There’s only days to go in the Australian federal election campaign, and the only thing that’s certain is what an abysmal campaign it’s been. It’s showing in the polls: both parties are reaching historical lows in their primary votes.
With Labor on 34 per cent, and the coalition on 35 per cent, these are the lowest primary votes recorded in polling history. The result is shaping up to be the absolute worst that could happen: Labor in minority, governing at the behest of the Greens. This nightmare scenario was bad enough from 2010–13. With the Greens now completely deranged by far-left anti-Semitism, the consequences for the country are grim.
That said, predicting election results is a fool’s game. Remember that Bill Shorten was unbeatable in the days running up to the 2019 election. The coalition trailed every opinion poll in 2010 – right up to a hung parliament that was only resolved when two turncoat MPs in conservative rural seats betrayed their constituents and backed Labor (both were gone by the next election, which Tony Abbott won in a landslide).
The only thing that’s certain is that both sides have overwhelmingly lost the confidence of Australian voters. Given the campaign we’ve endured, is it any surprise?
This is the worst campaign I’ve seen. Both sides are at fault. It’s not spiteful or vituperative, but easily the most vacuous and irresponsible. Never has a campaign been more completely disconnected from reality.
Endless giveaways, ridiculous quibbles about costings that are entirely speculative, policies of deep national self-harm and a resolute determination never to mention the fundamental threats and changes transforming the entire world.
Defence should have been one of the major talking-points of this election campaign. Instead, it was barely mentioned, even though the coalition has actual warrior-scholar Andrew Hastie to match against a dismal Labor party hack as defence minister. The mismatch between the knowledge and experience of both has shown in Labor’s appalling handling of our nation’s defence.
The Albanese government has degraded many of our existing capabilities and is proposing a barely incremental increase in defence funding, hardly enough even to pay for the AUKUS submarines.
These actions are so perverse you have to reverse engineer a strategic viewpoint, or policy key, to produce any explanation for them. It seems the government must have decided deliberately that it doesn’t want Australia to have any significant military capabilities over the next 10 years.
No wonder China has relentlessly barracked for Labor at the last two elections. It’s almost like they’re getting what they paid for.
Which begs the question of why the opposition’s campaign has been so appalling. And not just on defence, where they waited till the last minute to roll out its defence policy, which has been only too typical of its entire campaign. When Tony Abbott won a landslide election, he did so by being relentless and fearless. No matter how hard the media screeched, Abbott went for Labor’s jugular on everything from climate change to boats. Peter Dutton has, by contrast, been too often terrified of the media. On the rare occasions he’s arced up – such as in the last two days taking on the ‘Welcome to Country’ bullshit that Australians have come to loathe – it’s been a breath of fresh air.
It’s also been too little too late.
The coalition, of course, is batting against history: Australia hasn’t had a one-term government in nearly a century, and that in the face of the calamity of the Great Depression. Still, the performance of Albanese has been dismal and only getting worse. He’s into shoot-the-messenger mode.
Anthony Albanese has lashed out at S&P for warning that Australia’s AAA credit rating is at risk due to the election spendathon and the massive growth of off-budget funds, declaring that the global credit ratings agency “must have been beside themselves” when the coalition was in power […]
Mr Albanese’s extraordinary attack on the ratings agency comes as he faces growing pressure over integrity issues during the election campaign, with coalition ads labelling him a “liar”.
Mr Albanese has claimed Peter Dutton will cut Medicare without any evidence, used a renewables lobby group calculation as the basis for his claim the coalition’s nuclear policy will cost $600bn, and claimed he had no responsibility for directing preferences to the Greens candidate in his electorate, who argued Israel was committing genocide.
When it comes to anti-Semitism, though, the Nazi eagles are roosting a lot closer to home for Labor.
The Australian National University has hosted an anti-Israel speech by former secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet John Menadue comparing the terrorist group Hamas to South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and suggesting that giving weight to Israeli concerns was “like reporting on a bubonic plague and giving equal treatment to the rats”.
Comparing Jews to a plague and rats? Where have we heard that before? Such are the views of Labor stalwarts.
Australia really does stand at the most critical crossroads since the eve of WWII – and the left are jumping, feet-first, to the wrong side.
