The Australian Federal Election Result Will Have an Impact on the Health of Democracy -Tezcan Gümüş

Australia will
go to the polls on May 21 to elect a new federal parliamentary government, but
the climate in which the country heads to the polls is troubling. The
three-term conservative coalition between the Australian Liberal Party and
National Party is hoping to be re-elected while COVID-19 has killed more Australians
in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021 combined. The economy is also suffering. There is
a slow deterioration of living standards, accelerated by the increasing cost of
living and inflation. Wages have been stagnant for a decade and the recent Reserve
Bank of Australia interest rate hike signals higher stress for households. And
society is experiencing creeping divisions spurred by the extended lockdowns,
undermining its social cohesion.

Under this
climate, voters have the chance to re-elect the Liberal-National coalition, headed
by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the leader of the Liberal Party. On the other
side, in Australia’s two-party system, vying for the governing seat is Anthony
Albanese’s centre-left Australian Labor Party. Albanese has been unable to ignite
enthusiasm from the electorate, yet Labor is, nonetheless, ahead in the
pre-election polls. Overall, despondency is directed at both sides by the
electorate. This has led journalist Ben Eltham to describe the situation as “the
most remarkable thing about this election is the almost total absence of hope. The
choice is between almost certain disillusionment under Labor and the
devastation of a fourth Coalition term; that is a choice between unhappiness
and double unhappiness.”

The undemocratic trend under
the Coalition

The election also
holds importance for the faltering standard of democracy experienced under the
coalition government. Over the nine years of Liberal-National rule, troubling trends
and behaviours have etched away at democratic institutions and norms. These
relate to the lack of accountability in the government; the use of public money
for party electoral advantage rather than the public interest; serious
allegations of misconduct against government politicians; foregoing long-term
interests of the country to pursue immediate political advantages; and general
habit of eschewing proper ethical conduct. Governmental behaviour has
ultimately been damaging to democracy.

There are
material indicators democracy has taken a hit during the coalition’s time in government.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2021 revealed
Australia is one of the most significant decliners, dropping 12 points since
2012. The CPI report placed Australia in 18th place, scoring 73 points on the
100-point scale, which is Australia’s worst score on record. The declining score
signifies systemic failings in tackling public sector corruption by the
coalition.

Though there are
strong public calls and previous promises have been made by the Prime Minister,
it has refused
to establish a federal anti-corruption commission to investigate corruption. In fact, Morrison has repeatedly
attacked the New
South Wales (NSW) Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation.
The government has also cut
funding to the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) in an attempt to
avoid scrutiny. The Coalition has stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
(AAP), the independent body that reviews administrative decisions
made by the Australian Government, with more than 30 former Coalition MPs,
staffers and allies. The government’s partisan appointments in the public
service have seen it politicised, with a long-term Liberal Party apparatchik now in
charge of the public service.

Press freedoms
have also taken a hit. Reporters Without Borders has relegated
Australia down from 25 to number 39 out of 180 countries on the 2022 Press Freedom Index. This is
due to the ultra-concentration of media ownership, combined with growing
official pressure, endangering public-interest journalism.

Two mega-companies dominate the media industry, making Australia’s
media landscape one of the most concentrated in the world. The high
concentration offers these two companies exceptionally large political power,
along with harming the diversity of voices in the media. For instance, News
Corp, part of the Australian-American magnate Rupert Murdoch’s global media
empire, controls more than two-thirds of the country’s leading papers, as well
as most online news portals. The company uses its monopoly to attack and
disparage opponents of the Liberal-National government while suppressing the Coalition’s
mistakes. Such has been News Corp’s direct and unapologetic partisanship and
the power it wields it is now labelled “a danger to Australia’s democracy”.

Together with this, in 2021, a Senate
committee confirmed the existence of a growing culture of secrecy by the
administration regarding the press, finding the existence of informal pressure on
journalists not to reveal certain matters, and intimidation of whistle-blowers
under the pretext of protecting national security. The Morrison Government
rushed through the Surveillance Legislation
Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill that provides unprecedented
powers for the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence
Commission that will lead to improper use against whistle-blowers and
journalists. The Law highlights the lack of wider entrenched safeguards for
press freedom and free speech in Australia. In response to the climate of
intimidation, a
survey by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), found nearly
90 per cent of journalists surveyed were “fearful of threats, harassment,
and intimidation” starting from the government. Coalition politicians have
also employed Australia’s
defamation laws with much more frequency to silence journalists and critics.
We are witnessing defamation law wielded as a “political
weapon” by the conservative side of politics, to protect the government.

Old and new voices in the
electoral race

What has also been
worrying is that the Liberal-National government has moved further to the right
of the political spectrum over the nine years in government. Certain
politicians from the Coalition have even started expressing right-wing populist
rhetoric to stave off the rise of a smattering of small right-wing parties.

Yet, the stresses
of the pandemic have pushed a segment of Coalition voters further toward small right-wing
parties, such as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and billionaire Clive Palmer’s
United Australia Party. These parties are tailored with populist and anti-immigration
undertones and embraced the anti-vaccination and conspiracy theory groups with support
drawn generally from rural areas in Queensland and New South Wales.

Partly owing to
the rightward drift, the Liberal Party is also losing support in its
traditional urban strongholds, especially among women. The tacit support expressed
for anti-vax protesters in 2021 from key Liberal figures including the Prime
Minister, has left affluent city voters disturbed by this creeping populism. The
lack of any ambition to act on climate change represents another critical
reason. The government’s appalling policy record on gender equality and women’s
policy has also aided the declining support among professional women.

A group of
independents known as the “Teals” for the blue-green colour of their campaign have
stepped in to fill this breach. These are a group of mostly wealthy white
professional women, that are running in affluent electorates historically held
by the Liberals. Campaigning on progressive policies, these are candidates who have
been spurred to run by the Coalition’s dismal record on climate (even climate
denialism), financially backed by the political action committee Climate 200. If
the Teal candidates win seats held by Liberal’s, there is a strong possibility
that the independents could hold make them important players in deciding the
next government and influencing future policies.

If the government
changes, it will be Labor that will win the seat of power. Led by Albanese, Labor
has lost much of its progressive visionary policies over the recent years, pandering
to the shift of the political spectrum to the right. What sets it apart from the
Coalition is that it is as promised a wide-ranging new anti-corruption body,
sure to uncover governmental misconduct. Though, not comprehensive enough, Labor
has plan to address climate change, while there is also a promise of labour-market
reform and increase of the minimum wage.

Then there is
the Greens Party. They have garnered around 10 percent of the national vote for
the last decade, yet their social democrat and progressive policies have not
increased the party’s support beyond their urban strongholds. Realistically,
they won’t win office, rather their hope is to win enough seats to hold the balance
of power in Parliament.

The inclusion of
the Teal independents and more Greens in the Parliament could hold the key for
a more inclusive and progressive legislative climate. This will be enhanced by
a Labor government that will likely be reliant on the support from the Teals and
Greens, if these latter groups can successfully win a handful of seats in the
Lower House and Senate. Their crossbench support for a Labor government will
likely be premised on stronger climate action, wider social and economic
reforms, which otherwise a Labor majority government is unlikely to pursue on
its own. Whereas, if the Coalition remains in power, there is every possibility
more damage to democracy will be incurred, considering the recent trend.

Hence, the
resulting parliamentary make-up after the election, alarmingly, puts a lot at
stake for the country, regardless of how uninspiring the electorate might feel
about the major parties. The next government will either reverse politics moving
further to the right or see it continue down its current undemocratic path.

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To cite this work : Tezcan Gümüş “ The Australian Federal Election result will have an impact on the health of democracy ”, Panorama, Online , 18 May 2022, https://www.uikpanorama.com/blog/2022/05/18/aus-elec/

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