Some days it seems a marvel that there is not much unrest in Australia, compared to other parts of the developed world.
Perhaps we're opting for cruise control after the high-octane, fender-bending Rudd-Gillard-Abbott years. Or perhaps it is because our welfare systems, social institutions and security apparatus are holding, making it less easy for agitators to mount a case against migrants or call for an overhaul in Canberra.
But the conditions for distrust and disgust are plain, from looming penalty rate cuts to worsening levels of housing affordability. Wage growth is at a record-low and underemployment is high.
Such conditions drive voters to seek alternatives. In the latest Essential poll, the primary vote for Pauline Hanson's One Nation lifted to 11 per cent, despite its patchy record on welfare, as well as multiple scandals over its internal workings. It generally does not bode well when competence is no longer the baseline; though in a leadership vacuum, 'someone else' holds a natural appeal.
In any case, there can be worse things than incompetence. There is timidity. Mediocrity. Running up the cost of doing nothing at all. In so many ways, the Australian political class is holding us back. That is the crux of nearly every policy impasse over the past several years. We are stunted.
The recent Finkel review into our energy supply is illuminating in this regard. It has quickly amounted to nothing more than paper-pushing, through no fault of the chief scientist. The Coalition has decided that the Clean Energy Target, a mechanism for investment in new low-emission power generation, needs further analysis.
It is classic stonewalling — as if infrastructure issues, inflated electricity prices, and slack investment in renewables and storage have not already overtaken us. It calls to mind the plebiscite tactic, which deliberately kicked same-sex marriage further down the road despite every poll confirming that Australians just want it done.
The reticence against the CET is not just ideological. It is petty. The CET would be a price on carbon emissions in effect, bringing the Liberal Party closer to Labor policy. Some of its MPs think this is a bad thing. The same mentality left negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts untouched in the recent budget, despite the drain on revenue. It would look too much like a concession to the other side.
"The overarching and more significant divide seems to be between us and the people who rule over us. If only there was a way to stop them from holding us back from the kind of country that we want to be."
This is typical of the mediocrity that keeps Australia inert. Political dividends are seen to come from partisan theatrics rather than — shock, horror — reflecting what Australians care about, or exercising a larger leadership than that of the party.
If polls were any measure and democratic representation meant anything at all, there would be bipartisan agreement about things like action on climate change, legalising same-sex marriage, a constitutionally bound and just relationship with Indigenous peoples, resettling refugees from Nauru and Manus, and protecting penalty rates.
Support for such things present a picture of the kind of people that Australians probably are: fair-minded, open and collectivist. It is a vision to reach for and one that does not get validated near enough.
There are real divisions, to be sure, but the overarching and more significant divide seems to be between us and the people who rule over us. If only there was a way to stop them from holding us back from the kind of country that we want to be.
Fatima Measham is a Eureka Street consulting editor. She co-hosts the ChatterSquare podcast, tweets as @foomeister and blogs on Medium.