Labor takes the low road
Labor’s latest report and policy campaign is misleading and misguided. By Tim James.
The new Labor slogan “on your side” has seen its previous “fair go for Australian” slogan fall by the wayside. Sounding somewhat like an insurance advertisement, pop song or public health campaign, the new slogan fails two key tests that experts say are essential.
One, political slogans should be positive, and two, they should create a sense of something bigger, according to political communications expert from Canberra University Caroline Fisher.
Instead this new Labor slogan sounds pensive and personal. But it’s not the only flawed flag recently raised by Labor.
Federal Labor Member for Bruce Julian Hill MP this week released a report called “Australia’s Global Performance: Falling Behind” which he said is “damning for the government” and shows that “Australia has gone backwards under the Liberals, and is falling behind the rest of the world”.
Hill, who worked as a political staffer then public servant in Victoria before entering parliament, sees himself as having authority to, as the report front cover says “assess our nation’s wellbeing and progress”. That’s no mean feat.
Using a range of data sets from different sources Hill draws conclusions which he says amount to him having conducted an “audit and review of Australia’s performance”. It’s quite the claim from a backbencher who has no audit qualifications nor experience.
Moreover, the Hill report is reported to form part of Labor’s next stage of campaigning – to make voters think of matters outside the pandemic response.
It’s timely to point out that Julian Hill does indeed share the same state, party and faction as Daniel Andrews.
For all the reports’ claims of Australia being a “laggard” and “failure” relative to others around the world, consider these basics about Australia having the:
2nd highest median wealth per capita in the world
18th highest income per capita in the world
7th highest life expectancy in the world
Until recently, the longest period of uninterrupted GDP growth in the developed world, and
Stable and low unemployment and inflation both by world standards.
(each sourced in Wikipedia)
Let us keep in mind Australia is the 55th most populous nation in the world. Quite simply, we punch well above our weight.
Further, some of the report’s statistics are presented in the most political, if not the least reasonable fashion, if you can even find them. Look at this one for example.
The report asserts that “under the Liberals, Australia’s rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita has been the highest in the world”. It provides a source “Indicators for CO2 emissions” which does not readily evidence the claim. Moreover, Australia’s “performance” on this measure is very strongly shaped by our export of coal and gas – bought and used by so many countries around the world (who would otherwise purchase less clean such commodities from elsewhere if not from us). Then, take account of our low population on the world stage and the data can be presented to tell a negative story.
Yet official Australian government statistics confirm that in the year to June 2020 (the most recent published), emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy were at their lowest levels in 30 years. Emissions per capita were lower than 1990 by 44.7 per cent while the emissions intensity of the economy was 64.7 per cent lower than in 1990. Namely when the baseline is taken account of, no doubt we compare favourably. Other comparable nations struggle to deliver such substantial reductions. Context matters and relativities and realities should be taken into account – yet too often in this report they are not.
The report also conveniently overlooks a range of positive statistics. One such statistic noted during the discussion of the report on the ABC Drum this week was that household disposable income growth rose by 1.76% during the period (namely from 2013 on), after it fell during the six years Labor were in power from 2007-2013. But positive measures don’t suit the narrative so they are omitted.
The report likewise omits to note the record under Labor which in many instances was worse than that of the recent Coalition years. As pointed out on the ABC Drum one such measure where Labor witnessed a far greater fall in Australia’s position was in export diversification. But never mind any sort of balanced account in this report.
Former Labor Senator Stephen Loosley declared candidly in this week’s Australian “if federal Labor were a corporation, it may have faced delisting by the ASX”. Neither the slogan nor report and campaign outlined above will lift Labor’s stocks.
As this writer said on the ABC Drum this week in answer to questions about this report “where else would you want to be in the world right now”?
For so many reasons, and on so many measures, we can be positive about our place in the world right now. But Labor is choosing to take the low road and talking down our nation in a desperate bid to win votes. It is also failing to offer any serious policy solutions.
It all adds up to Labor being somewhere other than “on your side”.