In the wake of an election that looks more like a vote against both major parties than a vote for either of them, ABC’s Q&A was a night of soul-searching about how to win back “stability” in Australian politics.
Josh Frydenberg, the minister for resources and energy, insisted that despite the public splintering their vote, voters still craved “stability”.
Nevertheless, he also said the instability – the revolving door of prime ministers and decreasing vote for major parties – was partly a result of “public demand”, but needed to stop anyway.
“It’s not a good trend, because Australia needs stability,” Frydenberg said.
Holly Ransom an entrepreneur and youth advocate questioned whether it really did need to stop.
“I want to quickly jump in on the point of stability. I think that’s up for contention,” she said, saying the “stability” being offered by the major parties was one that the voters rejected this year. “This election, voter discontent was at the fore,” she said.
Paul Kelly, the editor-at-large of the Australian, said that whatever happened now, forming a stable government looked like it was going to be difficult. However, his example of a successful minority government took Twitter by surprise.
“Julia Gillard was relatively successful after she’d negotiated the arrangements with the Greens and independents,” Kelly said. “She got a lot of legislation through the parliament.”
*picks self off floor* Paul Kelly admitted Gillard was successful working with a hung parliament. Don't remember THAT being said, at all.
— Kerry Glover (@TheRealKerryG) July 4, 2016
Paul Kelly: "@JuliaGillard was very successful." Took Paul Kelly 3 years to realise that? He attacked Gillard for Child Abuse RC #qanda
— The Daily Rupert (@TheMurdochTimes) July 4, 2016
OMG did Paul Kelly just say Julia Gillard was effective? #qanda
— Ged Kearney (@GedKACTU) July 4, 2016
Ransom, one of the non-politicians on the panel, took the boldest stab at trying to diagnose what was behind the voter dissatisfaction with traditional politics.
Ransom said: “In three months, we’ve seen three examples – in the presumptive Republican nominee in the US being Donald Trump, the Brexit decision and now this – of actually the general population expressing really major disaffection and apathy towards the establishment or the traditional way that things have been done.
“How do you evolve both your platform and communicating the message to people? That’s the big question that’s being asked of the parties after this election.”
The Labor shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen acknowledged the rejection of the establishment.
“We’re seeing the rise of the disenfranchised and disillusioned, people who feel left out,” he said. “People feel they are not getting the benefits of economic growth because, in many instances, they are not.
“It also makes it incumbent on us to embrace inclusive growth, making sure the growth is properly shared, that everybody has the investment in them.”
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young argued a diverse parliament was the will of the people and should be respected.
“The voters want, they want us to have a diverse representation in the parliament because they don’t believe that the traditional two-party system has worked,” she said. “And they want to disrupt that. We’ve got to listen to why, and what it is that we do about that.
“It doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It actually doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
Despite voters abandoning the major parties, they did not appear to flock to the Greens. The Q&A host, Tony Jones, suggested that might have been caused by the Greens trying to look like a major party themselves.
Greens got less than 10% of the vote. It's a smaller percentage than they got in 2010. #qanda
— Van Badham (@vanbadham) July 4, 2016
“Do you think people might have been put off a bit by your leader saying, ‘I want to be part of the system, I want a ministry, I want to be in a power-sharing government, I don’t want to be the outsider throwing stones, I want to be part of it’?” Jones asked.
Hanson-Young replied: “No, I don’t think so. I think what people saw in that is that we’re a party who is saying, ‘It’s not winner-takes-all.’ We all have a responsibility to help shape this nation. You put your hand up for parliament, be prepared to have to do the hard work to get there.”
