The problems that contributed to the defeat of the Morrison government will soon be the new Prime Minister's to solve – and the list of crises is getting longer. | Sean Kelly | OPINION auspol
Alex Ellinghausen
There was some sense of this before the election, as you could tell from the Coalition’s ads that emphasised uncertainty – but the shift since then feels seismic. Some of this is based in reality. The last interest rate rise was larger than the first. But how much of this new atmosphere can really be explained by new facts on the ground?
Even before the campaign we knew it would not be long before rates rose; and that once they did, they would not stop. We knew house prices were high. Gas was definitely a problem, as was inflation, as was wages, and it’s not as though the relationships between these various factors was a mystery. Similar observations can obviously be made for hospitals and for climate.
So, where did this sudden sense of crisis spring from? Or, to put this question another way, why was it not there before? Is it a sinister plot by those parts of the media opposed to Labor, exaggerating problems they previously ignored? That might be part of it. But I suspect the greater problem is more insidious. As Howard learnt, a government unwilling to act on an issue will eventually stop being asked to act, as though the problem simply does not exist.