Australia heading for a Labor govt 'in hock with the Greens' unless Coalition can convince voters that what has happened to Victoria could happen to Australia too
The Coalition's failure to address just how bad a Labor-Greens coalition would be for Australia risks a carbon copy of the 1990 Federal Election - where Labor barely retained power despite a massive voter backlash, writes Rocco Loiacono.
5 | Peter Dutton: One word answers |
Students of Australian electoral history will recall the 1990 federal election.
The Hawke Labor government was returned for a fourth term, but with a vastly reduced majority.
The Coalition made big gains in Victoria, picking up some nine seats there from the ALP.
The Victorian economy was reeling due largely to the wreckage wrought by then Premier John Cain, and his Treasurer Joan Kirner – the latter a member of the socialist left.
The Pyramid Building Society collapsed, causing thousands to lose their savings, despite assurances given by Cain and his ministers to the public that it was financially sound.
This was followed by the failure of the Tricontinental Bank, and the near-insolvency of the government-owned State Bank of Victoria.
Victoria’s budget deficit was growing, with Cain and Kirner trying to raise taxes to stop the state from going bankrupt.
The voters of the state decided to take an opportunity at the 1990 federal election to vent their anger on the Labor Party.
Fast-forward some 35 years and its deja-vu all over again.
Victoria is saddled with a crippling deficit – the worst in the country, new and ever-increasing taxes, a bottomless money pit in the form of a railway line to nowhere that is the Suburban Rail Loop, ideologically driven energy policy sending power prices through the roof, record crime rates and divisive racial politics.
This week Opposition Leader Peter Dutton made the point that what has happened to Victoria will happen to the rest of Australia if the Albanese government is returned.
“What’s happened under Daniel Andrews, what’s happening under Jacinta Allan, it’s an economic trainwreck, and Victorians know it, and they’re angry about it,” Mr Dutton said.
This is the kind of message Mr Dutton needs to keep hammering if he is to have any chance of convincing voters to put him in the Lodge.
During the Sky News People’s Forum last Tuesday, a telling moment came when Mr Dutton asked the question of the audience how many were doing it tough in the current economic environment, and nearly all those present raised their hands.
Even so, the fact 21 per cent of those in the room left still undecided afterwards was just as telling.
This is where the 1990 federal election could also be instructive.
While the Coalition outpolled Labor on primary votes by some four per cent, thanks to Graham Richardson’s strategy of courting Greens preferences, the Hawke government was saved.
The Coalition had no real strategy to counter this, and history is close to repeating itself in 2025.
Labor will rely on the strong flow of preferences from the Greens to win, therefore – and as has happened in Victoria – its policies will be framed accordingly.
Labor has vowed to renew efforts to legislate an environmental protection agency should it win government, just a year after being forced to shelve the next series of reforms under the disastrous Nature Positive Plan.
Labor has also doubled-down on its policy to have solar and wind power so Australia can meet net zero, and subsidise batteries to the tune of $4,000, a policy that would cost an eye-watering $44 billion, and homeowners have to stump up the rest to the tune of $9,300.
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, who can afford that?
Only the Teals.
The Coalition can no longer let Mr Albanese and Labor get away with gaffes and untruths.
Their disowning the discredited modelling that led Chris Bowen to repeat around 100 times during the 2022 election campaign that power prices would be $275 lower a year has barely raised a whimper.
During his interview with Channel Seven’s Liam Bartlett over the truth behind how EVs are made, Bowen was shown up for the incompetent, evasive, bumbling fool that he is.
It could be campaign advertising gold for the Liberals.
Why don’t they use it?
Indeed, there is no shortage of material to warn Australians of the dangers for the economy – and for them generally – of a Labor government in hock to the Greens.
Just this week, Greens leader Adam Bandt reiterated his call for an end to negative gearing and the 50 per cent capital gains tax (CGT) discount.
This is on top of his previous statements promising to: introduce inheritance taxes and “dynamic wealth transfer” taxes, increase taxes on corporations (that already pay high taxes by international standards) to fund economically unsustainable social policies such as rent freezes, “free” childcare and university and pay “climate reparations” to “countries damaged by western imperialism”.
And of course, the Greens want an energy system that is completely weather-dependent, all the while destroying not just our economy, but our forests, arable farmland and gorgeous coastlines forever.
This insanity includes allowing tenants to force their landlords to install solar panels, subsidised of course by taxpayers.
If the 21 per cent undecided figure from the debate is anything to go by, this election is not over yet and momentum will matter.
They want to vote out a woke, incompetent Labor government but Mr Dutton must convince them he is the better choice to manage the economy and give them hope for a better future.
Linking Mr Albanese to the basket case that is Victoria is a good place to start.
Warning Australians in no uncertain terms that our future prosperity is on the line if the Greens ever get a chance to call in favours for getting Labor back into government with their preferences will help Mr Dutton seize the initiative and put Mr Albanese and Labor on the defensive.
Otherwise, we could see a repeat of 1990.
Coalition gains in Victoria, but not enough speed anywhere else to win.
However, this time Adam Bandt will have the PM on a leash.
Dr Rocco Loiacono is a legal academic, writer and translator. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade practicing as a lawyer with Clayton Utz, one of Australia’s top law firms. As well as SkyNews.com.au, he regularly contributes opinion pieces, specialising in politics, freedom and the rule of law, to The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Australian.