{"title":"Commonwealth of Australia January to June 2024","authors":"John Wanna","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13031","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"817-822"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Victoria January to June 2024","authors":"Zareh Ghazarian","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13029","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"812-817"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Northern Territory January to June 2024","authors":"Robyn Smith","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"793-799"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Queensland January to June 2024","authors":"Paul D. Williams","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13027","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"803-811"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Australian Capital Territory January to June 2024","authors":"Chris Monnox","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13028","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"799-803"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>The first half of 2024 in South Australia marked the midway point in the current State election cycle. The Malinauskas government had been elected in March 2022, defeating the Liberal government headed by Premier Steven Marshall. Under the State's 4-year fixed-term electoral provisions, the next election will be held in March 2026.</p><p>In just two years, Peter Malinauskas has become the longest-serving current Australian Premier. While that is mainly a reflection on an extraordinary turnover in leadership elsewhere, it is also the case that the Malinauskas regime seems firmly entrenched in office. Events during the period under review reinforced an impression of a government enjoying solid electoral support while pursuing an ambitious policy agenda, alongside an Opposition struggling to define itself.</p><p>The March by-election in the inner metropolitan seat of Dunstan, triggered by the resignation of former Premier Marshall from Parliament, epitomised this political situation. For 116 years, no South Australian governing party had won an Opposition seat in a by-election. This was what Labor managed to achieve.</p><p>The seat of Dunstan had emerged from the 2022 election as the State's most marginal seat, with Marshall re-elected as the local member with just an 0.5% margin. The expectation was that the Liberals would retain the seat in the by-election. The demographics of the inner-eastern-suburbs seat seem to favour the Liberals, and they could also highlight the difficulty that the government was experiencing in delivering its most prominent 2022 election undertaking: the reduction of ambulance ramping outside of, and patient congestion within, public hospitals.</p><p>The by-election campaign was quite brutal in some respects. Labor disclosed that the Liberal candidate had, four years earlier, lodged an expression of interest for a position in the office of Labor's then Shadow Attorney-General Kyam Maher. Brushing aside criticism of the disclosure as a lamentable breach of an applicant's privacy, Labor claimed instead that it revealed her disdain for the Liberal government at that time. The major parties traded accusations that their respective candidates carried inappropriate associations arising from past family business matters.</p><p>The result was close but nonetheless swung the seat to Labor, increasing its numbers in the 47-member House of Assembly to 28. The Labor/Liberal two-party-preferred vote split ended up as 50.8/49.2, a swing of 1.4 percentage points from the March 2022 outcome. Both major parties lost ground (each by about 3%) in terms of first-preference votes, with the Greens picking up a 5.5% positive swing.</p><p>Premier Malinauskas was able to claim that the Dunstan result showed voters supported the government's “broad agenda to take the state forward” and were not focused on “one singular issue”—a clear allusion to the hospital ramping issue (<i>Advertiser</i>, 28 March 2024).</p><p>Geoff Brock, an Independent MP w
{"title":"South Australia January to June 2024","authors":"Andrew Parkin","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The first half of 2024 in South Australia marked the midway point in the current State election cycle. The Malinauskas government had been elected in March 2022, defeating the Liberal government headed by Premier Steven Marshall. Under the State's 4-year fixed-term electoral provisions, the next election will be held in March 2026.</p><p>In just two years, Peter Malinauskas has become the longest-serving current Australian Premier. While that is mainly a reflection on an extraordinary turnover in leadership elsewhere, it is also the case that the Malinauskas regime seems firmly entrenched in office. Events during the period under review reinforced an impression of a government enjoying solid electoral support while pursuing an ambitious policy agenda, alongside an Opposition struggling to define itself.</p><p>The March by-election in the inner metropolitan seat of Dunstan, triggered by the resignation of former Premier Marshall from Parliament, epitomised this political situation. For 116 years, no South Australian governing party had won an Opposition seat in a by-election. This was what Labor managed to achieve.</p><p>The seat of Dunstan had emerged from the 2022 election as the State's most marginal seat, with Marshall re-elected as the local member with just an 0.5% margin. The expectation was that the Liberals would retain the seat in the by-election. The demographics of the inner-eastern-suburbs seat seem to favour the Liberals, and they could also highlight the difficulty that the government was experiencing in delivering its most prominent 2022 election undertaking: the reduction of ambulance ramping outside of, and patient congestion within, public hospitals.</p><p>The by-election campaign was quite brutal in some respects. Labor disclosed that the Liberal candidate had, four years earlier, lodged an expression of interest for a position in the office of Labor's then Shadow Attorney-General Kyam Maher. Brushing aside criticism of the disclosure as a lamentable breach of an applicant's privacy, Labor claimed instead that it revealed her disdain for the Liberal government at that time. The major parties traded accusations that their respective candidates carried inappropriate associations arising from past family business matters.</p><p>The result was close but nonetheless swung the seat to Labor, increasing its numbers in the 47-member House of Assembly to 28. The Labor/Liberal two-party-preferred vote split ended up as 50.8/49.2, a swing of 1.4 percentage points from the March 2022 outcome. Both major parties lost ground (each by about 3%) in terms of first-preference votes, with the Greens picking up a 5.5% positive swing.</p><p>Premier Malinauskas was able to claim that the Dunstan result showed voters supported the government's “broad agenda to take the state forward” and were not focused on “one singular issue”—a clear allusion to the hospital ramping issue (<i>Advertiser</i>, 28 March 2024).</p><p>Geoff Brock, an Independent MP w","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"782-787"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.13024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142763945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>The political highlight of the period was the early state election. There were also three Legislative Council seats up for ballots in May, the continuing charges against a Supreme court judge, the ongoing football stadium controversy, as well as significant concerns for the economy and education, and the demise of an infamous bronze statue.</p><p>Tasmania retained the nation's only Liberal government following the snap state election held a year early on 23 March. Premier Jeremy Rockcliff called the poll following the defection of two former liberals to the cross-bench, which had plunged the government into a minority of eleven in the twenty-five-seat House of Assembly. Pointedly, out of the seven MHAs who had resigned since 2021, six were Liberals. Despite Rockcliff's call for a “strong majority Liberal government,” the election resulted in a continued minority Liberal government, with only fourteen seats in the expanded 35-seat parliament, which returned to its pre-1998 configuration of five 7-member electorates. Key reasons for the restoration of seats were the dearth of potential Cabinet members and high ministerial workloads in the smaller house.</p><p>Labor secured two seats in each electorate for a total of ten, leaving a diverse cross-bench of a record eleven that included five Greens, three from the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN), plus three left-leaning independents. The North–South chasm remained evident with most of the Liberals and all of the JLN members elected from the North, while most of the Greens and independents were elected from the South. It was especially notable that two Greens were elected in the Hobart seat of Clark, an unprecedented outcome in a single electorate. Sustainability-focused fisherman Craig Garland, who was the last elected in Braddon, was an exception as an independent standing against the ebbing Liberal tide in the North–West, while Cecily Rosol was atypical as a winning Green in Bass (TEC, 31 March). Ironically, the five Greens was the same number that had led the major parties to collude in reducing parliament to twenty-five seats in 1998 so as to raise quotas and deny opportunities for minor parties.</p><p>Issues prominent during the campaign included health, especially access to bulk-billing general practitioners and ambulance ramping at hospitals, as well as housing, and significantly, the Australian Football League (AFL) stadium planned for Hobart's Macquarie Point. The Liberals proposed to solve the ambulance ramping dilemma by simply forbidding it, which did have some subsequent success. The stadium was conspicuously less supported in the North and was opposed by Labor and the Greens, a disadvantage to the government according to Liberal strategist, Brad Stansfield (Mercury, 23 March). However, the idea of a Tasmanian AFL team did find broad support. Interestingly, the JLN representatives had run on a platform of “no policies” instead relying on a promise to closely scrutinise government proposals.
{"title":"Tasmanian Politics January to June 2024","authors":"Dain Bolwell","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13022","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The political highlight of the period was the early state election. There were also three Legislative Council seats up for ballots in May, the continuing charges against a Supreme court judge, the ongoing football stadium controversy, as well as significant concerns for the economy and education, and the demise of an infamous bronze statue.</p><p>Tasmania retained the nation's only Liberal government following the snap state election held a year early on 23 March. Premier Jeremy Rockcliff called the poll following the defection of two former liberals to the cross-bench, which had plunged the government into a minority of eleven in the twenty-five-seat House of Assembly. Pointedly, out of the seven MHAs who had resigned since 2021, six were Liberals. Despite Rockcliff's call for a “strong majority Liberal government,” the election resulted in a continued minority Liberal government, with only fourteen seats in the expanded 35-seat parliament, which returned to its pre-1998 configuration of five 7-member electorates. Key reasons for the restoration of seats were the dearth of potential Cabinet members and high ministerial workloads in the smaller house.</p><p>Labor secured two seats in each electorate for a total of ten, leaving a diverse cross-bench of a record eleven that included five Greens, three from the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN), plus three left-leaning independents. The North–South chasm remained evident with most of the Liberals and all of the JLN members elected from the North, while most of the Greens and independents were elected from the South. It was especially notable that two Greens were elected in the Hobart seat of Clark, an unprecedented outcome in a single electorate. Sustainability-focused fisherman Craig Garland, who was the last elected in Braddon, was an exception as an independent standing against the ebbing Liberal tide in the North–West, while Cecily Rosol was atypical as a winning Green in Bass (TEC, 31 March). Ironically, the five Greens was the same number that had led the major parties to collude in reducing parliament to twenty-five seats in 1998 so as to raise quotas and deny opportunities for minor parties.</p><p>Issues prominent during the campaign included health, especially access to bulk-billing general practitioners and ambulance ramping at hospitals, as well as housing, and significantly, the Australian Football League (AFL) stadium planned for Hobart's Macquarie Point. The Liberals proposed to solve the ambulance ramping dilemma by simply forbidding it, which did have some subsequent success. The stadium was conspicuously less supported in the North and was opposed by Labor and the Greens, a disadvantage to the government according to Liberal strategist, Brad Stansfield (Mercury, 23 March). However, the idea of a Tasmanian AFL team did find broad support. Interestingly, the JLN representatives had run on a platform of “no policies” instead relying on a promise to closely scrutinise government proposals.","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"776-782"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.13022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New South Wales January to June 2024","authors":"David Clune","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13021","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 4","pages":"787-792"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>For much of the second half of 2023, Western Australian (WA) state politics adjusted to the new reality that the towering figure of Mark McGowan had departed. This departure immediately led many participants and observers to predict a return to more conventional political battles, and a much more even state election in 2025.</p><p>After taking office on 8 June, the new Premier of WA, Roger Cook did not enjoy much of a political honeymoon. Widespread criticism over new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws led to a humiliating government backflip, while the juvenile justice system witnessed tragedy and turmoil. Nevertheless, the government achieved some major legislative milestones, while a new electoral distribution for the 2025 state election renewed tensions between the Nationals and Liberals.</p><p>The first major electoral test for the Cook Government came on 29 July, in McGowan's old seat of Rockingham. Unsurprisingly, McGowan had been incredibly popular in Rockingham, achieving a primary vote of 82.75% in the 2021 election, representing a two-party preferred margin of 88-12 against the Liberals. In a drive for renewal, the Labor party selected 28-year-old Magenta Marshall, a former campaign strategist and electorate officer. For their part, the Liberal party selected resources recruitment consultant Peter Hudson, who was just 21. Hayley Edwards, Deputy Mayor for the City of Rockingham, failed to win Labor preselection, and then stood as an independent candidate. Whilst local issues featured prominently in the campaign, broader statewide issues such as the rising costs of living, Labor's contentious cultural heritage laws and the state of the public health system were all under the microscope.</p><p>Labor's performance in Rockingham under McGowan was unsustainable and the by-election did see a massive swing of 33% swing away from the Government. They still achieved a primary vote of 49% however, and the eventual two party preferred margin was 65-35 against the Liberals. Much of the swing from Labor did not go to the Liberals, but rather to a swag of other candidates; Edwards picked up 16%, just behind the Liberals, and finished second after preferences, while the Legalise Cannabis party achieved 7%, outpolling the Greens. The result indicated that the next state election in 2025 would be closer, but it was unclear how many people were ready to support the Liberals again.</p><p>The latter half of 2023 saw the official redistribution of the WA State Electoral Boundaries, for the 2025 election. The redistribution had to take into account population growth in Perth, and a decline in the population in regional WA, particularly in agricultural areas. Broadly speaking, the principal change was the merging of two regional seats both held by the National party, the seats of Moore and North West Central. Accompanying this was the creation of a new seat in Perth's southeastern suburbs called Oakford. Whilst the new boundaries delivered one additional no
{"title":"Western Australia July to December 2023","authors":"John Phillimore, Martin Drum","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13005","url":null,"abstract":"<p>For much of the second half of 2023, Western Australian (WA) state politics adjusted to the new reality that the towering figure of Mark McGowan had departed. This departure immediately led many participants and observers to predict a return to more conventional political battles, and a much more even state election in 2025.</p><p>After taking office on 8 June, the new Premier of WA, Roger Cook did not enjoy much of a political honeymoon. Widespread criticism over new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws led to a humiliating government backflip, while the juvenile justice system witnessed tragedy and turmoil. Nevertheless, the government achieved some major legislative milestones, while a new electoral distribution for the 2025 state election renewed tensions between the Nationals and Liberals.</p><p>The first major electoral test for the Cook Government came on 29 July, in McGowan's old seat of Rockingham. Unsurprisingly, McGowan had been incredibly popular in Rockingham, achieving a primary vote of 82.75% in the 2021 election, representing a two-party preferred margin of 88-12 against the Liberals. In a drive for renewal, the Labor party selected 28-year-old Magenta Marshall, a former campaign strategist and electorate officer. For their part, the Liberal party selected resources recruitment consultant Peter Hudson, who was just 21. Hayley Edwards, Deputy Mayor for the City of Rockingham, failed to win Labor preselection, and then stood as an independent candidate. Whilst local issues featured prominently in the campaign, broader statewide issues such as the rising costs of living, Labor's contentious cultural heritage laws and the state of the public health system were all under the microscope.</p><p>Labor's performance in Rockingham under McGowan was unsustainable and the by-election did see a massive swing of 33% swing away from the Government. They still achieved a primary vote of 49% however, and the eventual two party preferred margin was 65-35 against the Liberals. Much of the swing from Labor did not go to the Liberals, but rather to a swag of other candidates; Edwards picked up 16%, just behind the Liberals, and finished second after preferences, while the Legalise Cannabis party achieved 7%, outpolling the Greens. The result indicated that the next state election in 2025 would be closer, but it was unclear how many people were ready to support the Liberals again.</p><p>The latter half of 2023 saw the official redistribution of the WA State Electoral Boundaries, for the 2025 election. The redistribution had to take into account population growth in Perth, and a decline in the population in regional WA, particularly in agricultural areas. Broadly speaking, the principal change was the merging of two regional seats both held by the National party, the seats of Moore and North West Central. Accompanying this was the creation of a new seat in Perth's southeastern suburbs called Oakford. Whilst the new boundaries delivered one additional no","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 2","pages":"351-357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.13005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>As the year 2023 unfolded the Albanese government initially seemed buoyed after the by-election win in the Victorian seat of Aston, improving their majority to five seats in the lower house, and the seeming inability of the Coalition parties under opposition leader Peter Dutton to become a formidable opponent or offer alternative policy agendas. The May Budget, with some modest cost of living relief of $14.6 billion to welfare recipients, had largely sank like a stone by the time parliament returned on 31st July after the winter break. Rising community concern was caused by rising inflation still trending over 4 per cent in December 2023, and a recent spate of cash rate increases by the Reserve Bank (12 increases of 0.25 per cent over 13 months in 2022–23; only one under the Coalition, and 11 under Labor) which had seen mortgage rates accelerate rising to between 5 and 7 per cent depending on loan terms and type of borrowing (interest only or standard). Inflation was spurred principally by a variety of factors, including home mortgages and rents, meat and groceries, insurance increases, petrol and electricity costs, medical and health costs, and transport.</p><p>Australia was also witnessing a slowing of economic growth with GDP falling to 1.4 per cent by December, unemployment rose to 3.9 per cent and job vacancies declined, business investment was modest, while household savings were at a historically low 3.2 per cent. There was considerable media commentary prediction a looming recession, and only increased government spending prevented one from actually occurring. The PM and Treasurer attempted to put a brave face on these austere developments while pre-occupied, and some would argue distracted, by the political priority of holding a referendum on Indigenous recognition. As politics took centre-stage on the government's agenda, the government was accused of neglecting its primary responsibilities of sound economic management and protecting national security.</p><p>Anthony Albanese was increasingly accused of breaking a long list of election promises, including reversing Labor's full commitment given innumerable times to the Stage 3 tax cuts, adverse changes to superannuation “nest-egg” entitlements purely to raise taxation, the much heralded election commitment to lower electricity prices when prices were sky-rocketing, reversing many labour market reforms to reinstate union influence and the near-abolition of casual work and the gig economy, pursuing anti-productivity agendas, the absence of any coherent water management plan for the Murray-Darling Basin. Labor was also criticised for either poor policy development or mismanagement in a range of portfolios, including inertia in defence, confused energy policy, inadequate aged care management and a pharmacists revolt over scripts, a poor inquiry into the COVID responses and lockdowns, uncontrolled migration, including unauthorised entries, and the reckless proliferation in international st
{"title":"Commonwealth of Australia July to December 2023","authors":"John Wanna","doi":"10.1111/ajph.13004","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajph.13004","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As the year 2023 unfolded the Albanese government initially seemed buoyed after the by-election win in the Victorian seat of Aston, improving their majority to five seats in the lower house, and the seeming inability of the Coalition parties under opposition leader Peter Dutton to become a formidable opponent or offer alternative policy agendas. The May Budget, with some modest cost of living relief of $14.6 billion to welfare recipients, had largely sank like a stone by the time parliament returned on 31st July after the winter break. Rising community concern was caused by rising inflation still trending over 4 per cent in December 2023, and a recent spate of cash rate increases by the Reserve Bank (12 increases of 0.25 per cent over 13 months in 2022–23; only one under the Coalition, and 11 under Labor) which had seen mortgage rates accelerate rising to between 5 and 7 per cent depending on loan terms and type of borrowing (interest only or standard). Inflation was spurred principally by a variety of factors, including home mortgages and rents, meat and groceries, insurance increases, petrol and electricity costs, medical and health costs, and transport.</p><p>Australia was also witnessing a slowing of economic growth with GDP falling to 1.4 per cent by December, unemployment rose to 3.9 per cent and job vacancies declined, business investment was modest, while household savings were at a historically low 3.2 per cent. There was considerable media commentary prediction a looming recession, and only increased government spending prevented one from actually occurring. The PM and Treasurer attempted to put a brave face on these austere developments while pre-occupied, and some would argue distracted, by the political priority of holding a referendum on Indigenous recognition. As politics took centre-stage on the government's agenda, the government was accused of neglecting its primary responsibilities of sound economic management and protecting national security.</p><p>Anthony Albanese was increasingly accused of breaking a long list of election promises, including reversing Labor's full commitment given innumerable times to the Stage 3 tax cuts, adverse changes to superannuation “nest-egg” entitlements purely to raise taxation, the much heralded election commitment to lower electricity prices when prices were sky-rocketing, reversing many labour market reforms to reinstate union influence and the near-abolition of casual work and the gig economy, pursuing anti-productivity agendas, the absence of any coherent water management plan for the Murray-Darling Basin. Labor was also criticised for either poor policy development or mismanagement in a range of portfolios, including inertia in defence, confused energy policy, inadequate aged care management and a pharmacists revolt over scripts, a poor inquiry into the COVID responses and lockdowns, uncontrolled migration, including unauthorised entries, and the reckless proliferation in international st","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"70 2","pages":"372-378"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.13004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141381620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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