Making things worse: Albo’s policies fail to unify the nation

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s nicknames include “Airbus Albo” and “each-way Albo”. After dividing Australia will “one-term Albo” join the list?

Prime Minister Albanese’s nicknames include “Airbus Albo” and “each-way Albo”.

Will “one-term Albo” join the list?

To answer this, look no further than a book published in 1845 and written by Benjamin Disraeli, who was later to become the British prime minister.

Subtitled The Two Nations, Disraeli’s book describes a society riven with inequality and division. Australian society, while very different from industrial Britain, is also being divided into two nations.

In Britain, as a result of the Industrial Revolution, two classes emerged. On one hand the landed aristocracy, industrial magnates and absentee landlords led a life of wealth, status and privilege. On the other hand, the working class poor suffered exploitation and were forced to live in squalor.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is chasing the renewable energy delusion that guarantees energy prices will escalate and the economy will flatline. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Sound familiar? On one hand there are the wealthy, privileged inner city elites committed to the Indigenous Voice to parliament, banning fossil fuels and embracing multiculturalism and cosmopolitan lifestyles.

Living in exclusive suburbs, the privileged class is characterised by an indulgent lifestyle, expensive European cars, interstate and overseas holidays and conspicuous consumption.

The other class of citizens are those unable to buy or rent a property, unable to keep warm in winter and facing escalating prices, forcing many into two jobs simply to put food on the table and afford the basic necessities of life.

It’s not just the poor. Charities like Foodbank report being overwhelmed by middle class families suffering mortgage stress. Increasing numbers of young people find it impossible to rent and are even more unlikely to be able to own a home.

Both during the Industrial Revolution and in today’s Australia, the reason why there is such division is because governments and elites are either incapable or unwilling to acknowledge and remedy the problem.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) with Indigenous leader Noel Pearson and Northern Territory MP Natasha Fyles ahead of the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum that divided the nation. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

When Disraeli published The Two Nations, universal franchise had yet to be introduced, the voting system was corrupted and wealthy landowners and factory owners were happy to exploit workers, forcing them to work for meagre wages.

It wasn’t until 1848 the British parliament legislated to limit the working week to 63 hours and years later to restrict the age of children working in factories to 11 years old. While Australia was a world leader in introducing the eight-hour day and a conciliation and arbitration system guaranteeing workers a minimum wage, it’s increasingly obvious the gap between the elites and the poor is widening.

In addition to being divided by wealth, as a result of cultural-Marxist inspired woke ideology, the nation is also divided between the elites committed to a culture of repudiation and the majority of citizens who acknowledge there is much to celebrate.

Hannah van Noordennen from Foodbank. Charities like Foodbank report being overwhelmed by middle class families suffering mortgage stress Picture: Morgan Sette.

The Indigenous Voice to parliament illustrates how society is divided into elites and the rest of the nation. The 60 per cent who dared to vote “no” are labelled ignorant, white supremacists intent on further oppressing Indigenous Australians.

Whereas the ALP began as a workers’ party fighting for higher wages and better working conditions it’s now dominated by privileged, inner city elites advocating a rainbow alliance of woke causes.

Championing wind and solar energy, thus destroying the nation’s only reliable and affordable coal and gas industry, pushing multiculturalism leading to racial tension and anti-Semitism and failing to stem immigration, prove the ALP is now the party of the woke elites.

One-term Albo, instead of unifying the nation, continues to implement policies only making the situation worse. Chasing the renewable energy delusion guarantees energy prices will escalate and the economy flatline.

The paltry $300 energy rebate is an insult rather than a concession to those most in need. The massive increase in immigration since the end of Covid-19 has only made the housing crisis worse and led to further congestion and social instability.

The value of the recent tax cuts, while touted by the Albanese government as a panacea, are only temporary as in two years, given bracket creep, the majority of those least able to afford it will be worse off.

Dr Kevin Donnelly is a senior fellow at the Australian Catholic University’s PM Glynn Institute and author of Wake Up To Woke: It’s Time Australia

Originally published as Making things worse: Albo’s policies fail to unify the nation