Partisan Politics Prevents Progress
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The 2 party preferred system in Australia locks the nation into this dualistic cage where important stuff doesn’t get done. Partisan politics prevents progress. That’s a lot of ‘P’s’ and it pisses me off! Currently, we have a Labor government in the thick of a housing and cost of living crisis. On the other side, we have Peter Dutton doing his best Tony Abbott impression as a wrecker in Opposition. Dutton has taken the Liberal party to the extreme edge of centre right by doing stuff like running a disinformation campaign during the Voice referendum debate – spreading fear and polarising the population. You get the distinct sense that Dutton looks to Donald Trump for ideas and inspiration.
The Gender Based Divide In Oz Politics
A gender based divide is widening in Australian politics with diversity inclusive policies appealing to more women and a winner takes all ethos inspiring more blokes. In the simplistic rendition of politics that the media likes to promulgate, one focusing on the leaders, PM Anthony Albanese is a version of the caring new man and Dutton an old fashioned autocrat. This can be translated for some into weak man vs strong man. Politics downunder has long been a brutal sport involving confrontation for show and dastardly backstabbing behind closed doors. In the end, of course, it all comes down to the numbers and who has them when it counts.
Two Party Preferred Political System Splits Country
Beyond the superficial categorisation of the leaders the parties themselves are morphing into decidedly different beasts. Labor has a much more pronounced female presence in Cabinet to represent the slightly more than 50% of the Australian population. Strong women are being heard as ministers of portfolios like Foreign Affairs, Finance, Environment, and Social Services.
“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first cabinet is Australia’s most diverse ever. Not only do women comprise ten of 23 cabinet ministers (or about 43%), many have diverse race, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The broader ministry boasts many firsts, including Penny Wong as Australia’s first foreign minister with an Asian background”
- (https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/australia-women-cabinet-politics-diversity)
The Libs, by contrast, whilst having several women as Opposition spokespersons for their portfolios, remain stuck in a male dominated view of the world. The old merit argument, which conveniently overlooks the boy’s network established from birth for an inside run to the top via private schools, sporting clubs and good old fashioned nepotism, has kept women out for decades. The conservative outlook is about keeping things as they always were. White men in charge and everyone else under their thumb. Australia as a mini me to the United States looks to big brother for business and political trends to follow. In America, there is a concerted push by conservatives to turn the clock back to reintroduce criminalised abortions and establish autocratic rule via Trump and the GOP controlled Supreme Court. The presidential race of Harris vs Trump is again being fought along gendered lines with more men in the Trump camp.
The US has never had a woman in charge in the White House, which says a lot about this country in the 21C.
Strong Man Vs Inclusivity
The strong man in politics model has a long history, of course, and it could be said to be the archetype. Kings and patriarchal aristocracies have been ruling the roost for millennia. This morphed into republics and their presidents and prime ministers. White men have sat atop states and corporations for hundreds of years, especially in new world colonial nations. Women have been largely kept in homes having babies for much of recorded history. Indigenous people, who used to be called savages by whites, have been forcibly subjugated and their lands stolen by armed invaders. In these more enlightened times, the foot on the throat of these groups has been lessened. However, established traditions in the hierarchies of power tend to hang around long after laws are changed.
There are many men who believe that they are best placed to run the show. That this is the way nature intends things to be run and that the progress toward equality has been political correctness and woke madness. Hard right groups and political parties want to return women to homes and kitchens. The ‘trad wife’ movement in America is an example of this kind of thing.
Removing the reproductive rights of women over their own bodies and placing them in the hands of male dominated legislators is a leading part of this reactionary agenda.
Conservatism Vs Progress
Peter Dutton leads the LNP Coalition and has placed himself at the forefront of this conservative push to the right. Dutton portrays himself as the hardman of OZ politics. The 2 party preferred adversarial system, by its very nature, creates dualities. We see the goings on in Canberra through this lens. Partisan politics prevents progress in Australia.
It is progress that has given women the vote. It is progress that has given Aboriginal people citizenship and the vote. It is progress that has decriminalised homosexuality. Progress that allows gay people to marry. Not conservatism!
How About A Fair Go For All!
Australia and Australian men need to ask themselves whether they want to live in a fairer place? The Aussie ‘fair go’ either has never really existed or has been limited to a select group of white men. The dog eat dog world is attractive to some men, especially if they see themselves as the bigger dog in the contest. Bullying and brute force is a largely male way of getting and maintaining power. This is the natural order that many guys believe in. The strong survive and thrive. The LNP is the political party of the bosses and the authoritarian state. Most corporations are in that camp, especially as the neoliberal economic policies of the last 40 years have been driven by the right wing side of politics. Although, centre left governments in Australia also signed up for neoliberalism back in the 1980s. Many tradies see themselves as their own boss too. Money is power in the modern world and competitive men and women aspire to wealth. Private wealth has subsumed the public good in the era of neoliberalism. Individuals are out to get what they can and communities are secondary considerations.
Community Vs Private Wealth
We saw the clash of these 2 distinct orientations during the Covid pandemic. Public health policies curtailed the freedoms of some and didn’t they get upset about it. There were marches in the street and many of these protesters were young men unused to demands of civic responsibility. Compulsory vaccinations, lockdowns, and PPE mask wearing laws became lightning rods for angry protest. Getting vaccinated was important to protect vulnerable members of our community. These public health policies were a necessary sacrifice, akin to conscription during times of war, a far, far smaller sacrifice obviously. It seemed to me that generations of Australians were unused to demands of civic responsibility. The proliferation and exposure to social media, which is predominantly an American invention, saw extreme libertarian ideas infect the Australian psyche. This toxic masculinity appeals to some young men – gun toting, pickup driving, muscular attitudes to the zero sum game. The mass murder shooting of young police officers and a neighbour in Wieambilla, Queensland was an extreme manifestation of this. There is an anti-intellectual strain running through this hard right American culture. At a time, when more thinking is required, conservative political parties are pandering to racism and white supremacy – proven pathways to societal violence.
Real Leadership Is Not Pandering
Peter Dutton and the LNP are pushing a message to Australians that you don’t need to change. Head in the sand stuff. Climate change is not real according to the policies of the Coalition. Renewable energy, which is powering ahead in the uptake of solar panels and providing increasing amounts of electricity to the grid, is never mentioned positively by the LNP. Wind power, of course, is demonised by the LNP as it champions private property owners who don’t want their views besmirched. Fossil fuels remain at the heart of these conservative politicians, whether that is due to deals made or a failure to comprehend the transformation happening. There may be a shortage of smart people in Australian politics in the 21C. Dutton’s crazy nuclear option, which cannot co-exist with renewables as it cannot be switched on and off like gas powered generation, is another example of an energy policy ungrounded in reality. It fits with the blokey ‘my way or the highway’ ethos of the hard right. Australians are not up-to-date on the technological side of renewables and big batteries being installed into the grid. The Murdoch press, News Corp only run negative reports about renewables, as it is a biased organisation which does not provide objective news. Fox News, Sky News Australia and The Australian are all blatantly one sided in their reporting on the energy debate. There is a dearth of information being communicated to the public about the renewable transformation taking place. You can find this information if you go looking for it. Those on the right want to keep folk dumb whenever they can, as it is easier to manipulate them.
Misinformation & Disinformation
We live in the digital age, where more information is available than ever before. Misinformation and disinformation are strategies to confuse and muddy the waters. Viewers can get disillusioned and overwhelmed by the proliferation of conflicting information. Political parties on the right use the ingrained prejudices and biases of voters to win their favour. It might be white supremacy, racism, misogyny, or intolerance toward LGBTQI folk. It is like a secret handshake between conspirators. We know your real attitude toward these people beyond the woke PC BS. We get you! A warm and fuzzy feeling of a shared derision. Conservatives pander to lazy thinking and prejudices. Why do they do this? To get their vote and to distract these folk from the fact that the LNP represent those corporations taking everyone to the cleaners. Whilst you are busy bitching about transgender athletes they are eating your lunch. While you are complaining about immigrants and refugees the power elite are doing deals with the politicians to ensure even greater profitability and less taxes. Ordinary workers bear the brunt of taxation in Australia, as do consumers.
Capital is rarely taxed downunder, which means the rich get richer. While you are being distracted about some emotive grievance the pollies are doing backroom deals with their mates to feather their own nests.
Our Governments Are Complicit In Screwing Us Economically
Partisan politics prevents progress and distracts voters from the fine print. Decades of neoliberal policies has seen deals made with private entities to the economic detriment of the Australian people. Transurban and the road tolls milking motorists has reached a critical juncture in capital cities around the nation. This corporation is making billions each year, as the generous deals crafted by the politicians responsible see Australians shelling out ever increasing percentages of their income for using the roads in their cities. This is the result of neoliberalism, which promises greater efficiencies for citizens but invariably lines the pockets of investors and companies. If you stop for a moment and think about the days when governments built roads and taxpayers paid for them once it is bloody stupid that we have privatised these key roadways so that we can endlessly pay for them forever.
It is a transference of wealth from the public good to a small section of private investors. This is what all neoliberal economic policies do.
Trump Vs Harris, Man Vs Woman
It is interesting to see the gendered political split so clearly captured in the 2024 US Presidential election. Donald Trump old white guy vs Kamala Harris younger woman of colour. The poles apart are there for us to see, as it is old vs new, white vs black, and man vs woman. Trump’s behaviour toward powerful women who come out against him like Taylor Swift is revealing. Have you ever observed Trump to show any grace under fire ever? The guy has no inkling of what grace is! You know, most men lie all the time. This is why many men still support Trump even though they know he is a compulsive liar. Trump as a potential president makes that lying OK. The simple truth is that we are not going to make this world a better place if our leaders are lying to us all the time. More than that the shit is going to hit the fan if we head in the trump direction. I predict the calamitous fall of the US if there is not an arrest in the current way things are going. Stupid people, armed to the teeth, with more muscles than brains, talking shit and telling lies – where do you think that is going? The world does not need a con man, blow hard, relic of the 20C in the White House. We need a new way of doing things without the killing, violence, greed and social injustice. America has changed demographically and it requires the kind of government, which reflects the makeup of its citizens and not what it was in the past. The founders of the US never intended for there to be 2 partisan political parties; they knew back then it would be bad for the administration of the country. It locks politicians into adversarial positions and prevents important stuff from getting done.
Two Party Preferred Stymies Meaningful Change
Proponents of the 2 party political system trumpet the party unity it promotes and how that helps get things done. In my experience, however, this is rubbish, as the fighting across the aisle wastes large amounts of governing time, especially when one party controls the Senate and is not in government. Australians often elect a federal government and for safety’s sake ensure the upper house is in the hands of the Opposition. This effectively neuters the government from getting anything done without so much comprise that things essentially remain the same.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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