For more than a week now, what has dominated the news cycle in this country is the issue of asylum seekers: the Abbott government’s attempt to return asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and to change the relevant legislation, what the High Court has decided and what the practical consequences of its decision might be, or whether or not Australia is fulfilling its international humanitarian obligations on this front.
Another issue that surfaced late last week, as a result of an Abbott statement at an economics conference in Melbourne, was the Prime Minister’s remark about Australia not having been settled before the arrival of the First Fleet. This issue did not gain a strong foothold in the news cycle, but, again, some news time and some news space was taken up.
At the same time, a Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday indicated that the Prime Minister is losing support in his own power base, in the stronghold states of Western Australia and Queensland.
It is quite clear that all these events are related. The government and the Prime Minister find it extremely difficult to change the negative attitudes of the citizens towards the May budget and are desperately trying to change the political agenda of the day.
The tough standing of the government on the issue of the asylum seekers can work to its advantage, as the polls indicate and can create problems for the Labor opposition and its support base. Also, the deliberately provocative statement of Tony Abbott about the status of Australia before the arrival of the white settlers can take some steam off the government and its budget trouble, by drawing up again old and distinctive battle lines between the conservatives and
the progressives in Australia.
The message the government and its political allies is pushing, that we are in deep financial trouble, while at the same time the wider society is in a state of denial and cannot see trouble coming, is not getting through successfully, as the government’s and the Prime Minister’s approval ratings in the polls indicate. The plan to change Australian society and Australian politics radically through the budget and the implications of its measures to basic tenets of the welfare state is not going ahead as successfully as planned or hoped for. The government and its spin doctors need to change the message for the time being and this is what they are attempting to do in the last few days with the issue of the asylum seekers and the status of Australia before the arrival of white settlers.
The Coalition Government will probably attempt to do this side tracking with other issues as well. The possible threat posed by an Australian-born Jihadist fighting in the Middle East, apart from real is also ‘imagined’ and politically motivated. It is not a coincidence that The Australian is running with this news item. International terrorism and law and order issues might also come back on the agenda. ‘WA spy station to target terror’ was another front page in The Australian this week.
Issues that claim or take vital public space away from the negative effects of the budget for a significant number of Australians, and away from the argument of fairness that the Labor Opposition is pursuing successfully so far, will surface again and again in an attempt to re-orient the public agenda and the public debate to more favourable grounds for the government.
What the other side of politics and society has to do is not to be sidetracked.
Yes, Australia needs to be much more generous with its asylum seekers. Yes, Australia was not Terra Nullius before the arrival of the British. These and other similar ongoing battles though, must not become the main battles between now and the next federal election. It is the fairness of the budget measures, it is the so called bread and butter issues that will make an electoral and a political difference for the many and for the anti-Coalition forces.
These issues have to be the main points of contention between now and the next federal election.