Labor are no longer a progressive alternative
I am a realist about the fact that the party I most often vote for is one that never has to balance a budget, deliver on its promises, manage the administration of government or compromise on its ideals: as Gough Whitlam once said ‘certainly, the impotent are pure.’ And so, despite Labor being bitterly disappointing on issues such as offshore detention, them being the least worst option of our two major parties means I have always willed them on to win, the same way I barrack for Hawthorn when they play Collingwood. After their capitulation on tax policies that have significant implications for equality in Australia, though, Labor’s total lack of will or ability to advocate an alternative vision means that conservatism has won the next election even if the Coalition loses. The relentlessly negative campaigning and denigration of our political discourse by Abbott and Morrison has proven so effective that Labor has lost the nerve to make the case for meaningful policy reform, and have be...