Opinion: Albanese gets off on the right foot | Peter Hartcher
The first sitting fortnight of the new federal parliament reveals that Australia’s three biggest political parties have all taken a step to the right. The Greens have become a bit browner, Labor has become a bit more Liberal, and the Liberals have become a bit more boutique. The passage of the climate bill through the House of Representatives showcased their repositioning.The Greens decided to shelve their unattainable 75 per cent emissions-cutting target to vote for Labor’s 43.
Labor learnt from hard experience, too. Anthony Albanese campaigned on a target even less ambitious than the Business Council’s proposed 50 per cent. After a decade of being portrayed by the Coalition as dangerous radicals, this moved the party from an electoral profile of “risky” to one of “responsible”.
The Liberal Party, however, chose to stand outside all this – outside the unifying policy, outside the consensus, outside the business community, and outside half a trillion dollars’ worth of new investment. He went on: “Remember when the Liberal Party used to have a relationship with business? Remember that? But what we saw today was them isolated and alone, stuck in the same old trench fighting a fight that has passed them by. They were by themselves with their arms crossed, saying, ‘No, no, no.’”
Even after Dutton’s captain’s call, the leaders of the moderate faction in the Liberal Party argued that they should change position and support the 43 per cent target. It would be a sign that they’d heard the voice of the electorate. But Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne and Paul Fletcher lost the argument in the shadow cabinet on Monday night.
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