Wednesday, June 28(2)

So Scott Morrison has come to the realisation that people are switching off politicians, turning down the political noise and losing trust that politicians are on their side. Wow! Did he wake up to that realisation, or did he come to it gradually? Intelligent commentators have been saying much the same thing for a decade or more, ever since the end-days of the Howard government's cynical tax cuts tried to buy one more election victory, and exacerbated by the shenanigans of the Rudd-Gillard years.

So, it must be true, then. But what is the solution? Scomo says politicians have to convince voters they are on their side. And? Simplistic solutions are never the answer to a complex problem. We need better brains and better ethics to address this problem, and not somebody who has a vested interest in the outcome, and a history of opportunism.

It makes me think of an essay I read last year, written by Barry Jones (of Pick-a-Box fame), talking about some ideas being developed by Malcolm Fraser before his death. Malcolm thought that 'both the Coalition and Labor Party had become corrupted and timid, looking for immediate advantage and a narrow focus on economics'.

He noted that membership of the two major parties had become 'small and sclerotic. Public funding and compulsory voting are bomb shelters that protect the existing hegemonic parties and make reform virtually impossible.'

The article mourned the withdrawal of political engagement by people with high levels of education or professional skills. 'The politics of reason are being displaced by the politics of frustration and anger'.

Fraser looked for a new political force, not wedded to the old ideas of left or right. 'It's policies would be evidence-based and it would emphasise finding solutions to what sociologists call "wicked problems": refugees, a new taxation system, a post-carbon economy, biota sustainability, needs-based funding for education, ending toxic political culture.'

Unfortunately, we seem to be going down the track of what Fraser described as 'the Left Behind Party. Its common elements are identifying victims and denouncing enemies; resentment about rapid change; nostalgia about the past; apprehension about the future and many aspects of modernity; responsiveness to fear about the unfamiliar, especially mixing with other races and cultures, particularly Muslims; finding simple explanations for complex problems. (The) party has these characteristics: rejection of evidence, low levels of formal education, resentment of elites and “political correctness”, and a belief the 1960s was a “Golden Age of full employment”. Many of these voters used to be with the Labor Party but now are often, but not always accurately, identified with a nativist populism.'

As a politician, Malcolm Fraser was conservative but he became more progressive as he grew older, and resigned from the Liberal Party in 2009.  He comes to this debate with little baggage and his ideas deserve consideration.