By-elections are a questionable waste of time

This week I decided to forsake the opportunity of having lunches in the company of friends and colleagues. Instead I just stayed at home to rest and think.

This meant I had the dubious pleasure of watching question time over a few days.

This week the topic of choice for both sides was income tax cuts. Sadly, amid all the abuse and the plethora of examples of those receiving the cuts and how much they were to receive, I was unable to actually learn anything.

The suburbs and towns that were the flavour of the week were places such as Devonport and Caboolture. You will not be staggered to learn that these are in Braddon and Longman where by-elections are to be held at the end of next month.

Maybe I should have taken notes because I cannot recall how much the aged-care workers, telco executives, nurses, police sergeants and shop assistants were going to get depending on which tax package garnered enough support from the pretenders on the Senate crossbench to pass in the upper chamber of the parliament. I am certain, though, they all lived in just two out of the 150 electorates around the country.

There can be no question that by-elections bring out the worst in our politicians. It seems our elected representatives wallow in hypocrisy whenever those events are just around the corner.

The chief offender this week was Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton. Coming from the same team that branded Labor’s “Mediscare” advertisements in the 2016 election campaign as a disgrace, Dutton blithely stated that if Labor was to be elected to government, its policies would immediately begin sailing from Indonesia again.

The deaths at sea of these poor wretched souls would begin immediately on Labor’s return to the government benches, he declared.

This despite the fact Labor’s policy on boats is exactly the same as the government’s these days.

Were Labor to change tack and invite those waiting patiently, but hopelessly as well, for redemption and resettlement in Australia to come on to our shores, then Labor would be unelectable.

Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese are well aware of this, so I doubt the Labor conference will attempt to reverse the party’s policy on this critical issue.

By-elections bring along another tiresome commodity. Pork-barrelling comes sweeping back on to the government’s agenda in a big way.

Caboolture may not have rated too many mentions in the Australian parliament in earlier days, but this week it seemed as if this northern suburb of Brisbane was the most important place on the planet.

Health Minister Greg Hunt was able to tell us just how much money the Caboolture hospital was about to receive. He also had found much more money for Tasmania’s hospitals than previous Labor governments had ever managed.

Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack was not to be outdone either. In the true tradition of the old Country Party leaders, he was able to tell us how much was being spent on roads in Longman but he had to refer to the total being spent on roads in Tasmania because apparently not that much of the largesse was actually being spent in Braddon.

In my long-running effort to be fair, I should say that question time performances of McCormack and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud have improved dramatically.

McCormack, who has looked too timid in the past few months, has found some confidence. Littleproud, obviously moved by how much the drought has affected farming families in his neck of the woods, gave a powerful answer on trying to check on your neighbour’s state of mind. Farmer suicides become a real problem when prolonged droughts and cold-hearted banks combine to cause terrible depression. For a bloke who made a shaky start, Littleproud is growing in the job.

Labor has been fortunate this week that it failed to block stage two of the government’s tax package from passing the Senate. Shadow cabinet must have had an off night when it took this decision.

The difficulty that a politician on either side of the aisle has is making voters trust them. The mob will always take a tax cut in the hand over the promise that an even better tax cut would come after an election victory. Pauline Hanson, once again despite earlier assurances, found a way to vote with the Coalition on a big issue. On this occasion she helped save Labor from itself.

By the time of the by-elections this issue will have faded somewhat although the Liberals still will belt Labor over trying to stop aspirational voters from getting a tax cut.

One thing Labor’s doorknockers in Longman are picking up is voter revulsion at the thought of giving massive tax cuts to big business and in particular giving $17 billion to the big four banks after the slate of eye-watering scandals the royal commission has revealed.

The sooner Labor gets back to talking about that the better. Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison fought against holding the royal commission and that makes them vulnerable to a full-scale Labor assault. I hope it’s coming.