A new political ‘dawn’ in Australia

S P SETH

Over the years, particularly after 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, western democracies have reacted quite strongly to a surge of refugees from countries afflicted by civil wars, insurgencies and political persecution. This has led to a strong shift to the political right in these countries, even in liberal democracies like Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We are already familiar with its political impact in countries like UK, France and much of the European Union.

The recent elections in Australia, a country with western political traditions, though geographically closer to Asia, have shown that hostility to asylum seekers is even more pronounced here than in any other developed country. This was probably the single most important issue accounting for the conservative coalition’s electoral victory in the recent elections, with the opposition leader Tony Abbot now becoming Prime Minister of Australia. The Liberal-National coalition incessantly attacked the Labor Party for failing to control the influx of boat people (as these refugees are called here), thus compromising the country’s border security.

It paraded its ‘successful’ handling of the asylum seekers’ issue by reducing the flow of boats reaching Australia under the previous conservative coalition, with John Howard as prime minister. The result was that, fearing electoral oblivion from the conservatives’ relentless attack on the Labor Party, they too went feral on the hapless boat people. But the Labor Party couldn’t compete with the original brand of the Liberal-National coalition for which they had a copyright, in a sense.  In voting for the conservative coalition, the Australian electorate opted for the original rather than the copy. It is, therefore, not surprising that the conservatives, led by Tony Abbot, has won the election defeating Labor Party government led by Kevin Rudd.

It is not just the politics of fear of the boat people that have contributed to the Labor’s defeat. Their disunity centred around the personalities of its two leaders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, only magnified its problems. Kevin Rudd’s removal as prime minister in a party room coup and his replacement by Julia Gillard created a poisonous atmosphere. Which, in turn, created conditions for another coup in the Labor Party this year to bring back Kevin Rudd as prime minister. He was supposed to reverse his party’s sinking fortunes. But that was not to be. During much of the six-year rule of the Labor Party, shared between Rudd and Gillard, the disunity and disfunctionality of the their party was a regular feature of news and commentary in the media here.

Against this backdrop, all the achievements of the Labor government, and they were quite impressive by any standard, never registered with the people. The Rudd government, for instance, was one of the first in any developed country to take a series of measures to stimulate the economy and to forestall a run on the banks by guaranteeing all bank deposits. And it worked.

Even with its hefty stimulation package, Australia’s debt to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world. It is one of the few countries with AAA credit rating from major rating agencies. Its unemployment rate of under 6 per cent is the envy of the developed countries. And its growth rate of 2.6 per cent is quite respectable in the current global economic situation. With low interest rates and inflation well under control, Australia is still the ‘lucky’ country.

There are, for sure, some hiccups on the way ahead with mining sector slowing, but there are no signs of a disaster ahead. This is on the economic front. Add to this the Labor government’s progressive social legislation like disability insurance and education reforms, the picture is even more impressive.

But, as is well known, disunity is death in politics and Labor has paid a heavy price for it. Because of its perennial infighting and disunity, it was unable to communicate and sell its credible and proud record. What people saw were Rudd and Gillard and their respective supporters undermining each other. Indeed, the early success of the Rudd government in combating approaching recession made it even more difficult to sell its message for the simple reason that people had no lasting memory of any financial crisis.  

With the Labor government unable to sell its message, the Abbott-led opposition was able to create the image of a crisis-ridden Australia under its incompetent Labor government. And the only way to deal with, so it was argued,  was to get rid of the Labor government.  The boat people’s (asylum seekers) arrival was touted as a proof that the Labor government had lost control of Australia’s borders. It is, of course, ridiculous to claim that refugees heading towards Australia presented a security problem. But the hysteria thus created stoked fear among many people that Australia was vulnerable to the hordes of refugees/economic migrants seeking their fortunes in this ‘lucky’ country. The Labor government tried hard to become as ruthless on the boat people, but the conservatives appeared more serious.

On other issues too, the opposition sought to ignite people’s innate insecurity. For instance, on the question of carbon tax that the Labor government had introduced to reduce carbon emissions as part of its climate control strategy, Tony Abbot attacked it with all the vehemence of a zealot, blaming it for all of Australia’s economic troubles and more. He had been a climate change denier, calling it ‘carp’ at one time.

The Labor government sought to counter such attacks with facts and figures, but it didn’t work. The negative message of the opposition was proving more successful than any positive rebuttal from the government. Tony Abbot, as opposition leader, kept urging people to vote out this incompetent Labor government and replace it with the conservative coalition to fix up the country. And it resonated increasingly

While the conservative opposition was at it attacking the government on boat people and carbon tax, it was also highlighting the country’s fiscal crisis. It was untrue but that didn’t prevent Tony Abbot from talking down the country’s economy, as it dovetailed with his political message of: get rid of this incompetent government. And it worked.

While the battered Labor Party licks its wounds, the conservative Liberal-National coalition government, with Tony Abbot as Prime Minister, will be enjoying a political honeymoon for a period, until it starts backtracking on all the undeliverable promises. 

Contact: sushilpseth@yahoo.com.au