In what must rate as easily Australia’s most pedestrian election campaign ever – both major parties have taken the lowest of low roads with voters.
The mantra of ‘keep it simple – keep it local’ was adopted with gusto by both major party campaigns.
The tedium and banality of the campaign pitches by Labor and the LNP were painfully obvious everywhere voters’ looked over four-plus weeks.
This was a classic ‘cigs, fuel and grocery election’ – much more akin to conventional state political campaigns of old. Of course, cost of living is a massive issue for many Australians – not least those hoodwinked by Labor on electricity costs. Paying bills has been massively stressful for millions under Labor.
Long promised reductions in costs of electricity have been shown to be a mirage at best and will not be delivered in a second term Labor administration.
Leaders – both Labor and Liberal – curated their undergraduate efforts on ‘backyard’ issues while strenuously side-stepping Australia’s increasingly precarious place in a turbulent world.
Labor did not want to talk regional or global security, defence expenditure, or trade matters while the Opposition made a faltering and half-hearted effort to place our defence preparedness on the agenda – for 24 hours.
The Liberals correctly identified we should significantly increase defence expenditure – but appeared ill-prepared to outline precisely where money should be spent, how or when.
A recent Lowy Institute poll (authored by Ryan Neelam) has revealed a dramatic fall in the trust Australians have in the United States since Donald Trump was re-elected President. This is despite a large majority believing the US-Australian alliance is ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ important to Australia’s security.
This is no small matter. Did anyone hear Prime Minister Albanese or Liberal Leader Dutton seriously evaluate the primacy of our relationships with the US, Europe, China, Japan, Indonesia, or ASEAN? No.
Australians have been buffeted by major developments within our own region and by critical trade and tariff policy upheavals which have been studiously ignored by party leaders.
This is because both Albanese and Dutton were wedded to focusing on domestic interest rates, housing, cost of living, the cost of petrol, and in Albanese case – about access to the Canadian market for Vegemite.
Political focus groups and party research told campaign strategists that voters were 100 per cent focused on cost of living and not at all on regional security or threats posed by a new America and an increasingly hostile China.
Barely a single question in any of the four leaders’ debates mentioned regional or global security or Australia’s place in an increasingly febrile political and security environment.
The campaigns by both major parties treated voters as morons incapable of comprehending issues outside the cost of living and housing.
Notwithstanding Labor’s convincing win – no one should believe it was the campaign itself that secured the result.
What is pitifully clear is that the Liberals ran a campaign based on the flimsy assumption that Albanese had broken core promises and was ‘on the nose’. Maybe that view has validity – but few factored the lack of appeal to voters of Peter Dutton.
He campaigned appallingly, women voters do not relate to him and bizarrely policies were released at five minutes to midnight.
These are factual and strategic blunders that professional party machines cannot any longer make.
Voters didn’t much care about this election or about whether Albanese has done a good job. One thing they did make clear however is that Dutton was never going to occupy The Lodge. They didn’t like him, they didn’t like the focus on nuclear energy (or its cost) and nor did they believe Dutton would lead better than Albanese.
As always, voters don’t get it wrong – although the pressure is now on Albanese and Labor to deliver not only real and sustained falls in the cost of living but also a coherent narrative for this country in a region and world of challenging and profound change.
At present, Australia looks like an observer of global gyrations – not a participant. Forces at work will shine a light on Labor’s capacity to turn Australia’s face towards the region and wider world.
The next three years will test Albanese’s ‘Vegemite diplomacy’ like never before. The 2028 election will reveal how successful he and Labor have been in governing for all Australians – as he so frequently claims he is doing.
