History and literature both tell us that in politics, things are not always what they seem. Which is why this week’s Pub Test, published on election eve, discusses shoulda/woulda/coulda aspects of the 2022 Federal Election campaign, and what it means for Noosa. This week’s beer swillers and wine guzzlers included observers and participants from both sides of the political divide, with PHIL JARRATT doing the wrangling.
Pack leader: Let’s assume, for the purposes of this conversation, that the election is going to be a cliffhanger, which implies that the country is more or less equally divided about who should govern. What does that mean for Noosa?
Female voice: Well, if the government gets re-elected it means that the huge amount of funding that Llew O’Brien has secured for Noosa since 2016, around $82 million, will continue. If Llew retains the seat of Wide Bay, which all the evidence points to, but Labor wins government, then access to those funds will pretty much stop.
Pack leader: Is pork-barreling a good enough reason to change your vote?
Female voice: That’s a personal preference, but $80 million lost to a place as small as Noosa is a noticeable gap. And it’s not pork-barreling because it’s stuff that’s needed, like Sunshine Beach Surf Club, for example, which is now set up for long-term sustainability. But pork-barreling happens on both sides, and to be honest, Llew doesn’t need to do it.
Bloke’s voice: If we were in a marginal seat, say Longman, would we have received more funding than Wide Bay over that same period?
Female: I don’t know. It really comes down to how hard the member advocates for funding. In our case we’re really lucky because our member has a great record for advocacy, not just in Noosa, but across the electorate.
Bloke: You mean the road improvements?
Female: Yes, and it comes down to his strengths as a politician and a person. Llew can focus more on making these things happen than say Terry Young in Longman where he has to focus more on keeping his seat.
Bloke: Maybe, but he’s got plenty of roadworks happening down there too.
Pack leader: So if Llew stays but ScoMo goes, and we accept that pork-barreling happens on both sides, can we expect Labor to look after Noosa? I haven’t heard much local advocacy coming from the Labor candidate.
Bloke: There’s plenty of support for Labor in Noosa, but I think it’s mainly of the rusted-on type, people who’ve voted Labor all their lives, so you don’t hear much from them. I thought it was interesting that in the TV pub test [Good name – Ed] after the third leaders’ debate that Albo came out on top by a good margin right across the swing seats. He didn’t have the magnetism of a Paul Keating, and no real ideas to share on climate change. He was as silent on that as the LNP, but I suppose they just thought he was a good bloke.
Pack leader: And did you notice that no one appeared to have been offered a drink! Not like our pub test. Can I top anyone up?
Female: Can I go back to whether Labor will look after Noosa? We know they won’t because it’s already not happening at state level. We don’t get any love because they don’t need to show us any. They don’t need our vote so we just get drip fed little bits and pieces that amount to nothing.
Other bloke: I don’t think the argument that Federal Labor would do as Queensland does necessarily follows.
Pack leader: Maybe a Federal Labor government would have to give Noosa some serious consideration as one of the country’s top tourist destinations struggling with the problem of affordable housing and rental accommodation for staff. They might also be taking a longer view of where the changing demographic might take us, which might well be into a different electorate.
Female: Yes, we’ll definitely become part of Fairfax again in the future, as we were until the 2007 redistribution when we became Wide Bay. As the southern end of the Sunshine Coast gets more populated, a new seat will be created and Fairfax will push north.
Other bloke: It seems to me that a lot of conservative voters move here to live and while they might continue to vote the same way at federal level, they feel and vote quite differently on local issues. You see that with support for the Biosphere where they are more or less greenies, but still might vote LNP.
Female: And that makes perfect sense. Remember that a third of the LNP is the Nationals, the people of the land, who know that unless they look after their environment they can’t grow their crops.
Other bloke: The notion of conservative government was originally about conserving the status quo, conserving the land through small government that doesn’t interfere so much. Now that’s been completely flipped around from conservation values to moneymaking. That happened in the US when the first George Bush chucked out the Environmental Protection Act because it was standing in the way of big business.
Pack leader: We’ve got Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan as the pinup boys for the Nats while being more or less climate change deniers, Barnaby being the less. So it’s a bit of a stretch to present the Nats as the protectors of the land. Protectors of the coal mines of the land, yes.
Female: Maybe we should be looking more at the deputy leader, David Littleproud, who represents views that the moderates can get their heads around.
What about the independents?
Pack leader: If it’s a cliffhanger, the independents are going to be crucial. How do we feel about that?
Bloke: I like the independents, and I liked it when they had the balance of power in the Gillard government and Julia Gillard had to negotiate with them on many issues. You see the same thing happening now in New Zealand. I think that helps create a road map for good policy.
Pack leader: If a teal is a cross between Liberal blue and Green green, why don’t we have the same connection between Labor and Green?
Other bloke: Because purple wouldn’t work. (Laughter) It goes back to what I was saying before, that the roots of conservatism were about protecting the land.
Pack leader: I think they were more about keeping things as they were, presumably including the land.
Other bloke: That’s where teal is coming from. Greens are actually old-fashioned conservatives.
Bloke: I think it’s mainly doctors’ wives, people who’ve made enough money and now want to keep people out and make more national parks. You can see that reflected in the changing membership of organisations like Noosa Parks Association. But I don’t think we really see much of the traditional political groupings of the workers and the bosses here. Everyone has come here with their own story, but we pretty much all have the same mantra – let’s keep Noosa as it is.
Female: A lot of the independents have been recruited by various groups like Climate 200, who have advertised for candidates who are then put through a vetting process, like what happens in a party. So they’re not independents in the way we see them at council level. Most of these so-called independents are women, and most have a Labor background. That’s why I think it’s disingenuous to call them independents. I also think it’s important to be a team player when you’re doing something as important as running the country. I don’t think it helps in a democracy when it gets down to one person holding the balance of power.
Bloke: In a hung parliament you’re more likely to get members crossing the floor on conscience votes, which is a good thing.
Female: Which we’ve seen happening with the vaccine mandates.
Pack leader: Rabbit hole, rabbit hole! Let’s go back to the original idea of the Westminster system, which was the representation of individuals, not parties. Good or bad?
Bloke: Well, we’ve seen that in Noosa where we made a conscious decision to keep party politics out at the local level. You can sometimes tell where they sit on the political spectrum but they mostly act as independents.
Pack leader: The mayor of Noosa is a member of the LNP, so what would happen if council was voting in favour of an issue that was contra to LNP policy?
Female: It wouldn’t happen because the LNP doesn’t have local government policies.
Pack leader: Well, what about if our population cap bubble was in danger of being burst by the force of the SEQ super-city, a favourite of Barnaby Joyce’s?
Female: There’s no problem within the LNP of people speaking out against party policy. The LNP is a broad church, as John Howard once said.
Personality politics
Bloke: Does anyone find it interesting that Morrison has started to self-reflect, as though he knows he’s going to lose? Talking about things he’d change, like bulldozing and captain’s picks. It makes you wonder why he didn’t do it 12 months ago.
Female: Timing is everything in politics. I think 12 months ago he would have won the election easily. Things change quickly.
Pack leader: Going back to the Channel Seven pub test, it seemed to me that Albo won it by default. They both said the same things in different ways but one was like a used car salesman and one was like a favoured uncle.
Female: They went for the least worst option.
Other bloke: I think Trump put that idea to bed in 2016.
Female: We’ve become far too invested in personality politics, which is a factor of low attention span. It would be good if people would focus on the policies and the values they come from, but there’s too much in the way. It’s like Keeping Up With The Kardashians. (Laughter) The dumbing down of politics.
Pack leader: And one of the main reasons for that is for decades now the major parties have been moving to a centrist position that’s more electorally appealing because it’s not really very different. Who’s going to protect the coalmines? They both are.
Female: I agree that the major parties need to focus more on their points of difference.
Bloke: The thing with swing voters is they’re not focused on ideologies.
Other bloke: I disagree. I think they’re focused on climate change.
Female: You mean you are.
Other bloke: No, I mean nationally.
Pack leader: The death of the planet is fairly important to most people.
Bloke: Don’t look up!
Female: If that was really the case, the Greens would be governing.
Pack leader: If Bob Brown had been leading them now, maybe that would be so, but they’ve been diluted in their quest to be more than a one-issue party.
Other bloke: Bob Brown in his prime would be the most important player on climate change. He knew how to get the message across.
Bloke: But his message still wouldn’t influence the major parties who know the voters care more about paying the mortgage.
What were the issues again?
Pack leader: The beer’s running out, we’re close to a wrap here, so what are the issues this election should have been fought on?
Other bloke: At the height of the mining boom John Howard gave everyone a $940 handout which at the time I thought was terrific. Now I think the money would have been better spent on building infrastructure, and we’d be in a much better position. I would like to have seen a vision for Australia’s future as an issue in this election. And waste management. We’re drowning in waste but no one talks about it.
Female: I don’t think climate change is even a top three issue for working class families. Worrying about what might happen in 50 years is a luxury they can’t afford when they’re struggling to feed their families.
Pack leader: Campaign spending is completely out of hand and yet the campaign rolls on for two weeks while people have already voted in droves. The pre-polls have been packed every day since they opened. If people have heard enough and made up their minds, why don’t the candidates just give it a rest and save a few million?
Other bloke: They’ve built up so much nervous energy they have to keep going. (Laughs)
Bloke: I’m still going to vote on the day. I think most of the people who vote early are rusted on and they’d made up their minds before the campaign started. The people whose vote could change the result are still voting on election day.
Female: I agree that a lot of people who vote early have made their minds up early. They want to cast their vote and switch off because they’ve got election fatigue. But the other side to that is that some people believe they shouldn’t be given the option to vote before they’ve heard all the arguments.
Bloke: I hate it because if 50 per cent vote before the election, we’re not going to get a result for weeks if it’s close. How are you supposed to have a Don’s Party?
