It’s been over 2 months since the 2019 federal election loss and Labor is still reeling from the shock, and to some extent, still ‘stuck in the headlights’ wondering where it goes next.

Anthony Albanese, the new federal Labor leader, continues to frustrate many within his own Left faction with his ‘softly, softly’ approach, which some critics have described as verging on shameful appeasement.

The perceived retreat from bold progressivism is perhaps a natural, knee jerk reaction borne out of the shock and disappointment of the election result. This is also not unexpected from those who have used the loss as a convenient excuse to jettison some landmark policy positions, instead preferring the false safety of the ‘small target’ approach.

However, veteran Victorian Senator, Kim Carr (pictured) has recently added to the growing chorus within the Party for Federal Labor to retain its commitment to a clear redistributive economic agenda and not be so quick to reject the core of its policies it took to the last election. His warning for Labor not to ‘run up the white flag’, is good advice, especially in the absence of any detailed analysis of where and why Labor fell short.

What Senator Carr contends is that the real problem for the ALP was its messaging, not its policies, which were, overall, some of the most progressive we have seen for a while. Add to this the external element of a well funded scare campaign aided by a hostile and complicit media, Labor was always facing a more difficult battle to win the Treasury benches.

Whilst I, personally, have been somewhat underwhelmed by the leadership of ‘Albo’ to date, I am still more than prepared to give him the space he needs to build his credentials and be the type of Labor leader we need. However, what he and the inner core of the Federal Caucus must understand is that Labor needs to assert its values. It needs to stand up for the reasons why so many join the ALP in the first place, which is to work towards a more inclusive, fairer society for everyone. If the 2019 loss ends up being a shameful surrender to the dishonesty and misery of neo-liberalism so strongly advocated by the Coalition, the decline of Labor as the major progressive force in this country will be assured.

Senator Carr has written some much needed words of wisdom in his essay in the John Curtin Research Centre’s journal. His timely advocacy for policies that truly differentiate the ALP from the Coalition and the need for the Party to improve it’s messaging and its understanding of the anxieties and insecurities of many in the electorate is an imperative that cannot be ignored.

Rod Beisel is secretary of the Annerley Branch

Almost a million retirees are being short-changed by the Morrison government as it fails to increase their fortnightly payments to reflect the hit long-term savings are taking because of falling interest rates.
Pensioner groups are accusing the government of using them to save money by deliberately sticking with a decision made in 2015 by then-social services minister Scott Morrison that assumes high returns on investments such as term deposit accounts. Of course, with the current economic decline, overseen by the Coalition, these assumptions are no longer correct.

Under current social security laws, pensioners – including those on a Veterans’ Affairs pension – are allowed to earn up to $168 a fortnight before their payments are reduced. Income from financial investments, such as term deposits, are included in the pension income test.
The government assumes a rate of return on these investments which is described as the deeming rate. Currently, the deeming rate for singles is 3.25 per cent for assets over $51,200 and 1.75 per cent for those under that level.
Deeming rates have remained unchanged since 2015 but official interest rates have fallen from 2.25 per cent to 1.25 per cent with the Reserve Bank of Australia signalling they will fall even further. At the time of their last move, Mr Morrison said the reduction would cost the budget $200 million a year in extra pension payments.
National Seniors chief advocate Ian Henschke has claimed that part pensioners were being hit hard by the government which was failing to reduce deeming rates.
He said while the recent fight over franking credits had affected about 10 per cent of his organisation’s membership, deeming rates was affecting the other 90 per cent!
“This is just another example of the government using pensioners as a milk cow,” he said.
“It’s hypocritical of the government, which was telling the banks to pass on all of the recent cut in official interest rates but at the same time they hold the deeming rate at the same level it’s been since 2015.”

But the misery doesnt stop there!. Even on the issue of energy prices, the failure of the Morrison Government is clear – especially in an economic climate where wages and pensions are stagnant.

ACOSS and BSL recently commissioned the Australian National University (ANU) Centre for Social Research and Methods to undertake a distributional analysis of energy prices and compare the results with a decade ago. The results found that despite very strong energy price increases over the past decade there has been relatively little change in energy costs compared to incomes. The average share of energy costs to disposable income increased from 2.3% to 2.4% over the last decade. However, people on low incomes have fared far worse, paying disproportionately more of their income on energy bills (6.4%); and this has risen more than other income quintiles since 2008 (5.9%).

The underlying problem is we have a federal government that only caters for their elite corporate mates, whilst those doing it tough will continue to get squeezed.