Credit where it is due, we have emerged from a period of puerile political sparring. The national debate is returning to the centre with sensible discussion about managing climate policy while protecting energy interests, keeping taxes as low as possible and protecting liberties such as religious freedoms.
The Conservative Party has called out climate alarmist idiocy since its foundation and continues to urge the Morrison government to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Chris Kenny writes in The Weekend Australian today, “The people to thank for this resurgence of rationality are not the elites; most of the political class, academics, business leaders and media commentators were useless or complicit in the preceding chaos, as they failed to challenge the outlandish agenda taken to two elections by Bill Shorten and Labor or encouraged it.
Instead of being sceptical or concerned about an unprecedented jump in the tax take, acceleration of spending and escalation of energy upheaval, most of the so-called elites applauded. The nation dodged a bullet and it need not thank its political/media class.
No, we were protected, once more, by the common sense of the mainstream. Even under the expanding influence of a recalcitrant and ideological public broadcaster and distorted and disproportionately amplified social media, voters remained steadfastly connected to reality.
The day before the election I explained my subscription to the Bob Hawke and John Howard practice of always respecting the intelligence of the voting public, lamenting that if the nation opted “to change government now, under these economic conditions and with the proposals currently on offer, it will shake this precept” .
This was why I had long argued the Coalition was a good chance to win and why even on polling day, with the Newspoll drifting a little wider, my column argued there was “still a possibility that the nation will stay the course with the Coalition, however reluctantly” .
So it is only fitting, now, to acknowledge the electorate’s wisdom . The so-called elites didn’t make it easy for them. There was precious little interrogation of wild Labor propositions, such as claims a shift to 50 per cent renewable energy would deliver reliable and cheaper electricity; that the cost of climate action was irrelevant; and that Labor’s climate formula would reduce floods, droughts, cyclones and bushfires.
The tax debate seemed to be conducted in a world of Norman Lindsay economics where $387 billion could be drawn from taxpayers, investors, retirees and companies without any individual ill-effects or economic risks.
While highly paid economic and political commentators examined this plan and asked, “Why not?”, voters looked on with more caution and asked a collective, “Why risk it?”
Let’s be frank, the political/ media class tends to be like an evil inversion of the three wise monkeys – see no sense, hear no sense, speak no sense.
In the only other election voters were given a clear choice between cautious and reckless climate action they emphatically elected Tony Abbott in 2013 to axe the carbon tax. While many Liberal MPs forgot this history, the revolt over the national energy guarantee, the resultant leadership change and recalibration under Scott Morrison was enough to deliver a similar choice (and result) this time.
Working Australians cannot afford to make careless financial decisions. They work hard to provide for themselves and ensure their children may do even better, and they place a higher priority on getting ahead than indulging in ego-driven virtue signalling.
