David Marr 31 May 2014 The Saturday Paper
Extract
The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has found the poorest fifth of our society is taking a $2.9 billion hit, while the richest fifth loses $1.78 billion. There is no economic argument that can render this “fair”.
How did our leaders neglect so completely to put themselves in the shoes of those they govern? One reading is that Abbott and Joe Hockey have been cloistered by lives of relative privilege, unable to imagine otherwise, and perhaps that is true. But other politicians have managed the trick. Gillard, forced to defend her ability to govern for families with children, said “there’s never going to be one Australian who can encapsulate in their own life experience the story of every other Australian”.
More likely is that the Liberal Party never accepted the result of the 2007 election, and sees its return to government as a right, not a privilege.
You can see it in their outrage at having to answer for what was promised during the campaign, their exasperation at our stubborn refusal to believe all this is for the good of the country. Drawing the wrong message from a community that voted Labor out, and believing they had a mandate to do as they saw fit, Abbott and Hockey did not put their moral imagination to work – not just because they couldn’t, but because they didn’t think they had to bother.
It is jarring to realise that the people you elected either cannot or do not care about the life you actually lead. Clever sound bites will not dispel Australia’s wrath. Only a genuine identification with the people who elected them, an honest effort to understand the fear and injury they have inflicted, can save the Coalition now. Right now, this simple task seems beyond them.
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