By Adam Carlton

An Australian federal election could be called any day now, and if the polls are right, the Anthony Albanese led Labor government is heading for a fall. The Murdoch controlled media is putting its resources to push for a Peter Dutton led victory.

Going against Labor is its lacklustre performance in office. On most fronts, it has been barely indistinguishable from the prior Scott Morrison government. Its signature has been the continuation of Neoliberal economic and social policy. This is, faith in market solutions for every problem, despite the mountain of evidence of the many pronged failure of the market to deliver what society needs.

Under Albanese, Labor has failed on the cost-of-living crisis, on housing, and welfare. The few changes that we have seen have been marginal. Government services continue to deteriorate. Labor’s foreign policy has been abysmal and subservient to the wishes of Washington. In fact, we could say this about Australia’s domestic policies. Every branch of the economy and every branch of the public service is being Americanised. These two aspects of foreign and domestic policy come together in how international trade is managed. This is the economic legacy.

Then there is the defacto support for Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, which has alienated a large part of Australia on its own.

Albanese and this government continued with the unwanted and unnecessary nuclear submarine purchases and continues to integrate the Australian Defence forces into the American military machine.

Labor has been a failure on climate policy, continuing the wind down of government led action. This is particularly galling on younger Australians. And it has failed ono the jobs front. The ongoing casualisation of work is the reality.

In the view of a large part of Australia, Labor has turned its back on its working-class base. It attacks the union movement rather than support it. Labor is seen as the friend of the big corporations and the one percent, continuing to hand out money and tailor policies in their favour. The gulf between Labor and its traditional working-class base has never been wider, and this is translating into fewer votes.

The best thing going for Albanese and his government now, is the leadership of the Coalition opposition. They are even more on the Aside from this, Peter Dutton’s direction is not particularly different. It’s just more extreme.

Dutton is pushing the nuclear power alternative to building the capacity to produce clean sustainable energy. Many experts consider the costing unreliable. But this is about providing Washingtons’ military needs for nuclear related services. This requires the rise of a domestic nuclear industry. This is not a means to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions. Australia does not buy this scam.

The reason for the political duopoly on essential policy is that is that both sides are serving the same interests. This reality is dawning in an increasing share of the population. This is why the primary vote for the major parties has been decreasing in recent years across the country. Expect this to fall further in the coming election.

Whoever end up in government will do so through a minority vote. Labor knows this and has begun using the tactics of vilification of the Greens and some pork barrelling, hoping that this will be just enough to buy the votes it needs. There is no guarantee that this will work.

The Coalition will use its own mix of negative politics and pretend it’s on the side of the battlers. Most will see right through this. Nevertheless, Coalition might cash up on enough protest votes to get it through. But there is no guarantee that their methods will work either.

The outcome is uncertain. The question for Australia is, how can we insist and get better than this?