As progressives, we got it wrong, says Labor’s Clare O’Neil
Labor’s Clare O’Neil is calling on the party to push back against political correctness.
Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil will call on the party to push back against political correctness in light of the May election defeat, saying progressives are too quick to dismiss people with opposing views as “obviously wrong, probably stupid and possibly subhuman”.
While saying she does not like being on the “same side of an argument as Alan Jones”, the opposition innovation spokeswoman will on Thursday say she was dismayed during the election campaign to discover lifelong Labor voters felt “progressives were talking down to them”.
She will use an address to the John Curtin Research Centre in Melbourne to call for Labor to “engage in the conversation about political correctness” in an effort to win support from middle Australia.
“When … Labor people of a lifetime tell us they feel they are not allowed to question new social standards that seem to be reset every other week, I think we need to listen,” she will say, according to a draft copy of the speech.
“There is a culture developing in the progressive movement where membership is granted with a box of ideas. And if you don’t accept one of the ideas in the box, you do not merely have a different opinion, you are obviously wrong, probably stupid and possibly subhuman.
“Not everyone with a concern about the immigration rate is a bigot. Not everyone with a hesitation about changing gender roles is sexist. Not every social change is inarguably a good one.
“If Australians feel they can’t question assumptions and positions in conversation with us, they will find someone else to talk to about it.”
The post-election analysis from the Victorian Right MP, who represents the outer Melbourne electorate of Hotham, comes amid soul-searching from senior figures in the party following Bill Shorten’s defeat in the May 18 poll.
Deputy leader Richard Marles and resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon are among those calling for a shift back to the political centre, while Victorian Left senator Kim Carr and ALP president Wayne Swan have urged against junking Mr Shorten’s tax-and-spend agenda.
Ms O’Neil, 39, will also say “there is no question” Labor needs to articulate a new narrative on the economy, with a greater focus on the digital industries and small business.
'Even when its policy settings are right, the internal culture of the Labor Party and the values it projects are at odds with how many Australians feel. A Party that defines itself primarily as ‘progressive’ will no longer have a broad cultural base ..' https://t.co/xrnPVEKc0Z
— John Curtin Research Centre (@curtin_rc) October 30, 2019
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“Since the 1980s, Labor’s economic approach has been to grow the economy by opening it up. With a fair labour market and a good education system, all boats would rise together. Today, that model — it is broken. For the first time, our country is getting richer but ordinary families are going backwards. We have not told a sufficiently compelling story to Australia’s two million small businesses, or to our friends in digital.”
Ms O’Neil will say the loss has “changed my outlook on politics forever” and warn that centre-left parties around the world have been “stymied by a disease of managerialism”.
“I don’t think we are winning hearts and minds out there talking about policy this way. If an election is about whether a family will be 4 per cent better off in five years under one leader and 6 per cent better off under the other one, I think we are missing the mark,” she will say. “Politics is about offering a compelling story about our country: who we are, where we are going. One of the most upsetting things I have heard in speaking with people after the election, especially in the regions, was how we sounded on the doorstep. The impression of many was that progressives were talking down to them. I know this is not what was intended, but if our voters hear sanctimony, that is what matters.”
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