Daily Times

Over the years, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, western democracies have reacted quite strongly to a surge of refugees from countries afflicted by civil wars, insurgencies and political persecution. This has led to a strong shift to the political right in these countries, even in liberal democracies like Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We are already familiar with its political impact in countries like the UK, France and much of the European Union.

The recent elections in Australia, a country with western political traditions, though geographically closer to Asia, have shown that hostility to asylum seekers is even more pronounced here than in any other developed country. This was probably the single most important issue accounting for the conservative coalition’s electoral victory in the recent elections, with the opposition leader Tony Abbot now becoming Prime Minister of Australia. The Liberal-National coalition incessantly attacked the Labour Party for failing to control the influx of boat people (as these refugees are called here), thus compromising the country’s border security.

It paraded its ‘successful’ handling of the asylum seeker issue by reducing the flow of boats reaching Australia under the previous conservative coalition with John Howard as prime minister. The result was that fearing electoral oblivion from the conservatives’ relentless attack on the Labour Party, they too went feral on the hapless boat people. But the Labour Party could not compete with the original brand of the Liberal-National coalition for which they had a copyright, in a sense. In voting for the conservative coalition, the Australian electorate opted for the original rather than the copy. It is, therefore, not surprising that the conservatives, led by Tony Abbot, have won the election, defeating the Labour Party government led by Kevin Rudd.

It is not just the politics of the boat people that have contributed to Labour’s defeat. Their disunity, centred around the personalities of their two leaders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, only magnified Labour’s problems. Rudd’s removal as prime minister in a party room coup and his replacement by Gillard created a poisonous atmosphere. That, in turn, created conditions for another coup in the Labour Party this year to bring back Rudd as prime minister. He was supposed to reverse his party’s sinking fortunes. But that was not to be. During much of the six years of Labour Party rule, shared between Rudd and Gillard, the disunity and disfunctionality of the party was a regular feature of news and commentary in the media here.

Against this backdrop, all the achievements of the Labour government, and they were quite impressive by any standard, never registered with the people. The Rudd government, for instance, was one of the first in any developed country to take a series of measures to stimulate the economy and to forestall a run on the banks by guaranteeing all bank deposits. And it worked. Even with its generous stimulation package, Australia’s debt-to-GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world. It is one of the few countries with an AAA credit rating from major rating agencies. Its unemployment rate of under six percent is the envy of the developed countries. And its growth rate of 2.6 percent is quite respectable in the current global economic situation. With low interest rates and inflation well under control, Australia is still the ‘lucky country’.

There are, for sure, some hiccups on the way ahead with the mining sector slowing, but there are no signs of a disaster looming. This is on the economic front. And if you add to it the Labour government’s progressive social legislation like disability insurance and education reforms, the picture is even more impressive.

But, as is well known, in politics, disunity is death, and Labour has paid a heavy price for it. Because of its perennial infighting and disunity, it was unable to communicate and sell its credible and proud record. What people saw were Rudd and Gillard and their respective supporters undermining each other. Indeed, the early success of the Rudd government in combating signs of approaching recession made it even more difficult to sell its message for the simple reason that people had no lasting memory of any financial crisis.

With the Labour government unable to sell its message, the Abbott-led opposition was able to create the image that Australia was in crisis and the only way to deal with it was to get rid of the Labour government. The boat people’s (asylum seekers) arrival was touted as proof that the Labour government had lost control of Australia’s borders. It is, of course, ridiculous to claim that refugees heading towards Australia presented a security problem. But the hysteria thus created stoked fear among many people that Australia was vulnerable to hordes of refugees/economic migrants seeking their fortunes in this ‘lucky’ country. The Labour government tried hard to become as ruthless on the boat people, but the conservatives appeared more serious.

On other issues too, the opposition sought to ignite people’s innate insecurity. For instance, on the question of the carbon tax that the Labour government had introduced to reduce carbon emissions as part of its climate control strategy, Tony Abbot attacked it with all the vehemence of a zealot, blaming it for all of Australia’s economic troubles, from a rise in energy prices to increased unemployment. He had been a climate change denier, calling it ‘crap’ at one time.

The Labour government sought to counter such attacks with facts and figures, but it did not work. The negative message of the opposition was proving more successful than any positive rebuttal from the government. Abbot, as opposition leader, kept urging people to vote out this incompetent Labour government and replace it with the conservative coalition to fix the country.

While the conservative opposition was at it attacking the government on boat people and the carbon tax, it was also highlighting the country’s fiscal crisis. It was untrue but that did not prevent Abbot from talking down the country’s economy, as it dovetailed with his political message of: get rid of this incompetent government. And it worked.

While the battered Labour Party licks its wounds, the conservative Liberal-National coalition government, with Tony Abbot as Prime Minister, will be enjoying a political honeymoon for a period, until it starts backtracking on all the undeliverable promises.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney, Australia. He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.co.au