If you need any more evidence that the two-party system is cooked, look no further than the not-so-grand coalition that came together to preference power over people in the federal parliament last week.
These days the Liberal and National parties have taken to condemning modern Labor as “socialist” and some of its policy “communist”.
Meanwhile, the prime minister has labelled the three parties of the right the “Noalition” as the Liberals and Nationals increasingly align with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
They hate each other. Yet apparently, needs must.
And in plain sight this last week, we have seen a more profound and perhaps permanent realignment as both government and opposition prioritise political survival over community concern. They could choose to better collaborate to meet the moment. Instead, they choose to swallow their hatred of each other to safeguard their collective mediocrity.
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In at least three instances Labor and the Coalition united to defy the clearly expressed desire of voters; on gambling, on disability and on the power of the digital companies.
On the recommendations of the Murphy report, on the NDIS and on media diversity, Anthony Albanese chose to deal in the dark with Labor’s nominal “enemy” rather than with a crossbench that had proposals better reflecting what the public want and could have provided an alternative pathway to a majority in the Senate.
On gambling, Labor purports to have done more than any other government before it.
Spare me.
You don’t get to skite about something being better than nothing.
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Voters across the spectrum remain sickened at the literal death toll from gambling harm, the women and children hurt, the money sucked out of their communities into the coffers of largely multinational gambling companies, big sport and big broadcasting.
They know this deal made between the major parties provides a half arsed ‘solution’.
What we are witnessing, as the vote share of the major parties continues to decline, is the emergence of a new political pragmatism that could ultimately compound the very loss of trust – and voter support that the legacy parties are trying to subvert.
It is the uniting of the parties of an establishment that is increasingly out of touch with and alienated from the electorate. As they play a game of whack-a-mole on thorny problems that communities want solved; gambling ads, gas taxes, the money and power behind big tech, combining their numbers to neutralise the niggles is a neat albeit short-term solution.
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In the case of gambling, the Coalition claims that it “strengthened” the reform package with its tweaks, which are even less ambitious than those Peter Dutton proposed before the last election. The government gets to claim some level of groundbreaking bipartisanship to help it sleep at night.
It is a not-so-grand coalition of right and “left” along the lines of what we have seen on and off for decades in Germany, for example, but now struggling to satisfy that country’s voters and to fend off the AfD rise from the extreme right.
There may be a warning here: “Dance with the one that brung you” is a phrase borrowed by Ronald Reagan and others from American slang for sticking with those who helped you achieve your goals.
Remaining Labor voters are unlikely to be impressed with their elected representatives conspiring with political opponents they are repeatedly told are the enemy of the interests of working Australians in defiance of their expressed wishes.
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Likewise, disappointed Liberal voters, dissatisfied with the direction, behaviour and record of a party they had supported habitually are likely to be further disenchanted as they see them lining up with their opposition to defeat their wishes.
Such a coalition of convenience will reinforce the sentiment that the “system” has nothing for them any more; the big end of parliament lining up with the big end of town conspiring with each other rather than working for them.
It is the ultimate display of self-interest.
No wonder support for the majors is down to about 50% in total; no wonder some everyday Australians are choosing anger, in the form that One Nation represents.
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Others, seeking representation free from vested interests are leaning independent to provide the transparency and accountability that they’re looking for.
Labor also likes to make big claims about transparency, and yes, it is crystal clear what is going on here.
If democracy is in essence a contract between people and power, that contract is broken.
We will all wear the consequences.
