Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is not often I find myself agreeing with Senator Cory Bernardi, but his recent comments attracted my attention. Senator Bernardi was reported as saying:

I see Australian politics at a crossroads.

The perception of politicians has never been lower and it is clear to me that people are looking for more from their political representatives.

I should probably say that, while we agree on this point, the agreement does not go much further.

Of course, it is not just Senator Bernardi who has observed the changing political tides here and abroad. In recent weeks there has been a renewed interest in the politics of protest. This is an important debate. I rise tonight because I am deeply concerned about the movement towards what I call anti-politics. This is not a concern about protest per se—far from it. I was proud to join tens of thousands in Melbourne in marching last week to protest and demonstrate concern about this budget's inequitable impacts. But I am concerned about the growing sense of alienation from formal politics and the increasing recourse to a populism that denies the possibility of meaningful democratic change. I take this opportunity to make a small contribution to making the case for politics of hope with purpose.

Elections in the world's second largest democracy, the European parliament, recently returned many representatives of populist, nationalist parties. The United Kingdom Independence Party topped the polls in the UK, as did the far-right Front National in France, while neo-Nazis have also been returned in Greece. The Golden Dawn party polled at almost 10 per cent of the vote. It was a good election for anti-politics. People are demonstrating their willingness to break with past allegiances, often in quite radical ways. I think of the industrial towns in northern France that have switched from Communist to Front National. It seems to me that many Europeans have not so much lost faith in the European ideal—I note that UKIP's electoral success sits rather uncomfortably with support for Europe in the UK never having been higher—as they have formed the view that the political system is broken and bereft of hope such that all options seem to be equally valid choices.

What does this mean for Australia and Australian Labor? My view is that a significant driver of the trend to anti-politics is a sense among ordinary working people that they lack power over their own lives and, more importantly, they do not see politics as it is as a means to changing that. In Europe, that lack of empowerment is most stark amongst those who have been punished by the economics of austerity. In Australia, while we may not face yet the horrible levels of unemployment that are destroying European communities, we are no stranger to a sense that economic power has drifted upwards at the expense of working people.

We must recognise now that a major challenge is to rebuild belief in formal politics and to instil a sense of hope that political choices, and political action, change lives for the better. I think it is hopelessness and alienation that push citizens far left or hard right or keep them from the ballot box altogether. It is a profound sense that things cannot change. The insider culture of politics is partly to blame. This we must acknowledge. But parties of protest simply exacerbate this. The point is that to turn it around we must re-imagine the role governments can play in people's lives.

Recently, the senator-elect for the Motoring Enthusiast Party, Ricky Muir, gave an interview that has been sneered at by some in the political class. The knowing insider commentary has been about how Mr Muir should not have been allowed to front the media without proper training. I suspect that I do not have much in common with Mr Muir, but I hope to have the opportunity, while we are both here, to seek to bridge our world views and experiences and to work together in this environment. The bullying, sneering political discourse confirms and reinforces the sense of alienation many people feel.

We see another parallel with the budget. The coalition have been patting themselves on the back for their extreme, neoliberal budget. Their self-congratulatory and self-satisfied reaction could not be more at odds with the response of the general public. When the Treasurer sighs his world-weary sigh before giving another contemptuous and dismissive lecture by way of response to budget criticism, he is not simply being dismissive of Labor concerns; it is directed at all of us. It is easy to understand, then, why people have lost faith with government and politics more generally when this government have so enthusiastically broken faith with them.

Whatever else the budget does, it has done a good job of reminding us all of the powerful and enduring consequences of political decisions. Australians—protesting students, fearful pensioners and vulnerable young people—understand through this budget that, as Paul Keating said, when you change the government, you change the country.

The coalition has perversely made the case that government matters by demanding that those least able do the lifting. I am angry about this budget and the way it touches lives. I think especially of a young woman in my electorate from a refugee background. She kept connected to education and employment through a government program that has now been now cut. She is the embodiment of why government matters. What will happen to the next woman in her circumstances?

For young people who find themselves locked out of opportunities to build a good life by the coalition's cuts, the impact on their self-respect and dignity is an individual tragedy. But for government and those who believe there is a role for hope in politics and public life it is a calamity and a ticking time bomb that undermines the faith in democracy which we rely on. The Treasurer claims that equality does not matter and that the role of government is to bring people to the 'starting line', but this budget prevents people from even being in the running.