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The Age
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Albanese can now define patriotism beyond the Anzacs and the Wallabies
Albanese's adoption of progressive patriotism can help reset. When we talk about patriotism, we shouldn't have to explain that it needn't be aggressive. Or that nations needn't be defined by race or blood. In today's Australia, the new default should be that patriotism is a love of country that is democratic and egalitarian. It is something that includes those of different races and backgrounds. It is not about an insistence that we are better than everyone else; it is about a belief we must live up to the best of our traditions. Loading Understood in this way, patriotism is by no means owned just by one side of politics. Australians can love this country in more ways than one. Some of us will instinctively think less about our democratic traditions and more about a connection with the land or family. We don't need to agree on everything about what makes our country special. But the civic character of patriotism – a commitment to the country as a citizen – can unify us all. There can be a clearly defined progressive patriotism, however. For an Albanese Labor government, patriotism can power a renewed centre-left in the tradition of Labor nation-building. This is the tradition followed by Labor reformist governments. When at their best, these governments were guided by a belief in modernising Australia and a politics of the common good – and by an ethos of fairness, equality and humanity. This thread ran through the governments of Chifley, Whitlam, Hawke and Keating, and can be glimpsed in later Labor governments led by Rudd and Gillard. Many contemporary policy problems call for such an approach. Nation-building, after all, is about more than physical infrastructure. A nation is more than just a collection of roads, schools and hospitals; it is ultimately defined by its culture, its institutions, its citizens. Whether it is the economy, health, housing, climate or social cohesion, these concerns all implicate projects in building a nation. Albanese should learn from the experience of his recent Labor predecessors. Although Kevin Rudd became prime minister promising new leadership, he struggled to tell a coherent national story. Julia Gillard faced a similar problem, weighed down by the demands of minority government. Albanese can learn, too, from his first term in office. One of the reasons the Voice referendum failed was because not enough Australians saw a Voice to parliament as something that benefited all Australians. It was a painful reminder of how reform can only succeed if built on some common ground. With his political authority unquestioned, Albanese has an opportunity to craft a nation-building agenda. The significance is more than just national. At the moment, parties of the centre-left are struggling to find compelling alternatives to Trumpist populism. In many countries, they are failing to find ways to connect with disillusioned constituencies who are angry at elites. It certainly feels that way here in the UK. Faced with the alarming rise of Nigel Farage's Reform Party, Labour's Prime Minister Keir Starmer seems to be plotting a different course to Albanese. Previously, Starmer has spoken in support of a patriotism about belonging and inclusion. Recently, though, he has grimly warned that the UK risks becoming 'an island of strangers'. He has insisted Britons must 'take back control of our borders' and close a 'squalid chapter' of rising immigration. Clearly, not all those on the centre-left who take up progressive patriotism can get it right. But Australia may be showing how it can be done.
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese can now define patriotism beyond the Anzacs and the Wallabies
Albanese's adoption of progressive patriotism can help reset. When we talk about patriotism, we shouldn't have to explain that it needn't be aggressive. Or that nations needn't be defined by race or blood. In today's Australia, the new default should be that patriotism is a love of country that is democratic and egalitarian. It is something that includes those of different races and backgrounds. It is not about an insistence that we are better than everyone else; it is about a belief we must live up to the best of our traditions. Loading Understood in this way, patriotism is by no means owned just by one side of politics. Australians can love this country in more ways than one. Some of us will instinctively think less about our democratic traditions and more about a connection with the land or family. We don't need to agree on everything about what makes our country special. But the civic character of patriotism – a commitment to the country as a citizen – can unify us all. There can be a clearly defined progressive patriotism, however. For an Albanese Labor government, patriotism can power a renewed centre-left in the tradition of Labor nation-building. This is the tradition followed by Labor reformist governments. When at their best, these governments were guided by a belief in modernising Australia and a politics of the common good – and by an ethos of fairness, equality and humanity. This thread ran through the governments of Chifley, Whitlam, Hawke and Keating, and can be glimpsed in later Labor governments led by Rudd and Gillard. Many contemporary policy problems call for such an approach. Nation-building, after all, is about more than physical infrastructure. A nation is more than just a collection of roads, schools and hospitals; it is ultimately defined by its culture, its institutions, its citizens. Whether it is the economy, health, housing, climate or social cohesion, these concerns all implicate projects in building a nation. Albanese should learn from the experience of his recent Labor predecessors. Although Kevin Rudd became prime minister promising new leadership, he struggled to tell a coherent national story. Julia Gillard faced a similar problem, weighed down by the demands of minority government. Albanese can learn, too, from his first term in office. One of the reasons the Voice referendum failed was because not enough Australians saw a Voice to parliament as something that benefited all Australians. It was a painful reminder of how reform can only succeed if built on some common ground. With his political authority unquestioned, Albanese has an opportunity to craft a nation-building agenda. The significance is more than just national. At the moment, parties of the centre-left are struggling to find compelling alternatives to Trumpist populism. In many countries, they are failing to find ways to connect with disillusioned constituencies who are angry at elites. It certainly feels that way here in the UK. Faced with the alarming rise of Nigel Farage's Reform Party, Labour's Prime Minister Keir Starmer seems to be plotting a different course to Albanese. Previously, Starmer has spoken in support of a patriotism about belonging and inclusion. Recently, though, he has grimly warned that the UK risks becoming 'an island of strangers'. He has insisted Britons must 'take back control of our borders' and close a 'squalid chapter' of rising immigration. Clearly, not all those on the centre-left who take up progressive patriotism can get it right. But Australia may be showing how it can be done.
The Age
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Net zero has been ground zero for energy ambition. What a chance we have now
This opportunity is redolent of the one that was seized by the Curtin and then Chifley governments during and immediately after World War II. John Curtin relied on two independents to govern through his first term from 1941 to 1943. The 1943 election delivered an overwhelming majority and a parliament like the one emerging now after May 3. The second Curtin government and the Chifley government that followed Curtin's death at the end of World War II established an economic reform programme that set up Australia for a quarter of a century of full employment with rising living standards for a growing population. The Chifley government was defeated in 1949 after the leading opposition figure, Robert Menzies, abandoned his United Australia Party, which had become captured by vested business interests. After the United Australia Party's catastrophic defeat in 1943, he established a Liberal Party that could appeal to broader interests and values of the democratic Australian polity. After the election, the Coalition holds only about 15 per cent of seats in the eight capital cities where most Australians live. A 21st-century Menzies would recognise the central role of Coalition approaches to climate and energy policy in the collapse of its electoral support in metropolitan Australia. Loading The renewed Albanese government has an opportunity to deliver the policies that can underpin Australia's use of its exceptionally rich renewable energy and sustainably harvested biomass resources to supply zero-carbon goods that other countries cannot supply economically for themselves. On election night, Albanese restated his commitment to using Australia's clean energy advantages to build a Future Made in Australia. Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted the opportunity that a strong electoral position provided to implement this vision, and told Australians it would not be wasted. Australian exports of goods embodying renewable energy could reduce global emissions by up to 10 per cent. They would generate export income for Australians vastly larger than are now provided by the gas and coal industries, which will decline as other countries reduce carbon emissions. The new industries are large enough to drive restoration of growth in Australian productivity and living standards after the dozen years of stagnation that began in 2013. The most important industries to drive Australia – the superpower industries – use hydrogen made with renewable energy. Recent announcements that many prominent hydrogen projects have been closed or shelved has generated talk that hydrogen is dead, or too underdeveloped for independent life. Like Mark Twain's death, those rumours are exaggerated. Apply sound economic principles to policy and the first hydrogen-based investments in new export industries are ready to go now. Hydrogen-based iron-making is ready for investment in the Upper Spencer Gulf of South Australia. Whyalla will have a sustainable future in iron-making based on green hydrogen, or it will have no sustainable future at all. The May 3 election has not changed in any way the physics, economics or ethics of climate change. What it has changed is the capacity of government in Australia to establish and maintain policies that will allow us to reduce domestic emissions in line with our international obligations. Loading It has strengthened the capacity of government to introduce and sustain policies that support Australia in contributing disproportionately to global decarbonisation by supplying goods embodying renewable energy that the high-income economies of North-East Asia and Europe cannot supply at reasonable cost from their own resources. It has opened an opportunity for Australia to leave behind a dozen years of stagnation of living standards and to enter a new era of full employment with rising incomes for an increasing population.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Net zero has been ground zero for energy ambition. What a chance we have now
This opportunity is redolent of the one that was seized by the Curtin and then Chifley governments during and immediately after World War II. John Curtin relied on two independents to govern through his first term from 1941 to 1943. The 1943 election delivered an overwhelming majority and a parliament like the one emerging now after May 3. The second Curtin government and the Chifley government that followed Curtin's death at the end of World War II established an economic reform programme that set up Australia for a quarter of a century of full employment with rising living standards for a growing population. The Chifley government was defeated in 1949 after the leading opposition figure, Robert Menzies, abandoned his United Australia Party, which had become captured by vested business interests. After the United Australia Party's catastrophic defeat in 1943, he established a Liberal Party that could appeal to broader interests and values of the democratic Australian polity. After the election, the Coalition holds only about 15 per cent of seats in the eight capital cities where most Australians live. A 21st-century Menzies would recognise the central role of Coalition approaches to climate and energy policy in the collapse of its electoral support in metropolitan Australia. Loading The renewed Albanese government has an opportunity to deliver the policies that can underpin Australia's use of its exceptionally rich renewable energy and sustainably harvested biomass resources to supply zero-carbon goods that other countries cannot supply economically for themselves. On election night, Albanese restated his commitment to using Australia's clean energy advantages to build a Future Made in Australia. Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted the opportunity that a strong electoral position provided to implement this vision, and told Australians it would not be wasted. Australian exports of goods embodying renewable energy could reduce global emissions by up to 10 per cent. They would generate export income for Australians vastly larger than are now provided by the gas and coal industries, which will decline as other countries reduce carbon emissions. The new industries are large enough to drive restoration of growth in Australian productivity and living standards after the dozen years of stagnation that began in 2013. The most important industries to drive Australia – the superpower industries – use hydrogen made with renewable energy. Recent announcements that many prominent hydrogen projects have been closed or shelved has generated talk that hydrogen is dead, or too underdeveloped for independent life. Like Mark Twain's death, those rumours are exaggerated. Apply sound economic principles to policy and the first hydrogen-based investments in new export industries are ready to go now. Hydrogen-based iron-making is ready for investment in the Upper Spencer Gulf of South Australia. Whyalla will have a sustainable future in iron-making based on green hydrogen, or it will have no sustainable future at all. The May 3 election has not changed in any way the physics, economics or ethics of climate change. What it has changed is the capacity of government in Australia to establish and maintain policies that will allow us to reduce domestic emissions in line with our international obligations. Loading It has strengthened the capacity of government to introduce and sustain policies that support Australia in contributing disproportionately to global decarbonisation by supplying goods embodying renewable energy that the high-income economies of North-East Asia and Europe cannot supply at reasonable cost from their own resources. It has opened an opportunity for Australia to leave behind a dozen years of stagnation of living standards and to enter a new era of full employment with rising incomes for an increasing population.
ABC News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Immigration, working from home and cost of living top concerns for Western Sydney voters
"Pretty much everyone's battlers." That is one sentiment that has been conveyed by voters in Western Sydney. Exclusive YouGov polling, commissioned by 7.30, has found that an overwhelming majority of voters in the area don't believe any election policy will benefit them. Almost three in four — or 72 per cent — of Western Sydney voters said they couldn't think of a policy from the government or opposition that would improve their lives. The poll of seven electorates across the vast and diverse region of 2.5 million Australians was conducted in weeks three and four of the campaign — between April 15 and 22. A total of 1,079 voters were surveyed in the marginal electorates of Werriwa (Labor) and Fowler (Independent) along with Lindsay (Liberal), McMahon (Labor), Greenway (Labor), Macarthur (Labor) and Chifley (Labor). The polling raises questions about the ability of Labor and the Coalition to connect with voters, particularly on the issues of cost of living and housing. "It's not a terrific sign for democracy," Andy Marks from Western Sydney University told 7.30. " That level of disconnect suggests that they're not feeling represented, or they're not seeing themselves in their political representatives. " Andy Marks says policies from the major parties aren't cutting through in Western Sydney. ( ABC News: Shaun Kingma ) 'There's really nothing new' Of the 28 per cent who could name a policy, the top answer was Labor's support for Medicare, followed by the Coalition's petrol relief. Like many Australians, Western Sydney voters said they were struggling, with 43 per cent feeling worse off than three years ago, and 67 per cent saying they were barely getting by or going backwards financially. The Vista family in Rooty Hill, in the Labor-held electorate of Chifley, told 7.30 they felt worse off. The household of mum, dad and their four sons live under the one roof in their rented townhouse — and say a trolley-load of groceries is at least $100 more than before. "That's gone up, electricity's gone up, rent's gone up, so many things," Erica Vista said. A long-time Labor supporter, she's switching her vote this election. "This time round I feel that they're saying all the things that they usually say, there's nothing really new," she said. Her husband, Orlando, is undecided but sceptical of politicians. "They promise this, they promise that, but who knows what they're going to do afterwards," Mr Vista said. Erica and Orlando Vista are sceptical of the election promises being made by the major parties. ( ABC News: Jason Om ) Working from home sacrosanct One of the major moments during the election campaign was the In Western Sydney, the need to work from home was at the top of the agenda for many voters, where long commutes from the outer suburbs to a CBD office are out of favour. Polling showed that 79 per cent of Western Sydney voters agreed that Australians should have the right to work from home at least once a week where possible. Kymberly Spears from Rooty Hill juggles caring for a baby daughter and five-year-old son with a full-time job in finance. She told 7.30 that working from home allows her to balance out her family needs. "Productivity mixed with family, it's a good balance," she said. "It doesn't make sense in 2025 that we're in the old mindset that we need to be in an office to be productive." Kymberly Spears says being able to work from home is crucial. ( ABC News: Jason Om ) Western Sydney voters want immigration cut Immigration is another key issue in Western Sydney, where there is an ethnically diverse population. Around four out of five (or 86 per cent) of Western Sydney voters believe Australia's immigration intake should be lowered — but their reasoning varied. Forty-six per cent of voters said that while immigration has been good for Australia, it should be reduced until the government improves housing affordability and infrastructure, while 40 per cent believed Australia should reduce immigration "as much as possible". Only 14 per cent believed Australia should keep immigration levels as they are. A voter from Greystanes, in the Labor electorate of McMahon, told 7.30 that Western Sydney was "very crowded." While another, a migrant herself, said Australia had "lost a bit of control" of the issue. "The number of people coming in probably needs to be looked at proportionately, in terms of housing availability, for instance," she said. Affordable housing is a key issue for voters in Western Sydney. ( AAP: Dean Lewins ) Reason for hope Despite the concerns about housing and immigration, Western Sydney voters were more likely than other Australians to say they were better off now compared to three years ago. More than one in five — or 21 per cent — agreed with this sentiment, compared to 12 per cent of all Australians in a similar poll conducted by YouGov. That's almost double the optimism. When speaking to voters on the street in Western Sydney, some answered in an existential way, factoring in gains in their personal lives such as having children or buying a home. "Financially, no, but within myself, yes," one Penrith resident told 7.30. Volunteers and corflutes outside a pre-polling centre in the electorate of Lindsay. April 2025. ( ABC News: Shaun Kingma ) Ahead of Saturday's election, Mr Marks said the YouGov polling indicated that major parties should not take Western Sydney voters for granted. "Western Sydney is really a place that is nobody's heartland," he said. " Voters are deserting the major parties at a rapid rate, the idea that it's squared away for any major party is no longer the case. " Watch , Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on and ABC TV Contact 7.30 Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30
