Here’s a ‘powerful idea’ for Labor: get a clue

Bill Shorten last year promised, “Labor will be defined in 2015 by the power of our ideas”. We’re still waiting for him to get a clue.

In May, the opposition leader told 3AW radio presenter Neil Mitchell that Labor had “ripped up the political rule book” by putting forward, wait for it … two policies. In 20 months of opposition. The comment came as Shorten avoided answering the same question 13 times. That’s really ripping up the politicians’ rule book.

The two “major costed policies”, related to superannuation tax concessions and multinational tax avoidance, are the antithesis of “powerful”; they are pathetically inadequate tinkerings with the tax system, which would do almost nothing to address the current skewing of it in favour of the rich and the corporate world.

So where are all the other powerful ideas?

On new so-called anti-terrorism proposals, Shorten told a journalist on 13 June, “Labor’s in this together with the Liberals”. Even the Law Council of Australia, hardly a group of radical libertarians, has noted of the passing of successive pieces of such legislation:

“Many of those laws contain measures that run contrary to established notions of criminal justice. Many of those laws were rushed through parliament but have never or very rarely been used. In short, Australia has been left with a legacy of flawed and unnecessary legislation.”

There are no powerful ideas on this front. In fact, the opposition – if it can really be called that – basically parrots everything the government says while waving its legislation through. If you were looking for conspiracies against Australian citizens by people who hate our freedoms, you needn’t look far past the federal parliament.

What about some ideas on housing, which arguably is the most pressing issue in the country? There is a deficit of public funding for state housing. Affordability in the private markets has been destroyed by capital gains tax reductions and negative gearing – both of which have contributed to an investor bubble. In Hobart this month the opposition leader had the following exchange with a reporter:

JOURNALIST: You said Joe Hockey’s out of touch, what would you do to fix the housing crisis in Sydney and around Australia?

SHORTEN: You’re right; Joe Hockey is out of touch. What we say is that every time Joe Hockey opens his mouth, we get an explanation of how out of touch the whole government is …

JOURNALIST: But what would you do specifically?

SHORTEN: In terms of what Joe Hockey should say, Joe Hockey’s a serial offender. We all famously remember when he infamously said that poor people don’t drive. Now he has decided to repeat that particular bit of Joe Hockey magic … I think it’s not even a matter for Joe Hockey apologising, he is what he is. He’s out of touch.

JOURNALIST: But what’s the solution? From your perspective, what would your solution be to this crisis then?

SHORTEN: … The problem for anyone wanting to enter the housing market in Australia is that after you heard what Joe Hockey said yesterday, you realise that the Abbott government is incapable of understanding the needs of ordinary Australians.

You could be excused for missing all the powerful ideas in those sound bites. Here’s a tip: the ALP won’t be touching the negative gearing and capital gains rackets.

What about some powerful ideas on reducing inequality? “Labor is up for the task of trying to restrain spending”, Shorten told journalists at a June doorstop interview in Melbourne. Cutting government spending – that’s a new one. Milton Friedman is only nine years dead and Shorten has discovered monetarism.

What about job creation for the nearly 1 million people officially unemployed? Any powerful ideas on this front – except for the one about cutting business taxes, which we have heard before, which has been more and more carried out over four decades and on which Labor is in lockstep with the Liberals? None.

Here’s one: a massive expansion of public housing. That would help deal with both the affordability and homelessness crises as well as provide tens of thousands of jobs while also helping to deal with the shocks coming from the collapse of the mining investment boom. Don’t hold out for Shorten on that.

What about some powerful ideas on refugee policy? The opposition had a go attacking the government over revelations that it paid Indonesian fishermen to betray asylum seekers by taking them back to Indonesia.

But here too, Shorten ultimately had to fall silent because the ALP basically carried out and agrees with the current government’s broader anti-human border protection policies. Labor now has joined with the Liberals to pass legislation through the Senate, which shores up the criminal offshore detention regime as it faces a High Court challenge.

“[W]hat we ask Tony Abbott is, just as Labor’s willing to be constructive on ideas, we wish that he would not be so arrogant and out of touch”, Shorten said at the Melbourne doorstop press conference.

The rest of us wish that Shorten would not be such a pathetic, clueless grub.