This week in Canberra the familiar tension generated by a bad Newspoll descended. You will see many politicians swear until they are blue in the face that they do not follow the polls, that the only poll that matters is the one at the election etc.
They are all lies. Labor politicians are feeling the heat after enjoying what some of them thought was a permanent honeymoon. The latest Newspoll showed that less than one third of Australians plan to vote for the Labor party just 18 months after they were elected.
Many Labor politicians have briefed the media this week that the reason they are unpopular is because they haven’t been able to “sell” their message. This is always the excuse of an unpopular government. If only they could just find the right spin to convince people to believe they are not as bad as they think, they would be right.
It is an approach that is patronising to voters. I do not think Australians are so gullible. People are smarter than we give them credit for and things are more simple than the complex stories weaved by the over-analysis from commentators in Canberra.
The Labor Government is unpopular because inflation is high, our energy system is crumbling before our eyes and some can’t get a home because of uncontrolled migration. It is that simple.
The Government has maintained for a year that inflation is not their fault. Prices are going up because of Vladimir Putin. This was always absurd because since when did Australia’s economy become controlled by Russia?
Their excuses about inflation have been blown out of the water in the past month. New data revealed that Australia’s inflation has remained high even while it has fallen in other developed countries. We now have the highest price rises in the developed world. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia called Australia’s inflation a “home grown” problem which it now clearly is.
It has been home grown because the Government massively increased spending in their budget this year. In net terms, they increased spending by $20 billion, the biggest increase (not including COVID years) since Kevin Rudd’s budget during the Global Financial Crisis.
Last week the Government finally admitted that their energy policies are not delivering the investment they wanted. Energy investments have come to a standstill as wind and solar energy is reaching a saturation point (we do not need more energy in the middle of the day or when it is windy) and other projects like Snowy 2.0 are beset with delays and cost blowouts.
Finally the Government has admitted that things are not working. But instead, of correcting course their response is to establish a new funding scheme for renewable energy now to be paid from your taxes. If renewable energy is the cheapest form of power, why do we need to provide more subsidies to foreign investors in renewable energy.
The Government has also botched Australia’s recovery from COVID. For two years we closed our border and took in no new migrants. That was unsustainable and we had to open back up again. But instead of controlling our borders and matching our migration intake with the available housing and infrastructure we have, the Government has just opened the floodgates. Now people cannot find a home. People are living in tents and our cities are congested because we have not had a proper migration plan.
If the Government wants to improve its standing with the Australian people, it will focus not on what it says but on what it does. The Government won’t become more popular with people until it delivers real and tangible improvements in people’s lives.
