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Structural change in Australian politics

By Peter McMahon - posted Friday, 17 August 2012


The shift of Labor to the political centre and the growing concern over environmental issues created a vacuum, which was eventually filled by the Greens. The Liberal-Labor political establishment initially wanted to view the Greens as either political opportunists (like the Australian Democrats) or simplistic extremists (like One Nation). However, unlike the Democrats, who were explicitly created to sit between the two major parties but moved to the left as Labor moved rightwards, or One Nation, who mostly reflected growing unease over globalisation, the Greens actually represented a genuine historical movement, and a global one at that.

Early on the Greens were not particularly effective in translating the growing popular concern into political power, but over time they learned the political game and gained an effective leader in Bob Brown. When the national Labor government faltered and Gillard replaced Rudd, the Greens were given an opportunity to influence the political process, most importantly by picking up the carbon policy issue dropped by Labor.

The Greens, in company with independents, saved Labor’s political bacon, but Labor now faces some critical decisions. Basically, do they accept the Greens as legitimate partners in policy making, or do they try to despatch them from the political scene? This represents a genuine crisis for Labor, but it also has profound implications for the Liberals as well.

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The issue has come to a head in Labor, and it is as much about Labor’s crisis as it is about the rise of the Greens. The uneasy collaboration between Right and Left in the ALP, a gap almost as wide as the apparent gap between Labor and Liberal, was essentially maintained because the ALP Right was embedded in the in union movement. The ALP Right was an increasingly self-interested body within the ALP focused on power at all costs (and the benefits that flowed from that), but its link to outer suburbs lower classes (later called ‘Howard’s battlers’), its pragmatism and its reliance on electoral technique gave it an aura of competence that the Left could never really shake.

The growing failure of this model of political power, however, was highlighted by the role of right-wing power brokers in the replacement by Rudd by Gillard as Prime Minister, but powerful people rarely concede gracefully when their time is up. So they decided to target the Greens, recycling the old arguments about the Democrats and One Nation, and especially the canard that only the core two parties can actually govern.

The logic of this argument is classic in its duplicity: only the two major powers can govern, therefore a vote for other parties is a wasted one. As such, all political movement is to be contained within the two-party system. Furthermore, all policies other that the ones pursued by the two-party agreement are inherently extreme and irresponsible. The code for this last accusation is policy ‘costing’, as if smaller parties can get access to such resources and as if such ‘costing’ has ever really mattered anyway.

As things stand Labor is in genuine trouble, and their relationship with the Greens is only one aspect of their predicament. But the emerging situation presents a critical dilemma for the Liberals as well.

The Liberal Party is currently represented by two alternative leaders: Abbot is reactionary, parochial and oddly economically illiterate, while Turnbull is a genuine small ‘L’ liberal, urbane, economically able and reasonably aware of global changes.

The interesting structural shift here is that the ALP Right and Abbott Liberals are increasingly lining up together on the big issues, symbolised by their mutual hostility to the Greens as the new political force. On the other hand, collaboration with the Greens in government is currently much easier for Labor, and if the Liberals want to be able to exercise this option they will need to reposition themselves by sidelining the reactionary Right.

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As usual, the ALP Left has been made quiescent by Labor being in government, the natural preserve of the power-focussed ALP Right, but if Labor loses power nationally there will be a big fight within the Party. In particular, there will be calls for real reform of the type constantly acknowledged by a series of internal reviews but never implemented. All these reforms will dilute the power of the ALP Right and aim to make the Party more open to outside ideas and talent.

Similarly, if the unpopular Abbott wins power he will face a number of hugely difficult issues due to global forces, such as global warming, the economic crisis and growing migratory flows worldwide. In all these areas, Turnbull or someone like him will increasingly seem like the rational alternative that could oversee a similar opening up of the Liberal Party.

So, in a real sense, the ALP Right and Liberal conservatives will find more common ground in attempting to preserve the two-party power-sharing system with its focus on narrow economism than they will have with the rest of their own parties.

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About the Author

Dr Peter McMahon has worked in a number of jobs including in politics at local, state and federal level. He has also taught Australian studies, politics and political economy at university level, and until recently he taught sustainable development at Murdoch University. He has been published in various newspapers, journals and magazines in Australia and has written a short history of economic development and sustainability in Western Australia. His book Global Control: Information Technology and Globalisation was published in the UK in 2002. He is now an independent researcher and writer on issues related to global change.

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