“Men and women of Australia! The decision we will make for our country on December 2 is a choice between the past and the future, between the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future. There are moments in history when the whole fate and future of nations can be decided by a single decision. For Australia, this is such a time.
“It’s time to create new opportunities for Australians, time for a new vision of what we can achieve in this generation for our nation and the region in which we live. It’s time for a new government.”
These, of course, were the opening words of Gough Whitlam in his campaign speech on November 13, 1972 in Blacktown, NSW, a little less than three weeks before the election at which the Australian Labor Party took government again for the first time in 23 years.
At this point in 2013, as we prepare to go to the polls in September (or at a time yet to be revealed), Whitlam’s words are just as relevant as they were back in 1972, and Tony Abbott, his coalition of Liberal and National parties and their supporters may well have re-badged those words as their own. Until late June it seemed that the the ALP had given up and and decided that a new, LNP government was inevitable. (Re-)enter Rudd, and suddenly things started to look different. But polls are one thing; the question of whether or not the ALP can differentiate itself enough from the Liberal-National Coalition to make a comeback is yet to be answered.
Another such moment in history and opportunity for change, but one which passed almost unheralded, took place in September 1996, shortly after John Howard and the Coalition had taken power back from the ALP. At 5.15pm on September 10, two very different politicians were making their first speeches simultaneously in Parliament. In the House of Representatives, Pauline Hanson, who had not long before been expelled from the Liberal Party, outlined her view of Australia and where our nation should be going. At the same moment in the Senate, Bob Brown laid down The Greens’ ideas about Australia and the planet. Hanson’s speech, filled as it was with controversial and (as many believed) regressive and racist statements and opinions, grabbed the immediate attention of the media, the country and parts of the world, whereas Brown’s speech, filled with positive messages and progressive policies, was almost completely ignored, at least by the media.
In the aftermath of the arrival of Hanson and Brown in Parliament, Howard was faced with a choice. Keen not to lose any of his support to Hanson and what later became her One Nation Party, whose policies were obviously much closer to those of his own Liberal Party to those of The Greens anyway, he chose, not surprisingly, to follow the path that more closely aligned him to Hanson.
For many Australians, Whitlam’s references to the past, with its habits and fears, began to take on a contemporary relevance earlier this year, signifying Tony Abbott and their understanding of what he stands for. But despite their own fears about an Abbott-led government, and where it might take us, many of those people started to consider voting Liberal for the first time in their lives at the 2013 election. And with Pauline Hanson’s announcement that she would be a candidate for the Senate in NSW, history was on track to repeat itself if Abbott were to take government.
It was against this backdrop that the ALP decided to re-install Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. Far from differentiating himself and his party from the Coalition, Rudd seems to be on a mission to minimise the gap between the two parties. First came his plan to “terminate” the carbon tax, followed shortly after by the announcement of a “solution” to the refugee crisis, a move that many feel has taken the ALP further to the right of politics than they see the Coalition placed.
Australians’ opinions of politicians is at an all-time low, with voters feeling more cynical about politicians and more disenfranchised from the political process at this point in our history than perhaps they ever have in the past, and many would rather not have to vote at all. At the same time, we face greater challenges in Australia than ever before, and it will take immense skill and firm resolve to face up to and deal with these challenges in a way that will take us into a safe, healthy and compassionate future. Whitlam’s words have lost none of their relevance for 21st century politics in general, but in order for us to enable that future, perhaps we need to recognise that it’s not that easy. It’s not simply time for a new government. It’s time for a new way of doing politics.
