Labor’s condescending disconnect from middle Australia is on display

By accusing Peter Dutton of dog-whistling, xenophobia and, implicitly, racism, Labor is declaring war on mainstream Australians who share the Coalition’s reasonable concerns about the Gaza influx and lax security checks.

Anthony Albanese and his team have been exposed as cynical, evasive and naive over their issuing of visas for migrants from Gaza.. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

In federal parliament this week members of the Albanese Labor government seized on the opportunity to mock the Coalition over the inconceivable stuff-up by the NSW Liberal Party, which failed to nominate 140 candidates for local government elections.

Describing it as a comedy of errors, frontbencher Amanda Rishworth suggested if Scott Morrison were still around he could have sworn himself in as NSW electoral commissioner and fixed it.

How very droll. But there was nothing amusing about a diatribe from another Labor frontbencher, Tim Ayres, in the Senate who chose to oppose a commission of inquiry into the nation’s Covid response by accusing the Coalition of appealing to “kooky conspiracy theories” and an “extremist” fringe that led to terrorist violence and “anti-Semitism”.

Then there was Anthony Albanese on Wednesday, tweeting: “Today we approved Australia’s biggest renewable energy project ever.” The Prime Minister was talking about the $30bn SunCable project that plans to transmit solar electricity via submarine cable to Singapore but has already fallen into voluntary administration once and does not plan a final investment decision until 2027.

Today we approved Australia’s biggest renewable energy project ever.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 21, 2024

Why is the Albanese government so desperate for distractions, playing around with state politicking, wild abuse and fanciful renewable dreams?

The answer is that inside the government they know what their barrackers in the media still fail to see – they are in deep strife.

During the past sitting fortnight Albanese and his team have been exposed as cynical, evasive and naive over their issuing of visas for migrants from Gaza. The opposition has forensically pursued questions about this grave national security mismanagement but the government has mainly failed to answer them.

This weakness has been revealed against a backdrop of economic betrayal. Albanese and Labor came to power repeatedly promising to cut electricity prices by $275 a year, reduce inflation, put a hold on interest rates and ease the cost of living. They have delivered the opposite.

Inflation remains too high, interest rates soared and are stuck, electricity costs continue to rise, the cost-of-living crunch is hurting families, and the jobless rate is starting to creep up. The Reserve Bank is trying to take money out of the economy but Canberra and the Labor states are shovelling money in – the inflation combustion fire is burning too hot, but while the RBA closes one vent to starve it of oxygen, Albanese and Jim Chalmers open another to fuel the flames.

There is a faux confidence about Labor on the economy that looks like hubris. To convince voters the government has it all in hand, Chalmers exudes smugness on the economy, just when mainstream voters are hurting.

Yet there are clear indications Labor believes its own publicity – desperate to escape the party’s Gaza visa grilling, the Treasurer chided the opposition for being distracted from the economy. “Every single question was on the Middle East and not one single question was on middle Australia,” Chalmers admonished on Tuesday before Albanese took up the same line the next day.

Chalmers is much better at working up trite lines than he is in thinking them through or running economic policy. The Gaza visa processes are critical when it comes to protecting this nation (including middle Australia) from Islamist extremism, and obviously voters appreciate that and understand how it plays into broader concerns about border security and the uncontrolled immigration that is exacerbating the housing and cost-of-living crises.

The government’s approach shows a condescending disconnect from middle Australia.

We have seen this so many times before – by accusing Peter Dutton of dog-whistling, xenophobia and, implicitly, racism, it is declaring war on any mainstream Australians who share the Coalition’s reasonable concerns about the Gaza influx and lax security checks.

Labor has accused Peter Dutton of dog-whistling, xenophobia and, implicitly, racism. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

The wise approach – in terms of policy and politics – would have been to admit the previous arrangements were substandard, blame that on former immigration minister Andrew Giles, and use the current pause in Gaza arrivals to put a hold on visa approvals and implement third country face-to-face security checks for any visas already granted.

Albanese also should publicly repudiate the assessment from ASIO director-general Mike Burgess that it is acceptable for “rhetorical” supporters of Hamas to enter the country. This interpretation is not acceptable – and together with Burgess’s revelation that not all Gaza visa holders were personally assessed by ASIO, it is the root cause of the public concern and political drama.

After dropping ASIO and Australian Secret Intelligence Service chiefs from national security committee meetings, and now accepting that terrorist supporters can come to this country, Albanese is indelibly framed as a Prime Minister who is soft on security.

He was already wobbly on border security after the arrival of boats to the mainland and the freeing of criminal non-citizens, unmonitored, from immigration detention.

Politics should be the least of our concerns here. At a time of unprecedented anti-Semitism in this country, a raised terror alert level and Islamist-related strife in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, we cannot afford to be reckless or complacent on security and social cohesion.

Yet to mention these imperatives is to invite Labor’s abuse. Dutton has been accused of divisiveness and dog-whistling by the government while Labor has said nothing to rebuke the “racist” charge from teal MP Zali Steggall.

For anyone who was around for the Tampa affair and John Howard’s successful effort at combating people-smuggling, or for Tony Abbott and the second battle against people-smuggling after Labor allowed the trade to restart, this debate is depressingly familiar. Labor claims moral superiority and defends its security indolence as the implementation of some higher humani­tarian ideal while it demonises any critics as hard-hearted xenophobes (I guess this is easier than making the tough decisions).

Self-evidently this exposes the country to security and other risks. But you would have thought that by now Labor would have worked out the political risks – it is obtuse politics to claim that those who want secure borders, controlled immigration and vigilance against terrorism are rednecks or racists.

More likely they are merely rational. And that is always the fatal flaw of the dog-whistling charge – it assumes the voting population is dumb enough and flint-hearted enough to be manipulated by nasty and prejudiced politicians.

Every time Dutton is accused of stoking division or appealing to bigotry, Albanese is insulting the people whose votes he needs – at the same time he confirms his disregard for the fundamentals of national security and border security.

Apart from being forensic in parliament this past fortnight the opposition was nimble.

There was an excellent example on Thursday when Albanese answered (or refused to answer) a question about the Gaza visas and mentioned that earlier he had met the Prime Minister of Qatar. At the next opportunity Queensland MP Michelle Landry asked how many people from Gaza had been accepted by Qatar.

The answer, which Albanese dodged, of course was none. Even though Qatar hosts the uber-wealthy merchants of murder who make up the Hamas leadership, it does not take Gazan refugees; nor do Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Turkey – and the list goes on. These countries know Hamas, and they know better than to run the risk of importing Hamas sympathisers. The pertinent question is why Australia wants to establish itself as a lead nation in providing a destiny for the people of Gaza.

While this unfolds, Labor deliberately antagonises Israel by criticising its actions and demanding ceasefires. Yet Israel is the only country that can give Australia worthwhile intelligence to inform security checks on people leaving Gaza.

Cynical politics is at play, clearly. Labor wants to appeal to large Muslim communities in a handful of key seats but, more important, it wants to appease the hard left, which is dismayed even by Labor’s wafer-thin support for Israel.

With its cynicism exposed, Labor is supplying few answers – so the government cannot move on quickly enough.

Chalmers complains the Coalition has abandoned the cost-of-living crisis: “We want to help people doing it tough, and they just want to divide people and set Australians against Australians.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers complains the Coalition has abandoned the cost-of-living crisis. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Dutton has not taken a backward step, summing up the week as 30 questions dodged, and dubbing the Gaza visas shambles as a “visa-for-votes scheme”. Predictably, the ABC and other green-left media are pumping out the Labor line about the Coalition stirring up strife and missing the point.

The ABC habitually underestimates the people whose taxes pay its wages. The Coalition, of course, will return to the cost of living; it is impossible to ignore. And as the federal election nears it will not be enough to point out Labor’s mistakes; the Coalition must offer a clear alternative.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor’s weakness is the opposite to that of Chalmers. Taylor lacks nothing on economic nous and experience but he is light on for the ability to cut through with simple lines.

Perhaps he should point out that Labor shows about as much control over spending and inflation as it does over border security and immigration.