Swingers or deserters?

Yes, I confess. I attended that “No Carbon Tax” rally in Canberra. I was proud to be associated with between three and four thousand other ordinary Australians, protesting against a destructive assault on our economy and way of life. For my efforts, I am now labelled as an extremist by Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet and Tanya Plibersek, the ironically entitled “Minister for Social Inclusion” who doubles as Minister for Human Services. Yes, I am also damned as an associate of racists, anti-Semites and the writers of a couple of rude signs etc. I stand condemned by the Gillard Government, the Fairfax press and the ABC.

Nothing can expiate my guilt. Surely I should have known that a tiny handful of nutters in the crowd were the real powers behind the protest. And why didn’t I recognize the devious hidden hand of Pauline Hanson?

Clearly, both the Gillard Government and its acolytes had assembled a narrative before the day was out. A couple of rude posters out of hundreds at an orderly law-abiding rally were to be singled out to delegitimize popular opposition. It mattered not that both Greg Combet and Senator Bob Brown were quite happy to be associated with protests on other occasions which included violence by extreme leftists. Never mind that John Howard was demonized in the most vicious terms by leftists when he was Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, it is useless to appeal to fairness and consistency from the Gillard Government and its media acolytes. For the Left, imbued with the messianic impulse, the end will always justify the means. There is a scarcely hidden contempt for ordinary people. Now we learn that Julia Gillard has sent her backbenchers forth with absurdist talking points about the supposedly dire consequences of a failure to legislate a Carbon Tax. This is surely a satirist’s dream. Government propaganda will be greeted with both laughter and resentment at the misuse of taxpayers’ money.

The mainstream media will seek to explain away the result of the New South Wales State election on the usual prosaic factors such as the failed electricity privatization, the revolving door of premiers and ministers, personal misconduct and general maladministration. Yes, Barry O’Farrell ran a competent campaign and forged a united team. But none of these factors can explain the scale of the swing. There is no evidence that Barry O’Farrell inspired any particular enthusiasm on his own account. Nor was there any personal dislike of outgoing Premier, Kristina Keneally. What is evident is a growing sense of disenfranchisement by many former rusted on Labor voters. The huge swings in formerly safe Labor electorates point to one clear conclusion: socio-economic status is no longer the prime determinant of political allegiance. There is a new divide between an inner city tertiary educated middle class with jobs in the public service, universities and schools, entertainment and media, the devotees of the ABC and the Fairfax Press and, on the other side, a conservative working class together with tradesmen, small business owners and farmers.

What was so evident at the Canberra protest rally was how self-organized people were. People paid their own way to come and wrote their own signs. Former Labor voters mingled with coalition supporters. The so-called “Consumers and Taxpayers Association”, which organized the Canberra protest, relied on word of mouth and publicity on the Macquarie radio network. This protest could well be the precursor of a grass roots movement which the major political parties will ignore at their peril.