CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As the Labor Government attempts to tread sensitively through the cultural minefield of LGBTI issues, the Middle East and trade union reform – it seems that even the most proactive attempts at listening can never be enough.
Last weekend’s NSW council elections saw a dip in enthusiasm from voters right across the state, with Labor-affiliated councillors wearing the brunt of the electorate’s dissatisfaction with the party’s position on a range of issues – many of them not local.
Leading into next year’s Federal election, the ever-growing fear of a Hillary Clinton-style detachment between the political class and the actual country is one that Labor will have to confront in their pre-selections. With an emphasis on running candidates who actually look and talk like the voters from their respective electorates.
And as they learnt after parachuting former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally into south-west Sydney in 2022, only for her lose to a local Vietnamese-Australian indepedent Dai Lee, it seems that simply running a woman is not enough when it comes to bolstering diversity within their ranks.
Meanwhile, their Liberal opponents still haven’t even gotten on top of the sheilah thing. In fact, it looks like they’ve been going backwards.
The modern Liberal Party continues to champion the exact same brand of old white man as it did when it was founded by Protestant teetotallers in 1944.
With one year until the 2025 election, it the party has insisted on choosing male candidates for preselection in Chisholm, Dunkley, Aston, Curtin – all previously held or contested by a Liberal woman.
Even in 2013, the election of Tony Abbott seemed like a groundbreaking moment for the Liberal Party – as they made to bold decision to allow their party to be led by a bucktoothed Catholic.
But the polls tell them that they need to cast a wider net, especially in a multicultural country where women are allowed to work and drive.
And even if the NewsCorp newspapers and the crusty old men in the yellowing suburban branch halls don’t think it’s an issue, the 2025 election will see both Labor and Teal Independents benefitting directly from this paralysis of action.
That’s why today, Peter Dutton’s advisors have recommended that he gets photographed eating food from ‘another culture’.
“What do you call this again?” asked the less-than-impressed Opposition leader.
“Pastuer?” Like the milk?”
“Oh it’s pass-taa? Right. Where’s it from? Japan or something. Don’t they love their noodles over there?”
“Gosh, this will just about do me. I’m not gonna be able to keep it down. Hurry up and take the photo”
“Whatever happened to corned beef and white sauce? This woke rubbish has gone way too far”
