the Opposition and Greens.
The personal popularity of the independents has exploited Scott Morrison’s vanishing credibility as a leader, which has pushed some vulnerable Coalition MPs to keep him away from their campaigns.
The personal popularity of these independents has exploited Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s vanishing credibility as a leader, which has pushed some vulnerable Coalition MPs to keep him away from their campaigns.
Morrison appears to have proven that he really is the dull suburban footy follower who has no big, or even small ideas, to enhance the future of this country. His aversion to meaningful innovation has focussed attention on his leadership style, which even he has criticised as being too much of a “bulldozer”. Morrison has again presented himself as an “ordinary bloke”, as he did so effectively in 2019 when he won over Labor’s battlers in outer Sydney and Melbourne.
The lump of coal Morrison brought into parliament remains a potent symbol of his political allegiances - to big business and the climate-hostile coal industry.
Yet even in this he is woefully out of touch. When the Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese last week endorsed a pay rise of $1 an hour for workers on minimum pay of $20 an hour, the prime minister claimed it would increase unemployment and hobble small business. The lump of coal he brought into parliament remains a potent symbol of his political allegiances - to big business and the climate-hostile coal industry.
Albanese, for his part, has proved a frustratingly cautious alternative who has taken a long time to assert his credentials. To be fair, the Covid pandemic forced him into an awkward bipartisanship for the first two years of his tenure. Yet his small-target policy strategy has disappointed voters who value community and social reform, and expect conviction from a Labor leader.
In the last few weeks of the campaign, however, through more impressive performances in television debates, his support for increasing the minimum wage, Medicare reform, an integrity commission and climate measures (dragged forwards by the teal independents), Albanese has positioned himself as a genuinely better alternative.
Albanese has proved a frustratingly cautious alternative. To be fair, the pandemic forced him into an awkward bipartisanship for the first two years of his tenure.
If the polls are right – and there is a big question mark about that after their shocking inaccuracy in 2019 – the Opposition is set to win a majority of seats. If it’s closer than that, the projected success of the independents may force Labor to negotiate with them to form a working government.
Morrison has used this prospect to run a scare campaign, warning that a vote for the independents will lead to a hung parliament and break the parliamentary political system.
To the clear-eyed observer, however, even a few seats for the independents will demonstrate that voters relish the chance to endorse candidates whose vote doesn’t automatically go to their leader’s policy. In particular, they want members who can make a difference on climate policy, a benchmark issue whose importance has been driven home by the devastating fires and floods of the past three years.
Australia desperately needs a reset on the national stage; as the country emerges from our stop-start Covid hibernation, the public is yearning for renewed energy and ideas to advance beyond the gloom of the pandemic, the ominous weather events and the war in Ukraine, which carries particular gloom for Jewish families with long memories.
Anthony Albanese has waited patiently; Labor deserves the chance to take Australia forward. The Jewish Independent is also heartened by the potential of the independents to chip away at our moribund two-party system and force both major parties to revise their minimalist reform instincts.
This may be the most inspiring aspect of what has been a long, dull campaign.
In this context, Australian Jews may play an influential role through their votes. There are substantial Jewish populations in two of the key independent Vs Liberal battles – Wentworth and Goldstein.
In the marginal seat of Wentworth, Dave Sharma’s desperation has driven him to preference Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) ahead of the ALP and Allegra Spender. The ugly irony of this tactic is that the UAP has given a conspicuous voice to virulent neo-Nazi views as part of its anti-lockdown agenda. It exposes Sharma’s self-declared love of Israel as a shallow, insincere posture.
Sharma knows, as do other Liberals, that the political sympathies of Jewish voters are by no means uniform. The traditional conservatives, influenced by economic cliches and dog-whistle messaging on Israel, are increasingly balanced by those who are motivated by a more humane, inclusive society, and view Australian political discourse beyond the narrow lens of Jewish virtue-signalling.
It remains to be seen whether the votes of one side or the other will have an impact. In the big picture, The Jewish Independent believes that a change of government is the key to reinvigorating Australia’s gloomy body politic. The most intriguing question of tomorrow’s poll is whether that occurs with a Labor majority or some other arrangement.
Photo: Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese in the final leaders debate (AAP)
