Anna Caldwell: Palaszczuk, Andrews, Berejiklian playing the politics of fear
The politics of fear are playing well for politicians during the pandemic, but what about the very realistic fears of possible economic disaster, asks Anna Caldwell.
Opinion
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When Queensland goes to the polls tomorrow, it will be the first major electoral test of how well the politics of fear is playing in this country.
Fittingly, the election falls on Halloween — but what’s scarier than any ghosts and goblins is the spectre of jumped-up state premiers stoking public terror for their own power.
No matter what the answer at the polls is tomorrow, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie provided the best analysis this week.
Beattie turned on his own side of politics to speak the plain, unvarnished truth about Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cruel border ban.
And the truth is this.
The dictatorial measures we have seen from premiers such as Labor’s Palaszczuk and Daniel Andrews in Victoria might make their citizens feel safer and more secure in the short-term.
But those same measures will not make them feel safe when the economic reality eventually bites.
“Elections come and go and governments come and go, but the pain of this will remain unless we get it right,” Beattie told me this week.
He basically ran onto the court in the final quarter of the Queensland election and delivered an immediate slam dunk.
“What may have given people security in the past and made them feel safe will not make them feel safe in the future,” Beattie continued.
“Queensland is a small-business state, and, frankly, unless you get them driving jobs and opportunities then you don’t have any economic growth.”
Today, on the eve of the election, Palaszczuk is due to make an announcement on the prospects for the Queensland border.
She may move to open it, as she should.
But even so, you can guarantee Palaszczuk will maintain the month-by-month threat of a renewed border closure over the heads of small businesses, stoking fear and killing jobs and starving the economy day by day.
Of course, playing politics with fear is a tale as old as time.
It’s a simple, familiar formula, and it essentially goes like this: When people are scared, they look to leaders for stability and comfort.
So if you have the choice of making them a little more scared, or to validate their feelings of fear, then why not do so if it comes with the benefit of a bump in the polls?
One of the most stark examples of this came on Wednesday.
Palaszczuk was asked a difficult question about unemployment and the closed border during the Sky News/Courier Mail People’s Forum.
While limping through her answer, Palaszczuk segued into an improvised monologue on how new research showed “if you get the virus” you may face long-term kidney and heart damage.
The unsaid implication, of course, was that this startling research is part of the reason she’s needed to keep the borders shut.
Fear-mongering at its finest.
It’s no coincidence that the premiers of the nation’s two biggest states experienced bounces in the polls when the pandemic hit.
But to Beattie’s point, the best leaders should be thinking long-term.
They should be thinking about our economic survival and future.
Yes, state leaders must be cognisant of the risk of another devastating wave of the coronavirus.
But this must not come entirely at the expense of keeping a laser sharp focus on what we’ll look like at the other end of the pandemic.
Australians have been the best of sports through this harrowing ordeal.
We have surrendered our liberties and lifestyles to the rulings of our premiers with little complaint.
This applies to Palaszczuk and her unyielding border.
It applies to Daniel Andrews who cruelly kept Victorians locked up far longer than was necessary.
And, yes, it applies to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian who is still holding on to the one person per four square meters rule indoors when its time is clearly up.
With few exceptions, we’ve abided by their rules.
We’ve let the cops round up our fellow citizens.
We’ve forgone funerals, weddings, last goodbyes, first hellos.
And we have gone through all sorts of personal and economic sacrifice to play on their terms.
But in return, those premiers must keep up their side of the bargain and not restrain our liberties for a moment too long.
Sadly, it seems, this has been too much to ask.
Beattie said in his election remarks earlier this week that he considered NSW to be the gold standard when it came handling this pandemic.
Our method of opening up the economy alongside strict contact tracing was the model the whole country needed to adopt, Beattie said, “or we’ll go broke”.
It sounds dramatic, but the former Queensland premier is spot on.
We know secret Labor polling has repeatedly told Palaszczuk her local voters support her hard line on borders. Of course they do.
But make no mistake.
This support is underpinned by the fear Palaszczuk has willingly stoked. It will do no favours to the national economy in the long term.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
We have been so lucky in Australia that we have been capable of managing this pandemic.
There is, however, a fine line between managing and over-managing.
Even if all the fear and anxiety that’s been flamed makes people feel safe now and works in the short term for leaders’ popularity, it won’t work into the new year and beyond.
If we don’t get this right now, the real horror story is yet to come.