It’s no great secret that nature abhors a vacuum in all respects, including politics, so it should come as no great surprise that if Mark Latham and Pauline Hanson can hang together they could really be a power of force as they move in and takeover the middle ground vacated by both Liberal and Labor.
The analysis by Andrew Bolt in his editorial last week on The Bolt Report where he reflected on the column he wrote in December 2003 on the occasion of Latham’s ascent to the Labor leadership, when contrasted and compared with where Latham sits today, should give both Labor and Liberal pause for thought.
Latham hasn’t changed, Labor has. It’s quite apparent that Latham is the one that has remained true to Labor values and the neophytes and parvenus like Chris Bowen et al with their trendy inner city values are now the the LINOs. (Labor In Name Only)
As for Pauline Hanson, her views have also modified and become less hard edged, strident and jarring and more reflective of mainstream Australia as she has successfully tapped into the anxiety and disaffection towards the major parties.
Maybe it’s us. Maybe Australians have become more hard edged in response to the majors adopting more of a Wentworth world view that has very little to zero relevance outside the Canberra, Wentworth, ABC triangle.
Australians are well aware of the drift into politically correct, hard left/green and identity politics by both major parties, don’t like what they see, and are scanning the horizon for alternatives.
As Chris Kenny points out in The Weekend Australian the scoreboard indicates that —- “..From the 50s until the 80s, major parties were winning about 90 per cent of House of Representatives primary votes. Since the late 80s the trendline shows a steady decline with a commensurate drift to the minor parties. A 90-10 split has now dwindled to 77-23. For most of the postwar era one in every 10 votes went to a minor party; now it is almost one in four..”