Christopher Pyne: Accepted wisdom that disunity is death has been put to one side

Labor stands for little and Albanese has never bested Morrison in the popularity race but, remarkably, they’re highly competitive, writes Christopher Pyne.

In politics, disunity is death. It’s a simple concept, often not grasped by the practitioners of the art.

The Labor Party split into the Democratic Labor Party and the Australian Labor Party in 1954-55 over the influence of communist sympathisers and real communists in Labor Party affiliated unions. It simply became known as The Split.

Its effect was that the DLP directed its preferences in our compulsory, preferential system to the Liberal and National parties and they remained in government in Canberra for an unbroken 23 years.

Disunity isn’t unique to Labor. From 1983 to 1996, the Liberal Party was podium finishers for disunity, managing to change leader in 1985, 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1995.

This period became known as the Peacock/Howard era because Andrew Peacock and John Howard were the main two protagonists.

The Liberal Party’s disunity managed to keep the Labor government’s of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating in power for 13 years.

The longest period of Labor government in our history.

In the past 25 years, the Coalition has ruled in Canberra for 19 of them.

By the time of the next national election, it will be 20 from 26. Labor has only reigned from 2007 to 2013.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

A large part of the reason is disunity on the Labor side because of an inability to reconcile competing philosophies and personalities.

For Labor it has been the agenda of the political Left versus the more pragmatic and centrist views of the Labor Right.

During Labor’s time in office from 2007 to 2013, the root cause of the fissure was the competition between Kevin Rudd and his supporters versus Julia Gillard and her supporters.

The result was electoral failure. Since 1996, Labor has had one majority government, whereas the Coalition has had eight.

The 2010 election resulted in the unfortunately described “hung parliament”.

Political disunity isn’t new either.

Labor had its first major split over the issue of conscription of young men for the war effort in World War I.

Then-Labor prime minister Billy Hughes wanted it, his party didn’t.

Labor divided over it and was out of office from 1916 to 1929.

Not to be outdone, despite the Liberals in South Australia governing from 1933 to 1965, since then, they have been in office for only 18 of the past 57 years.

Labor has been in power for three long stretches: 1970-79, 1982-93 and 2002-18.

The primary reason for Labor’s success was not because of Labor’s economic stewardship of the state – after all, in 1967 Adelaide was the third-largest and most thriving city in the nation, now we are fifth – but due to disunity on the Liberal side of politics.

The SA Liberals had their own split in 1972.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a tour of Micro X at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide. Picture: David Mariuz

Some Liberals broke away to form the Liberal Movement because they believed the party wasn’t progressive enough.

It helped to keep the government of Don Dunstan in power throughout the 1970s.

When the Liberal Movement and the Liberal Party reunited late in the 70s, the enmities that had been created between the key players remained and took decades to repair.

Arguably the election of Steven Marshall in 2013 ended a decades-old feud that sometimes resembled the blood feud between the American families the Hatfields and the McCoys, from West Virginia and Kentucky, in the 19th century.

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned his party room in Parliament House, Canberra, that if they were defeated by the opposition led by Anthony Albanese in 2022 it would be because of disunity. He is right.

Labor has adopted a small-target strategy. They stand for little, Morrison has never been bested by Albanese in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, the economy is performing remarkably well and Australia has handled the Covid pandemic better than most other places.

Yet Labor is highly competitive because of the kind of disunity that has been on display over religious discrimination, a national anti-corruption body and vaccination mandates.

SA opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

On North Tce, until about two months ago, while the Labor opposition hadn’t done a lot wrong, most people would be hard pressed to name three things that they had done.

Yet some in the government seemed unhappy with going to an election in 2022 in the atmosphere of a growing economy, a recognised stellar handling of the Covid pandemic and a generally optimistic business community and citizenry.

Instead, the accepted wisdom in politics that disunity is death has been, hopefully temporarily, put to one side.

Both elections are still months away. Most voters will not focus on the choice until a month, a week or even a day or two before election day.

I’ve fought elections when my polling has had me losing 55 per cent to 45 per cent eight days before election day, only to win by less than 1 per cent in the only poll that actually matters, the election itself.

I must say, one of those nailbiters is enough for one lifetime!

But it remains true, there is only one outcome from disunity – defeat.