Polls-driven policy is the mark of a spineless party

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (right) speaks to Australian Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison. Picture: AAP

Almost every serious commentator in the country remarked that last week was a seminal moment in Australian politics; I agree with that sentiment. The Liberals, having long been a party of the centre-right, is being moved more to the centre-left; and Labor, which has only won elections from the centre, is travelling further left in ­response.

Throw in the addiction that both major parties now have to populism, as well as their concomitant rejection of difficult reform, and Australia is entering a period of worrying political “management”; I don’t use the term “leadership” because what’s happening in Canberra is anything but.

The parliament, the polls, the political machine and the party room; all bear responsibility for the mess we’re in.

The term “conviction politician” is almost antique nowadays but it’s more modern relation, “authentic”, is still current. Discarding what your brand has built as key collateral is shoddy practice in any business but when politicians trade in trust and values, it’s especially dumb.

Current leaders are merely custodians of their party’s principles and have a responsibility to stay true to the linear values that are brought down one leader to another. If the principle is worth fighting for, leaders should fight even when the polls suggest otherwise.

It was a brave Liberal Party that stood against Kevin Rudd’s climate change agenda when the world was headed for Copenhagen Kumbaya; ditto the waste laid bare with billions on free roof batts and school halls; borrowed cash for outcomes-free education; and Julia Gillard’s carbon tax. If the Liberals had invested all wisdom in the polls, it would never have fought these fights, but Labor’s policies and spending offended the very core of what a centre-right party stands for, so fight it did. A relentless campaigning effort and sticking fast to the base are what won these fights, not capitulation to populism or fear of (another) partyroom coup.

In his reply to the budget on Thursday night, Bill Shorten demonstrated his understanding of these political fundamentals by shifting further to the left after the Coalition risked it all with Tuesday’s marked move away from its traditional ground of fiscal responsibility. However tough it’s been at times, the Coalition has always been prepared to own the ground of being the responsible economic adult and to fight for what is in Australia’s long-term interest.

There’s no doubt a capricious Senate makes life tough for the Coalition. It doesn’t have the cozy alliance with the Greens that grants Labor a rubber-stamp. Exacerbating the problem by last year’s disastrous decision to call a double-dissolution election was always going to end in tears. Yet just because the Senate acts with crossbencher self-interest is no reason to throw principles away in the chase for popularity, even for a PM that staked his job on Newspoll.

If we want a return to good government in this country our obsession with the polls must end. Political parties exist by occupying intellectual real estate in our ­national debate. Within a framework built on principles, both major parties fight for that block of swinging voter that decides elections, with success determined by how well they appeal to the middle while keeping faith with their base.

The Liberal party’s decision last week to rank the opportunity of short-term polling success ahead of its hard-won fiscal history is ­significant. Any sugar hit that might come from giving people what they want, even if the country can’t afford it, won’t deliver ­sustainable approval ratings and will only erode the bedrock that is the party’s supporter base.

A close look at the Opposition Leader’s budget reply demonstrated that his political savvy vastly exceeds that of his opponents.

His 14-seat haul at the last ­election as well as sharp grassroots campaigning ever since is evidence that Labor has its political act together.

With his budget U-turn, the Prime Minister hoped to avoid another Labor scare campaign by minimisingdifferences, yet Shorten understands that politics is about maximising differences, so he responded by effortlessly shifting gear. There’ll still be a Labor scare campaign on schools funding because the Coalition can never outspend the ALP.

But now there’ll be an even more potent difference between the government and the opposition. By opposing the Medicare levy increase and by keeping the deficit levy, Shorten has just set up an election campaign against Liberals who want to tax workers more and millionaires less. The half-smart operatives who seem to drive government policy these days would have figured stealing Labor’s policy clothes as clever politics. And that’s the government’s fundamental problem.

In opposition the Coalition fought on principles; in government it has played politics.

Watching your back worried about the polls drives decision-making risk-avoidance and reactionary policy.

But by following Labor’s lead on knifing leaders, this is a problem of its own making.

A partyroom without the ticker to stand for something more than just their own job security stands for ­nothing.

The same is true of leaders too.

Peta Credlin is a Sky News commentator and a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph.