Whether the cost of living message is powerful enough to overcome the broader distrust in the political class will be found out in just a few days’ time.
Terrific piece and the key insights are all well argued.
You are correct to point out that inequality is the principal issue here, with the distribution of pain highly uneven. Many are doing extraordinarily well out of this ‘crisis.’
The ALP’s tenuous and almost always temporary occupation of government has them permanently on the back foot, especially in view of the way the ruling classes can tightly manage the frame of reference for debate.
However the ALP must take significant responsibility for this as by stubbornly sticking to a defensive small target strategy and failing to reframe the agenda it plays to the strengths of the ruling class. Hence we get ridiculous arguments about the cost of eggs and ‘wasting’ money on benefits, education and healthcare while billions is sunk into the coffers of the American imperial war machine via AUKUS, and rebates to foreign extraction businesses along with tax evasion by international (mostly US) corporations such as Meta, News Corp and Alphabet drains and severely restricts our sovereign capital.
We are stuck with a choice between the vaguely competent management of decline with the ALP or highly partisan malignant incompetence from the LNP.
your comment on leadership resonated with me. Managers can be excellent of course but many are content to just stagnate and keep their jobs. The best managers don’t back down from positive reform. DL
The media are middle class and financially comfortable and do not understand where the real cost of living crisis lies (I say that as a retired journo myself).
As you say, the real cost of living crisis is among the poor, not the middle class or wealthy.
My grandson and his mate, both university students excelling in their studies, are having to pay $750 a week for a unit in inner Brisbane, so they can be close to university - $750 a week for a unit!
Why isn't the government funding more affordable student accommodation?
Then there is the single mother who needs an affordable place to live. The older women who are homeless and living in vans. The permanents section of any caravan park.
The Morrison Government slashed public housing funding and focussed on first-home buyers, which pushed up prices, while abandoning people who will always be renters.
The current government is pushing a rent to build scheme, but it takes time to turn the housing market around, particularly when there is a shortage of tradies because the Morrison Government starved TAFE of funding. We need a lot more modest public housing, including units and studio apartments. Having a small place is better than being homeless.
We know from Michael Sukkar's statements that a Dutton Government would essentially do nothing much about housing the poor renters and merely revive its failed past policies.
So we can only hope an Albanese Government will be able to make progress in its next three-year term. Albanese, who grew up in public housing, surely understands its importance better than Dutton.
Spot on. It boils right down I think to publicly funded elections. The donors to parties have way too much say and a large number are property developers to whom the current system is very kind.
And sadly yes too the middle class has no interest beyond the theoretical in poverty. Privilege will brook no threat to its position so if it can’t destroy the threat will ignore it. DL.
Excellent analysis. Thank you.
Terrific piece and the key insights are all well argued.
You are correct to point out that inequality is the principal issue here, with the distribution of pain highly uneven. Many are doing extraordinarily well out of this ‘crisis.’
The ALP’s tenuous and almost always temporary occupation of government has them permanently on the back foot, especially in view of the way the ruling classes can tightly manage the frame of reference for debate.
However the ALP must take significant responsibility for this as by stubbornly sticking to a defensive small target strategy and failing to reframe the agenda it plays to the strengths of the ruling class. Hence we get ridiculous arguments about the cost of eggs and ‘wasting’ money on benefits, education and healthcare while billions is sunk into the coffers of the American imperial war machine via AUKUS, and rebates to foreign extraction businesses along with tax evasion by international (mostly US) corporations such as Meta, News Corp and Alphabet drains and severely restricts our sovereign capital.
We are stuck with a choice between the vaguely competent management of decline with the ALP or highly partisan malignant incompetence from the LNP.
We need leaders, not managers.
your comment on leadership resonated with me. Managers can be excellent of course but many are content to just stagnate and keep their jobs. The best managers don’t back down from positive reform. DL
The media are middle class and financially comfortable and do not understand where the real cost of living crisis lies (I say that as a retired journo myself).
As you say, the real cost of living crisis is among the poor, not the middle class or wealthy.
My grandson and his mate, both university students excelling in their studies, are having to pay $750 a week for a unit in inner Brisbane, so they can be close to university - $750 a week for a unit!
Why isn't the government funding more affordable student accommodation?
Then there is the single mother who needs an affordable place to live. The older women who are homeless and living in vans. The permanents section of any caravan park.
The Morrison Government slashed public housing funding and focussed on first-home buyers, which pushed up prices, while abandoning people who will always be renters.
The current government is pushing a rent to build scheme, but it takes time to turn the housing market around, particularly when there is a shortage of tradies because the Morrison Government starved TAFE of funding. We need a lot more modest public housing, including units and studio apartments. Having a small place is better than being homeless.
We know from Michael Sukkar's statements that a Dutton Government would essentially do nothing much about housing the poor renters and merely revive its failed past policies.
So we can only hope an Albanese Government will be able to make progress in its next three-year term. Albanese, who grew up in public housing, surely understands its importance better than Dutton.
Spot on. It boils right down I think to publicly funded elections. The donors to parties have way too much say and a large number are property developers to whom the current system is very kind.
And sadly yes too the middle class has no interest beyond the theoretical in poverty. Privilege will brook no threat to its position so if it can’t destroy the threat will ignore it. DL.