Opinion: Australian politicians should visit their local pubs

We often hear about political decisions ‘passing the pub test’ or not – but my observation is you rarely see a politician in one, and it might be in their interests to change that, writes Robert Schwarten.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dishes up a beer at a Sydney venue. Picture: NewsWire/ Tim Pascoe

We often hear about political decisions “passing the pub test” or not – but my observation is you rarely see a politician in one.

That’s particularly the case in my local electorate of Capricornia around Rockhampton. I’ve never seen either of our locally based federal representatives in one, and I’ve been in plenty.

Maybe that’s good for them and bad for me – but I was at one of my regular watering holes the other night when the Prime Minister announced freezing the beer excise, and even the Tories who love to bait me were sobered.

These sorts of announcements cut through. In a region where bulk billing is as rare as kangaroos without tails, Medicare is another hot topic.

It was used effectively in the famous Mediscare campaign that nearly won Labor the 2016 election, which was the equivalent of the scare campaign in 2019 that saw pensioners fear their benefits would be taxed.

That saved the Coalition – and helped turn Capricornia into a safe LNP seat.

David Crisafulli talks to locals at an Ingham pub. Picture: Liam Kidston.

At the last election, Capricornia swung further back to the red side than any other Queensland seat, thanks to a strong campaign from coal miner Russell Robertson.

Masterfully, Capricornia MP Michell Landry and locally based Senator Matt Canavan have since run strong anti-Labor campaigns against sitting state Labor MPs – to the extent we now have none here.

Their focus on youth crime was relentless. Neither of them proposed a solution, or had any electoral responsibility for what is a state issue – but it paid off.

But youth crime is flourishing still, so the LNP cannot count on crime to help it this time around. Nor has Labor given them the fodder for a 2019-style scare campaign. Instead, they will have to contend with issues like healthcare and the price of beer.

But the real sleeper issue here is federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s promises to sack 36,000 public servants – it is one of the best of pub tests I’ve come across.

Former Qld Labor minister Robert Schwarten

A veteran mate of a mate of mine told me in the pub that the wait time for veterans’ claims to be processed had been cut from two years to two months under this government – thanks to 500 extra public servants working on it.

I also suggest that Ms Landry might like to put in a call to her predecessor Paul Marek, who in 1998 lost the seat when he bore the brunt of public service office closures in Rockhampton during former PM John Howard’s first “mean and tricky” term.

Ms Landry’s office is located across the road from a pub. Maybe she should make time for a visit.

Robert Schwarten was a Beattie Labor Government Minister

Originally published as Opinion: Australian politicians should visit their local pubs