Australia's hearts and minds tussle

Australia is in the grips of a populist hearts-and-minds tussle as the battle for the ruling Labor Party’s lost middle ground goes up a notch. In the last week, Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan has launched a major broadside on the country’s “rich,” paying particular attention to the small number of mining bosses whose ascending piles of money matches the depths of the holes they dig as the products of their efforts feeds the ever-hungry energy and materials beast that is China. The mining industry has countered with a touchy-feely ad campaign designed to make us all love them.

The Treasurer used an essay in a news magazine and an address to the National Press Club to tease out his elaborate j’accuse. Australia’s ability to ride the Asian tigers—30% of global GDP last year was generated within 10,000 km of Australia’s borders according to Swan—and the Labor government’s apparent skill in increasing income for the poorest 10% is not only ignored by the Big End of Town; it is actually undermined by it, says Swan.

Income inequality is a defining issue of our times, he argues, and he is not shy about naming names. He attacks owners of giant mining interests, like Clive Palmer, Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, as well as the feeder industries—PR, media, investors—who promote their interests. “The debate over the future of our country,” Swan says, “is at risk of being distorted and decided not by the strength of ideas, but the strength of influence.”

So much for the words, all of which ring true in substance, but hollow in the delivery. The politics behind this strategy are as interesting as its content. The Gillard government clearly got a political haircut with the recent leadership struggle with Kevin Rudd. It is haemorrhaging support and it needs to a) get everybody away from thinking about the flimsy leadership foundation and b) to score some cheap political points.

While Swan rightly highlights the fact that Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group behemoth paid no company tax last year (apparently legally) and the fact that the majority of the mining industry has fought the government’s attempts to introduce a super profits tax, and while he can rail against the banks, the cigarette companies and the media for similar indiscretions, such issues look to be no more than post-Rudd debris.

The test may be whether the government can find some clean air for the ideas it apparently holds so dear over and above the political miasma it has created for itself. Cynicism borne of past events suggest only that this latest cramming of the media space is an early election bell for the 2013 campaign.

James Rose is author of the political thriller Virus and blogs at www.jamesroseauthor.com