In Determined Pursuit of Unhappiness

Before the 2010 federal election Julia Gillard was reported to have questioned the merit of increasing the old-age pension by saying that “old people don’t vote Labor”. A dastardly cabinet leak to be sure. She denied saying it. Noteworthily, whether she said it or not, no one was the least surprised that such a thing could be said by a modern-day politician. It is where we are: partisan politics favouring one group over another; the principle of governing for all becoming lost in vote harvesting.

Let me give a more recent example. Earlier this year Australia’s shadow treasurer excused a policy of increasing taxes on a section of retirees by pointing out that 92 per cent of the population would be unaffected. Turn this around. It means that Chris Bowen was quite happy about imposing a burden on 8 per cent of the population, mainly retirees. He later changed this to only 4 per cent; presumably by counting children or by some other sleight of hand, I don’t know. Why was…