{"id":663644,"date":"2022-05-20T10:10:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T10:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=74418"},"modified":"2022-05-20T10:10:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T10:10:17","slug":"australians-face-their-starkest-choice-at-the-ballot-box-in-50-years-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/20\/australians-face-their-starkest-choice-at-the-ballot-box-in-50-years-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians face their starkest choice at the ballot box in 50 years. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"
ANALYSIS:<\/strong> By<\/em> Mark Kenny<\/a>, Australian National University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n You first have to lose an election on principle if you want to win one on principle.<\/p>\n This was how Labor rationalised the miscalculations that led to its \u201cDon\u2019s Party\u201d disappointment in 1969<\/a>, followed by the 1972 triumph<\/a> of the \u201cIt\u2019s Time\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n Half a century later, the idea of sticking with unpopular policy seems romantic, unthinkable. Principles are not just old-hat in an era of professionalised politics, but absurd.<\/p>\n Swamped by voter-attitude metrics<\/a>, modern democratic leaders are not leaders in the traditional sense. Rather, they are followers.<\/p>\n Followers of market researchers and media proprietors who disabuse them of ambitious conceits like national leadership, or anything that might tempt them to make changes based on electoral judgment, the national interest, or even ideology.<\/p>\n Still, a few months ago, one starry-eyed fool (to wit, this author) described the looming 2022 federal election as the most important national choice to be put before voters since that 1972 hinge-point.<\/p>\n If it was an invitation to Labor leader Anthony Albanese to paint in bold brushstrokes, he didn\u2019t receive it.<\/p>\n Instead, Labor\u2019s risk-averse policy presentation has largely mirrored the reform-shy government it seeks to replace. This makes for the least policy-divergent choice in the 50 years since 1972.<\/p>\n The 2022 election more closely resembles a velodrome match-sprint where the two riders have almost stopped on the banked section, each terrified of leading off and being overtaken in the final dash for the line.<\/p>\n Whitlam\u2019s re-imagining He promised to establish diplomatic relations with Peking (now Beijing), following his audacious trip<\/a> to \u201cRed China\u201d in 1971. Imagine this (or any) opposition making a play of similar foreign policy gravity today.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>The 1972 comparison gets even harder when you look at former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam\u2019s first month in office.<\/p>\n