Labor pitch raises big questions

Anthony Albanese’s new policy manifesto, revealed exclusively by The Australian on Tuesday, has received an unintentional boost. The revolt it has triggered among seven Socialist Left unions might encourage voters to take a fresh look at the direction the Opposition Leader is offering. While the unions are indignant that 75 per cent of the content from the previous platform has been gutted, their tantrum should be to Labor’s advantage among swinging voters and small businesses.

Mr Albanese was right to go for a major spring clean. Post-COVID, the world is a very different place to what it was in the lead-up to the election in May last year, facing challenges that were unimaginable then. New policy imperatives that double down on growth, jobs and building prosperity — while also rebuilding the ravages of the pandemic across society — are needed. While the Socialist Left unions whinge, unfairly, that the draft platform is an “empty vessel”, Mr Albanese stopped well short of a clean sweep of policies that he and the nation might be better off without. Much, however, will depend on detail to be built around the scaffold. That can be provided only when the fallout from COVID is clearer, and nearer to the next election, which is due by May 2022.

Mr Albanese made a breakthrough in junking the promise to lower emissions by 45 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. That pledge was an albatross around Labor’s neck in last year’s campaign. Former leader Bill Shorten was unable to quantify its cost to the economy, incomes and jobs, and the party’s credibility suffered as a result. As opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says, a 2030 target would be “redundant”. By the time of the next campaign, the timeframe available to achieve a medium-term target would be shorter and its costs more painful on top of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. A sharp difference remains between Labor’s policy of net-zero emissions by 2050 and the Coalition’s goal of zero emissions in the second half of the century. Much will depend on technological progress in the interim. The maintenance and enhancement of Australia’s comparative advantage in affordable energy should be a priority for both political sides.

Despite the complaining of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Community and Public Sector Union and others, the draft platform would afford unions significant extra power in workplace relations. It emphasises wage growth, protecting penalty rates and “full gender equality” in the form of 26 weeks’ paid parental leave and 10 days’ domestic violence leave. It would hand back power to unions targeted by the Australian Building and Construction Commission. And the final platform for Labor’s workplace relations policies will be negotiated with ACTU secretary Sally McManus and other union bosses. The party also is committed to increasing the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent, then 15 per cent. As the election draws closer, the credibility of Labor’s industrial relations wish list will depend on the capacity of business, including small businesses struggling in the aftermath of COVID, to pay, and the extent to which Labor would ensure hefty gains for unions would be offset by productivity improvements.

On the vital subject of taxation, it is reasonable at this stage that Mr Albanese has set out broad parameters. His platform promises a “progressive and sustainable” tax system, with incentive to encourage productive enterprise while guaranteeing adequate revenue to fund quality public services and bringing about “a more equal distribution of income and wealth”. The potential downside of that vision, however, will be in the detail. It will test whether Labor really has learned the lesson of the last election — that voters aspire to keep as much as possible of what they earn and do not welcome higher taxation, bigger government and the march of the nanny state. On the Australia-China relationship, Labor says Australia must engage effectively with ­Beijing, but sensibly notes the nation also must stand up for “democratic values” and safeguard our sovereignty.

Releasing a pared-down manifesto makes sense. While cautious, this one gives Mr Albanese plenty of options to finetune Labor’s pitch to suit the times.