A change of government is needed to reinvigorate Australia’s body politic

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.