Albanese’s Blind Spots

It is amazing how much the political world has changed in my lifetime.

My father was a staunch Labor supporter. He had even been elected to the local council on the Labor ticket and served a couple of terms as a Labor alderman. Although he actually had many skills and was a practical and accomplished person in many ways, he would today be classified as an “un-skilled” worker and he wore the title “worker” with pride. It seemed a perfectly natural consequence of being so defined that he aligned with the Labor party. He talked derogatively about those who supported more conservative politics as being “Tories”. And like Anthony Albanese was poud of his role in fighting “Tories”.

And indeed it was true that in those days the working class were well represented by Labor who protected and advanced the interests of workers as their fundamental raison d’etre. This, I suppose, was a reflection of the class system that then existed. In those simpler times your class was most likely assigned on the basis of your wealth, education and occupation.

But that sort of Labor Party has long been supplanted. In the modern progressive Labor party the traditional class system seems to have been turned on its head. The divisions that now seem to matter most are not about class so much as to belief in “progressive” ideas like identity politics, climate change and a range of views that have come to be called “woke”.

My father would have been appalled by the issues that now seem to matter to his beloved Labor Party. Perversely, the Labor obsession with “woke” issues seems to have made them deaf to the real issues that concern their traditional base, the working class.

Labor, indeed, seems to have abandoned their traditional base and seem now to be more focussed in winning over the inner city elites, determined to contest the electorates that are more attuned to the progressive, ”woke” issues in order to compete with the Greens and the Teals who are elitist and far removed from their traditional working class base.

Labor’s preoccupation with such progressive issues has certainly alienated them from average citizens. Because they inhabit an echo chamber where such values are continually reinforced they seem unaware of this alienation.

This was exemplified by the Voice referendum.

Initial polls suggested that the referendum would be easily won. Soon, “woke“ corporates, celebrities and sporting teams flocked to support the cause of having an indigenous voice to parliament. The media were quick to reinforce the optics that the cause was well-supported and the opposition was only emanating from a reactionary group of conservatives. Albanese was blindsided by all of this and obviously believed that he was on a winner and would emphatically establish his legacy via the referendum.

But, unfortunately for him, whilst those around him no doubt reinforced the notion that white Australians who were guilty of the heinous crimes of colonisation and racial vilification should with due contrition afford indigenous people with special privileges under the constitution, a majority of citizens with whom he he had long lost touch were concerned the referendum was a divisive act and that all Australians should be treated equally under the constitution.

Albanese was caught adrift by this obvious blind spot which had deflected his attention away from the views of ordinary Australians.

The next issue where I suspect that the Prime Minister has erroneously believed he and his government has popular support is energy policy. Just like the voice referendum, the government foolishly believes that voters are onside with the rush to renewable energy.

For many years polls have indicated that the populace is supportive of a move towards renewable energy. But when the question is asked of voters how much are they prepared to pay to ensure that our electricity results in lesser emissions, the answer has always been, “not very much”!

Currently we are facing an economic crisis where there has been a per capita recession for the best part of two years. With declining disposable income I would suspect that the average Australian would be reluctant to spend anything at all in reducing our emissions. This reluctance is reinforced by the fact that all the available evidence suggests that the government’s commitment to renewable energy has been a major contributor to rising costs for consumers and has been a major contributor to our declining standards of living and a significant impediment to doing business in Australia.

The religious fervour of Labor, the Greens and even the Teals in pursuing unattainable emissions targets is not matched in the general population who are struggling to make ends meet and would just prefer an electricity grid that would supply them reliably with power at affordable prices.

Whilst the government might feel compelled to pursue a radical renewable energy policy to improve their chances of holding the Greens at bay in inner city electorates, I am sure it is not going to win them many votes among the working class which was their traditional heartland.

More than that, as the deleterious impacts of renewable energy are starting to be obvious in regional Australia their renewables policy is ensuring that rural Australians are also alienated. Vast tracts of arable land are being encroached by solar panels, wind turbines and transmission lines to the detriment of agricultural and pastoral pursuits and impinging on valuable native habitats.

Now a third area where Albanese has an obvious blind spot is in the government’s relationship with Israel and its reluctance to address anti-Semitism. Ever since last year’s atrocity which resulted in the death of several thousand Jews and the capture of several hundred hostages, pro-Palestinian supporters have been threatening Jews and demonstrating on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne.

They have plastered their vile antisemitic graffiti on synagogues, on buildings and cars in the suburbs where there are concentrations of Jewish citizens. Some cars were torched. Most recently, a synagogue was fire-bombed with two people inside. Despite immediate protestations by the leader of the opposition and leaders of the Jewish community, the Prime Minister took almost two days to make a response, and even then was reluctant to acknowledge this atrocity as a terrorist activity.

In the meantime, the Albanese government has continued to water down its support for Israel at the United Nations. Historically Australia has sided with Israel affirming its right to exist and defend itself. Indeed Labor luminary, Doc Evatt was chair of the UN Commission that established the state of Israel. The commission recommended that an independent state should be established to provide the Jews with a secure homeland. The State of Israel was subsequently proclaimed in Tel Aviv on 14 May, 1948.

Labor has generally provided succour and support for the Jewish state. Israel, after all, is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. Historically Labor understood the importance of ensuring Israel’s survival. Bob Hawke, in fact, famously proclaimed:

“If the bell tolls for Israel it won’t just toll for Israel, it will toll for all of us.”

But Albanese, Wong and Burke seem not too interested in defending the Middle East’s only democracy, but pandering to Muslim voters in key Western Sydney seats. The Prime Minister has been quick to protest that “islamophobia” is just as significant a problem as antisemitism whereas the facts show that antisemitism has been far more prevalent and much more menacing than “islamophobia”.

Australian Jews are not nearly as prevalent as Australian Muslims (as I understand it Jews are outnumbered by Muslims by something like eight times in Australia). Many of the latter have come as refugees from the Middle East. Instead of embracing Australian values and appreciating the freedom and tolerance of mainstream Australian society, a significant number have sought to re-prosecute the religious intolerance of their ancestral lands into Australian society.

Meanwhile Australian Jews have been major contributors to our society adhering to their traditional faith in a peaceful and nonintrusive way. They have integrated into Australian society, seamlessly and without disruption.

The pro-Palestinian movement has been bolstered by the anti-West sentiment pedalled by many on the Left who see Israel as an evil coloniser displacing the Palestinians from their traditional homelands. The Jews, however, maintain that they have occupied these territories for millennia.

Now, whilst, as I reported above, the ALP has traditionally supported Israel, many in Labor’s Left have not: opting to side with Palestine. Anthony Albanese is from the Left and from his student days has been pro-Palestine. Penny Wong has been of a similar ilk, and has on the international stage gradually watered down Australia’s support for Israel. This culminated recently with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, castigating Australia for its dwindling support. This is harmful to Australia’s interests. Israel has been a staunch ally of Australia and has provided intelligence that has both helped us avoid terrorism in our country and help to protect Australian soldiers fighting abroad.

As Nick Cater, senior fellow of the Menzies Research Centre recently wrote:

Albanese stumbles around in a fog. His undergraduate worldview cannot see beyond the shadow of Palestine. He has put Australia at odds with its most important ally (USA).

But just as in the other blind spots I have outlined, I believe Albanese has again misjudged the mood of the people. When we see the hateful, violent aggression that the pro-Palestinian supporters are propagating against our domestic Jewish population most Australians are horrified. This is a travesty against the tolerant society that we all have believed in. When we see a government resiling from taking definitive action against the pro-Palestine antisemitic forces that are disrupting our peaceful, multicultural society, it is not hard to imagine how other sectors of our society might be abandoned for short term, parochial, political expediency.

As I write, Albanese has shown empathy and compassion for another antisemitic atrocity. Yet, in the face of this, Penny Wong has again instructed Australia’s ambassador to the United Nations to support a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. She overlooks the fact that Israel’s stoic defence from the incursions of the Iranian proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah has substantially weakened Iran’s malevolent influence in the Middle East which has precipitated a change of regime in Syria.

Not only that, but Wong continues to support efforts to provide financial support to UNRWA which purports to provide sustenance to Palestinian people but merely provides more largesse to Hamas.

The government’s stance in the UN purports to support a “two state” solution in the Middle East. Under current conditions this is pipe-dream. To begin with there seems no entity that can claim to represent Palestine. Moreover all those that make such claims are dedicated to the extinction of the state of Israel!

But overall, I think this has exposed another of Albanese’s blind spots. I don’t believe that failing to act to stamp out antisemitism, abandoning Israel and giving tacit support to the pro-Palestinian movement wins over many ordinary Australians. Albanese continues to demonstrate his disconnection with ordinary Australians (particularly those working class people, like my father, who believed the Labor party would fervently progress their interests).

In this regard I cannot believe Albanese can win another election in his own right. His political judgment seems to be flawed and as a consequence he might get to live in his luxury home at Copacabana sooner than he had planned!

Ted Scott AM was awarded an Order of Australia in 2004 for his contribution to industry, and was named one of Australia's top thirty business leaders in 2001 by AFR's BOSS Magazine. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics and had a successful career in management in the electricity generation industry in Queensland, managing many power stations. Ted is a writer and the author of several books.