McKell Institute Victorian Executive Director, Rebecca Thistleton
Peter Dutton’s backflip on public servants may be the first time an election commitment was scrapped before the election was even held.
The policy’s short shelf life suggests little work was done to research and test the idea before it was pitched to voters.
Politically, its purpose was clear: to drive a wedge between people working from home and those who can’t, and to lump Australian Public Service workers into one lazy pile who live in Canberra.
Redbridge pollsters Kos Samaras and Tony Barry, who have both staffed at the highest levels of their political parties and ran campaigns for Labor and the Liberals respectively, talked about the hunger for big ideas as part of our election forum held in the first week of the official campaign.
The pair have ran more than 400 focus groups over the past year, and told us that voters are looking to their political leaders for hope.
Tony told us that voters will take an energy rebate, sure, but they won’t be inspired by it. They want something to believe in.
Kos said that Labor is still spooked from 2019, when Bill Shorten dared to offer a bold agenda and lost. Since then, strategies have been timid tweaks over transformative policy.
Gen Z is now a force, outnumbering baby boomers. Party loyalty is at record lows, voters are scanning for someone who shares their values. They might be disengaged and cynical towards politicians, but they’re hungry for big ideas.
So far, major Liberal policies include using retirement savings to buy a house, building nuclear power with an industry that does not exist, and a petrol discount. They’ve stalled on releasing details and costings of their gas plan, claiming people “aren’t paying attention yet.”
After three years in Opposition, our alternative Prime Minister has done little for the policy debate beyond withdrawing his undercooked and unpopular public service-focused “policies”.
So far, the polls are shifting in Labor’s favour because they’ve done a good job managing the status quo. There is still an opportunity for big-picture vision to feature in this campaign.
In just three years, the Albanese Labor Government has delivered industrial relations reforms and wage growth while bringing down inflation.
A challenge for the incumbents is selling new ideas and policies, while talking up first-time achievements, and stitching this into a narrative voters can relate to.
We were proud to have our latest report launched by the Prime Minister in the first week of this campaign, Closing Loopholes, Opening Opportunities. This work showed how the government’s Same Job, Same Pay laws have boosted wages, particularly for workers in mining, aviation, meat processing and retail distribution.
If fully implemented, the policy could add $2.556 billion annually to the Australian economy.
The mining lobby has consistently called for both major parties and the crossbench to abandon the Same Job, Same Pay laws, vowing to keep the pressure on well after this election.
On the day our report was launched, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was repeatedly asked about his position on the policy. He ruled out repealing Same Job, Same Pay laws during a press conference held during a visit to a West Australian factory for mining drills.
To the surprise of many, the Liberal leader had disregarded the mining lobby at a mining component factory in the mining state, and promised he’d keep Labor’s laws in place if he wins.
On the day our report was launched, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was repeatedly asked about his position on the policy. He ruled out repealing Same Job, Same Pay laws during a press conference held during a visit to a West Australian factory for mining drills.
To the surprise of many, the Liberal leader had disregarded the mining lobby at a mining component factory in the mining state, and promised he’d keep Labor’s laws in place if he wins.
So far, the Opposition’s biggest moments in this campaign have been the public service backflip and promising to leave Same Job, Same Pay alone.
While that may cheer those of us on the progressive side, watching the quality of public policy regress is unedifying.
But it’s a reminder of how powerful good policy backed by strong research can be.
SOCIAL SHARE