Pride, as they say, cometh before a fall. And in democracies, governments with absolute power almost inevitably do an Icarus act: overreaching and plummeting into the sea of electoral wipeout.
In 2004, the Howard government reached the zenith of its power, winning control of both houses of parliament. It used that power to introduce the controversial Work Choices legislation, to attack its old nemesis, the unions. After the Coalition was bundled out in 2007, former minister Andrew Robb conceded that, “In some areas we went further than the public was prepared to accept.”
Labor failed to heed the lesson. In 2010, its deal with the Greens gave them effective control of both houses. Once again, Gillard and Rudd overreached, especially with the hated Carbon Tax. They were wiped out in a landslide.
The Democrats repeated the same mistake when they won both houses of Congress and the Presidency in 2020. The Party has lurched so far to the loony left that even traditional Democrat voters are deserting it in droves.
“Hold my shandy,” says Anthony Albanese.
Is it possible that the new Labor government, barely a few months in office, is already showing signs of hubris? To be sure, a newly elected government can reasonably claim an election mandate to implement promises made during the election. The issue is how those promises are delivered and who are the biggest beneficiaries of them.
Can Albanese even claim a mandate, though? He won government with the lowest primary vote in a century, almost in Australian history. Fully three-quarters of Australians chose to not vote Labor.
Yet, there he is, strutting about and puffing up his hollow chest, boasting about his “mandate” and rushing to push through possibly the most divisive referendum since Conscription, a century ago. In the midst of an energy crisis, Labor is colluding with the Greens and Teals — groups with the wealthiest voter bloc in the nation — to push through climate legislation that will inevitably drive already-sky-high electricity prices into the stratosphere.
And, to thoroughly ice the cake, “Airbus Albo” is taking a holiday just three months into the job.
Anthony Albanese would be wise to rein in some of his more ideologically zealous ministers, starting with Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. Burke’s ideological zeal is damaging Labor’s credibility.
Take his claims to justify Labor neutering of the ABCC. A few weeks ago, Burke said the ABCC was being hollowed out because it was wrong to spend taxpayers’ money on whether someone could put a union sticker on to their helmet or what flag might be flying at a building site.
Burke knows better than most that the ABCC has led prosecutions against the CFMEU for serious breaches of the Fair Work Act, including intimidation and bullying. Burke knows that numerous judges have condemned the construction arm of the union as one of the country’s worst recidivists.
Federal Labor is pooh-poohing headlines linking its most prominent MPs to the most thuggishly extreme unionists in the country: others are not so sanguine.
South Australian [Labor] Premier Peter Malinauskas […] has signalled that his government will return a $125,000 donation from the Victorian branch of the CFMEU made before SA’s March 19 election or hand the money over to a charity.
The Premier’s move was triggered by rotten stunts and vandalism at the headquarters of the SA Master Builders Association last Friday […] Malinauskas said he had been concerned that “a bad culture within sections of the CFMEU could find its way over the border into SA”.
Demolishing the ABCC in order to placate the thuggish CFMEU would be Albanese’s “Work-Choices-in-reverse” moment. With the ACTU also pushing Labor hard on policy, it will be plain that often law-breaking unions have the Albanese government by the scruff of the neck — while the Greens are tugging just as tenaciously far lower down.
At the same time as its threatening to emasculate the ABCC, Labor is also trying to get rid of disclosure laws around superannuation funds. Why would that be?
The CFMEU is the biggest beneficiary of payments from industry funds. Last financial year it received $6,147,986 from industry funds. First Super, with funds under management that are a fraction of bigger funds such as AustralianSuper, doled out the highest amount to unions – $3,821,756 in the last financial year, and much of that went to the CFMEU. Labor is the ultimate beneficiary; the CFMEU sent $7m directly to Labor between 1998-99 and 2019-20.
The Australian
It all starts to make Bruce Wilson’s secret slush fund — the scandal that so damaged Julia Gillard — look like honest dealing by comparison.
For a government whose grip on power is far more tenuous than they seem to think, cavorting as if they’re above the law is a dangerous game.