Your Say: Lamenting a timid Labor and a brazen Coalition

On cautious Labor

Leo Quinn: Obviously “once bitten, twice shy” is what is dictating the Labor approach after what happened in the 2019 election. Quite sad really, but given the bias that the likes of Murdoch, Sky, Nine etc impose on it it feels it has little alternative than to try to be as small a target as possible.

It is a shameful reflection on us that we have allowed this to happen, where Labor basically has to fight with one hand tied behind its back to unseat the worst federal government in my lifetime.

Karis Muller Sanderson: It can’t be easy for Labor to steer between the Coalition and the Greens, whether about fossil fuels, mining, huge sums spent on submarines, tanks and aircraft while the weak among us — e.g. the frail aged — are left locked in their rooms afraid and depressed, or sleeping in a car/on the pavement.

Not to mention the eternal limbo of some refugees, refugees the self-centred millionaire bop-bop champion ignored while briefly sharing their sordid accommodation.

This party needs to fight for the weak, force the rich to repay ill-gotten public funds, scrutinise bribes to marginal electorates etc. It should admit that mining, for example, no longer provides many jobs. And it needs to adopt the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart even though some of its attenders don’t think its objectives mean much without compensation.

It seems that Labor is almost as confused as the other lot.

Trevor Foster: If Labor wins the next election it will be because the Coalition is totally unelectable. Albanese, although a decent and responsible person to be prime minister, doesn’t have the forthright personality to inspire people.

Switching to Tanya Plibersek is a no-brainer. She is feisty, a fighter and a woman. She will certainly appeal to many women voters and much of the population have faith in her. She will really bruise the arses of the LNP at the next election. It’s only faction fighting in the ALP that is keeping her out. History may repeat itself.

PS: I am voting Greens this time in an attempt to boost their vote above the LNP.

On an inept Morrison government

Margot Dunaj: I suspect the feckless and self-serving behaviour of Scott Morrison and his cronies in government has caused our public service to become stuck in the mud — unable to do more than operate reactively in a state of constant crisis; fearing interference and recrimination; unable to stand up to a government that is heavily influenced by business and lobby groups (Murdoch, coal and gas, climate change inaction); and which displays and encourages rampant bullying and mysogynistic behaviour (Australia Post/Christine Holgate, Brittany Higgins).

Or has there been an exodus of disillusioned, talented people from our public service leaving it rudderless and floundering with no clear understanding of its purpose and function?

Klaus Jahn: It comes down to the “born to rule” syndrome. If you are part of a club that by definition knows better than the hoi polloi — confirmed by being surrounded by likeminded mates in your (private-) school life, privileged Young Liberal university days, “life experience”-gathering years as a political staffer serving your conservative heroes, only to end up in a powerful position where you can sack frank, fearless and experienced public servants, reduce funding to pesky university researchers and other experts and twist the financial knobs on thinking critics like ABC reporters and analysts — why would you want to change anything that could damage this self-contained ecosystem of common beliefs? Especially if after years of inept handling of matters you receive confirmation through a miracle election that you have been right all along!

It’s not just Morrison; it’s is the whole ecosystem surrounding him, up to and including his suite of “ministers for making positive-sounding announcements”.

What is lacking is giving prominence to thorough backroom work historically conducted by experienced public servants, with external real experts drawn in to flesh things out. Instead we are getting PowerPoint slides masquerading as “plans” and windscreens to look through to help us forget what we might have learnt from history or even last week’s announcements, which have by now been proven wrong, out-of-date or just ill-conceived.

I’m not very hopeful that Labor would be any better. It has been too keen to learn from its opponent’s electoral successes over the past decade. 

On the other hand, Julia Gillard managed to run an effective legislative agenda with a minority government achieving a lot more positive, forward-looking steps than the current lot. Which of course gave those a lot of scope for dismantling stuff rather than thinking up something positive and forward-looking… 

It remains to be seen. It is scary to think that we get the government we deserve!

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