Voters aren’t mad, they just don’t care anymore

The government shouldn’t fear the electorate raging in anger. They should be concerned for its apathy, which is exactly what we’re seeing now, writes Sam Dastyari.

Scott Morrison’s Government is in crisis and it’s been raining in Sydney.

All anyone will talk about is the rain.

Which, perversely, tells you everything you need to know about the mess the Morrison Government is in right now.

There is a crisis in Canberra. A Government on its knees. Disunity. Dysfunction. Chaos. All of that. But’s it’s been raining bloody heavily in Sydney.

And that is the most important thing in the world right now.

There is a quiet calm when it comes to Australian politics. Anger carries the hope that they are still listening to you, but what does it mean when they aren’t yelling anymore. When they just want to talk about the weather.

I’m chatting to the staff at my local cafe on Victoria Road in Sydney, epicentre of one of Sydney’s most marginal electorates (Reid).

Photos of what people claim is ‘flash flooding’ (often it’s just a watery gutter) are being passed around on smart phones. Everyone has an opinion. Sure it’s the same one — that it’s wet — but there is a sense of community around shared experience. It’s comforting.

I want to jump into the conversation.

When it comes to passing judgment on Prime Minister Scott Morrison Australians seem deeply apathetic. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty

I look at the elderly couple who are in front of me in the queue. They look like they are in the know. I want to ask ‘So how about Julia Banks the Federal Member for Chisholm, resigning from the Liberal Party after claiming she was bullied during the last leadership challenge in Canberra? What about her, eh?”

But I don’t have the guts. Anyway, they want to talk to the barista about a tree that fell overnight.

I might have more luck with the mother’s group that is assembling.

They are all my age. I need an ice breaker.

“Did you see Dan Andrews result in Victoria? I mean — hey — maybe it’s just Melbourne’ am I right?” is the best I can come up with. I’m too much of a coward to ask it out loud though. It doesn’t help that I’m getting strange looks standing too close to them, eavesdropping. They are talking about how young is too young to buy wet weather boots (18 months it turns out).

All of this is incredibly frustrating. I was planning to come here to find the rage, the anger against the Government that is driving political outcomes, the red-hot desire to turf out the Morrison Government that must be behind the kind of polling numbers that make the Government terminal.

The resignation of Julia Banks has created even more chaos for the Liberal Party this week. but Australians seemed to have checked out. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty

The best I can get is a shrug of the shoulders.

“Canberra is always a crisis”, the waiter tells me, after I bait him into a conversation. “It’s been a mess for years. Everyone knows it’s a joke.”

He’s right. There is nothing new in the fiasco of Canberra politics.

Sure the characters have changed. Once it was Gillard, Rudd and Abbott; now it’s Turnbull and Morrison. It’s a conservative minority government instead of a Labor one. But the chaos is now priced in. It’s expected.

What does it say when our politics is so broken that yesterday’s news that the Government is relegated it to minority status isn’t even a water cooler discussion?

Be afraid of the calm more than the rage.

I realise I had got it wrong. For years.

So-called “insiders” always think that the real danger in politics is people waiting to whack you with the proverbial baseball bat. That anger is what you have to fear. A passionate electorate waiting to take its frustration and disappointment out on you.

Maybe that’s not the danger at all. Maybe it’s the cold calm of a public that have just given up. Stopped listening. Moved on.

What does it say when our politics is so broken that yesterday’s news that the Government is relegated it to minority status isn’t even a water cooler discussion? Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty

What if it’s the quiet that really kills you? The silent treatment. When whatever you say or do means nothing anymore because the other party has stopped engaging. Maybe this is John Howard’s end just repeating itself.

The insider debate in Canberra is about how the Government can get itself back on track. The smart money is that at the end of year financial statement new tax cuts will be announced that target middle income families. It’s normally great politics, especially for Conservatives. If anyone is listening that is.

The great poet Robert Frost asked if the world will end in ‘fire’ or ‘ice’. The same can be asked in politics. I can’t see the rage. I can’t find the anger. There is no ‘fire’.

It all feels a lot like 2007, when John Howard threw everything including tax cuts and the kitchen sink at his problems. The electorate was never angry in 2007. They weren’t looking to hurt him. They just got up one day and moved on.

The same calm is what is out there now. The same quiet resolve.

Once that’s set I’m not sure there is anyway for Morrison to change it. Howard, with his track record could’t.

None of that matters anyway. There is a storm brewing outside. It’s icy cold.

Did you hear it’s raining in Sydney?

Originally published as Voters aren’t mad, they just don’t care anymore