The stage 3 tax cuts, then? Breaking promises isn\u2019t an easy sell, though a tax cut for everyone probably is. Most clearly, Labor won last term\u2019s argument on housing. But when else? Setting climate targets was delayed until after the election, meaning it didn\u2019t have to win that argument during the campaign. It chose not to fight on gambling or nature laws. It gave in to the Coalition on various immigration debates.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
As I write in the 100th Quarterly Essay, out today<\/a>, this aversion to conflict is a hallmark of the Albanese government. Often, it has been deliberate strategy. Arguably, it has worked so far. The downside, though, is that we don\u2019t know much about Labor\u2019s advocacy skills. Also, those advocacy skills are probably rusty. To put this another way: if this government has succeeded politically so far by avoiding fights, then an opposition that forces it to fight will test its mettle.<\/p>\n The second risk of the Coalition\u2019s climate chaos is a quieter one, but potentially more deadly. Two months ago, Labor president Wayne Swan declared that what kept him awake at night was the thought that the moment \u201cyou believe you\u2019ve mastered politics is when it masters you\u201d. Complacency, he said, was \u201cthe handmaiden of decline\u201d.<\/p>\n And so the other danger is that Labor never feels pushed by the Coalition; and, as a result, it is not as good a government as voters expect. And this is a particular problem because other sources of pressure are not immediately obvious.<\/p>\n You might think the Labor caucus would have more to say \u2013 except that so far it hasn\u2019t. Interestingly, in replies to the last Quarterly Essay by Marian Wilkinson \u2013 also published today \u2013 former Labor frontbencher Peter Garrett writes damningly of Labor\u2019s \u201cexpansion of fossil-fuel schemes\u201d despite its plans and \u201cgood intentions\u201d on emissions and \u201cthe handsomest of majorities\u201d. Cabinet, he writes, \u201coversees the grossest tax inequity imaginable, while caucus and relevant committees are mute, the formerly progressive \u2018Left\u2019 nowhere to be seen\u201d.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n He\u2019s not the only one. Recently, former Labor senator Doug Cameron said<\/a> the party\u2019s Left faction had been \u201cdefanged\u201d. A week ago, the ABC\u2019s Steve Cannane<\/a> reported that Labor MPs wanting stronger action on gambling ads were remaining silent \u201cboth publicly and inside \u2026 caucus\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth recalling that during his prime ministership, Albanese has often looked strongest in times of pressure \u2013 during the stage 3 tax cuts debate and at the beginning of this year, facing worrying polls and an approaching election.<\/p>\n Prime ministers tend to like it when their opposition is down and when their MPs are resolutely behind them. But \u2013 as is true of all of us \u2013 just because they like something doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good for them.<\/p>\n Sean Kelly is a regular columnist and a former adviser to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. He is the author of Quarterly Essay 100, The Good Fight: What Does Labor Stand For?, published today<\/a>. He will discuss his essay with this masthead\u2019s political editor, Peter Hartcher, at Red Mill, Rozelle,<\/a> Sydney, on Thursday at 7pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stage 3 tax cuts, then? Breaking promises isn\u2019t an easy sell, though a tax cut for everyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-289060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}