When the Australian Elite Failed. By Nick Cater at Quadrant.
Every prime minister since Howard has struggled to find the middle ground, a position that will satisfy the competing visions within their own parties, let alone the nation as a whole.
It has not helped that the political class’s judgment has been skewed by the environment in which it operates, surrounded by the graduate class that predominates in the bureaucracy and the media.
Their bluff:
The moral force that holds elite arguments in place, sanctioning those who dare to offer discordant evidence, reinforces the hegemony of conventional wisdom backed by experts. The elite’s superior rhetorical skills and its all-access pass to media platforms give it a seemingly unassailable advantage in civic debate.
It is little wonder that the elite’s vision on contentious issues like climate change, the republic and Aboriginal rights is perceived as the majority opinion, the position held by sensible people opposed by an ignorant few.
Bluff called:
Pauline Hanson entered politics with a practical, commonsense outlook, untarnished by higher education. Her principal anger was not towards migrants, as those who were quick to label her as racist supposed. It was towards the enforcers of political correctness. …
Hanson’s maiden speech attained instant notoriety. Her principal complaint was that a self-appointed elite had stolen the agenda, without a legitimate mandate, and had denied middle Australia any say on the disruptive issue of multiculturalism. “For far too long, ordinary Australians have been kept out of any debate by the major parties,” she said. “I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished.”
Over the years, Hanson’s policy agenda has broadened. Climate change, transgender rights, Aboriginal rights and woke adventurism in all its forms are connected by a common thread. Radical changes to Australian life have been implemented unilaterally by an elite that assumes extra-parliamentary authority to reshape the nation according to its vision.
Covid revealed that our elites had become incompetent (too much DEI?) and untrustworthy:
The Covid epidemic proved a turning point as governments, state and federal, accelerated along the road to tyranny. The declaration of a crisis became the justification for illiberal measures enforced by decree. Dissent was declared dangerous, contrary to expert opinion, an incitement to sceptics to disobey the rules, and a real and present threat to the well-being of the general community.
Like her earlier declarations on multiculturalism, Hanson’s interventions during the pandemic appear uncontroversial today. Yet in August 2021, her claim that the vaccines had “not been properly tested” and the government was using lockdowns to bully people into being jabbed were the subject of outrage in the mainstream press, including The Australian, which headlined its report: “Pauline Hanson argues people should have the right to catch Covid and die”.
The brutal suppression of public protests, a torrent of lies, and the scapegoating of the unvaccinated, endorsed by the political establishment backed by mainstream media, became a breeding ground for dissent. The extent of the erosion of trust in officialdom has been barely recognised by the political establishment, even to this day.
Since 95 per cent of the population had taken the vaccine, the elite arrogantly assumed that discontent was limited to a small bunch of nutters. They did not factor in that many had been vaccinated with extreme reluctance, that jobs had been lost and businesses destroyed and that the lockdowns had placed an intolerable burden on the population, which rose disproportionately the deeper one ventured into the suburbs. …
The Voice revealed who the majority really were:
Albanese’s strategic blunder in holding a referendum on the Voice to Parliament emboldened middle Australia. A progressive pet project had been put to the vote, granting Australians a rare opportunity to express what they really thought without fear of retribution under the cover of the ballot box.
The scale of the referendum defeat — 60 per cent to 40 per cent –pierced the vanity of the elite establishment, who had assumed that their vision was shared by all sensible people. Among the dissenters, however, it was the defeat not just of a narrow constitutional amendment, but of the whole woke shouting match.
It provided comprehensive evidence that they were on the side of the majority, not just a maverick few.
Trump, Farage/Lowe, Hanson. Populism is the response to incompetent rule by the political class. No wonder the political class hate “populism.”
Pro tip: Follow the money, from taxpayer to the elite.