Labor national secretary says voters rejected Coalition and ‘more of the same’
Labor’s national secretary and election campaign director, Paul Erickson, is addressing the National Press Club now, discussing the context behind Labor’s victory at the federal election.
Erickson credits Anthony Albanese’s offering of a “better future” as opposed to three more years of Scott Morrison as the “powerful argument” that secured the party victory.
Labor won the election because we talked about the future and we offered the country an alternative to more of the same. After two years of Covid … and nearly a decade of Coalition neglect, Labor offered Australians the chance to elect a prime minister who would show up, who would take responsibility and would work with people to solve problems – an opportunity that Australians took.
The biggest barrier Labor had to overcome was not voters’ evaluation of our proposition or a counter offer from the Coalition. It was a widespread and deep sense of fatigue, anxiety and aversion to risk after some of the most difficult years that we have endured.
Normally these sentiments would drive fence sitters decisively back to the government of the day and weigh heavily against an effort to build a majority for change.
Yet we had a powerful argument – we assert that the alternatives of this election were not the devil you know or a leap into the unknown, instead it was a clear choice between a better future under Anthony Albanese or three more years of a Morrison government.
In the 18 months leading up to polling day, the Coalition refused to talk about the future and refused to put forward anything resembling a positive case for their own re-election.
Aemo suspends spot market for electricity
Peter Hannam
After all those notices about shortfalls in the wholesale spot electricity market serving eastern Australia, it looks like the Australian Energy Market Operator has blown a whistle, and the game is suspended …
Peter Hannam
Energy generators meet to discuss electricity market
Eastern Australia’s generators are sitting down with the members of the Energy Security Board to chat about how the electricity market is going.
They will no doubt be discussing why generators are withdrawing capacity and then being asked to supply it by the regulators. And presumably they will discuss how to avoid worrying the public about possible electricity supply shortfalls.
Take New South Wales, for instance, where the projected “lack of reserve level 3” (LOR 3) implies a lot of gaps need filling, particularly one at 8pm tomorrow evening with 4,000 megawatts needed. (At present, NSW as a whole is using about 6,100MW.)
It can be hard to keep up, since Victoria also has a bunch of LOR 3s, including tomorrow at 6.30pm when 2,000MW of supply needs to be found.
These gaps are being closed, but sometimes the regulator has to intervene and tell a lucky generator it’s time to switch on, as happened earlier today in Victoria.
Queensland and South Australia have also been in the mix today as far as projected shortfalls. The SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, this morning told RN Breakfast the market was an “embarrassment”.
Given we might have a few weeks or longer to go before the supply risks subside, we might want to consider how the messaging can be tweaked. Otherwise we might not be ready when a real crisis looms …
Encrypted apps must be regulated to curb far-right extremism, inquiry told
From AAP:
The federal government needs to take action against encrypted messaging apps like Telegram to curb the rise of far-right extremism, a Victorian inquiry has been told.
Far-right extremists initially shared hateful content on mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter but are increasingly being deplatformed, Swinburne University’s Dr Belinda Barnet told Wednesday’s hearing.
The groups are now moving to spaces like Telegram where they can share their ideas without censure or detection from the authorities, which is dangerous, Barnet said.
These apps are also allowing the far right to draw in people from the “fringes of society”, Swinburne University’s Associate Prof Christine Agius told the parliamentary inquiry.
They often share grievances around perceived entitlement – that society has changed too much, feminism has gone too far, and minority groups are taking what’s rightfully theirs.
Erickson: ‘There’s a lot to reflect on’ about the media during the campaign
Jumping back to the National Press Club, Erickson was asked about the media:
Erickson: “It would be a mistake for Labor/progressives to interpret difficult questions/hostile coverage as an expression of an anti-Labor perspective … that is starting to creep into debate about the media”.#auspol #npc
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 15, 2022
Erickson: I agree with Mark McGowan’s comments about how media pack engaged with Albanese and Morrison. Reminded me of 2020 covid pressers – people were quite shocked at inter-personal engagement, the way journalists spoke to political leaders. A signal to reflect upon. #npc
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 15, 2022
Erickson: there were themes in questioning that weren’t priorities for voters, a bit of groupthink. “There’s a lot there to reflect on.”#auspol #npc
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 15, 2022
Joel Fitzgibbon appointed to forest industry board
From AAP:
Former Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon says the forest industry has a strong role to play in climate mitigation and jobs provision.
The former minister and MP for the New South Wales seat of Hunter has been appointed to the Australian Forest Products Association board as an independent non-executive director.
“As the former minister and shadow minister for forestry, I have met many of AFPA’s members and have seen firsthand the countless benefits the industry provides to Australia’s economy and the livelihoods of Australians,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“[The] industry is passionate about the role it can play in climate mitigation, building our regional communities by providing meaningful and secure jobs and delivering the millions of fibre-based products we often take for granted – from timber for houses, to paper and tissue products.
“I look forward to working with my board colleagues and AFPA management as we look to the future of forest industries.”
The AFPA chair, Greg McCormack, said Fitzgibbon would bring to the board passionate support for forest industries.
“[And he] understands intimately how we can assist the new Albanese government deliver both greater climate change initiatives and more timber for our builders and renovators,” McCormack said.
“Joel’s vast experience in both strategic vision and policy development will provide valuable input for the AFPA board and in dealings with all levels of the government and the public service as we all try to deliver on the more than $300m in new initiatives Labor committed to during the election, along with key policy changes.”
Labor not concerned about rise of independents and Greens, Erickson suggests
Paul Karp: “I note the seats that you had climate swings to you – Bennelong, Chisholm, Higgins and Boothby. Only one of them had a high-profile independent and none of them were top-tier Greens targets. So my question is: how worried are you that those will be the next to fall to a growing crossbench if Labor doesn’t lift its ambition on climate?”
Erickson:
I’m confident of the four members that were elected in those seats that they’ll do an excellent job over the next three years. I think if we look at the teal seats, the issues that were in play in those seats were the electorate’s dissatisfaction with Mr Morrison’s performance as prime minister, and anger at the Liberal party over climate, over the treatment of women and over integrity.
The 2022 election and the contest between the Liberals and the teals played out with those issues and on the terms that we saw. So I don’t think that you can extrapolate from that much, if anything, about what the next election might look like and what it means for the Labor government.
Erickson: Greens ‘seek to divide Labor’s base in a manner that doesn’t help progressive politics’
On the Greens, Erickson says:
I think there’s in doubt that the Greens are an effective campaign machine and they do have a very successful strategy that they have honed over 20 years, which is to always position yourself two steps to the left of Labor, minimise our successes, give zero credit for any of the progressive gains that Labor governments make, constantly criticise and seek to divide Labor’s base in a manner that doesn’t help progressive politics.
That’s what Adam’s entire adult life has been about.
Erickson: ‘The test is not whether you can run a mistake-free campaign. The test is how do you respond when new challenges emerge’
David Crowe from SMH and The Age: “What are your reflections on the mistakes, if any, in that campaign?”
Erickson:
No campaign is perfect. The experience of every campaign is the challenges are constantly thrown at you and things go wrong. The test is not whether you can run a mistake-free campaign. The test is how do you respond when new challenges emerge, when events throw unexpected dynamics at you, or when mistakes happen.
It was even more so the case in this campaign because of Covid. We were constantly having people get sick. I missed a week, the leader missed a week, the president, the assistant national secretary, I think around half of the cabinet.
So it was just constantly coming at us. And so the way I think to deal with that is as a campaigner is just to maintain that focus on what is your strategy, what are you trying to do? And that’s how we dealt with and grappled with challenges as they came along.
Labor can continue to build support and lift primary vote, Erickson says
Greg Brown from The Australian asks if the days of 40% primary votes are over.
Erickson:
No, no, I think there are lots of examples around the world and through Australia’s history of a government like this one coming into office in circumstances like this and then building its support and building its support through good government and by delivering on what it promised.
I think we have seen, you know, the Ardern government in New Zealand is a good example in terms of looking at their result in 2017, and then their re-election, there have been examples at a state level here in Australia in the recent history of state Labor governments. And that’s the challenge that’s in front of us.
‘We did win in our right’: Labor national secretary
Phil Coorey from the AFR: “What is it in your view that Labor needs to do over the next three years to get that primary vote up and to win it in your own right without the factors that helped you last time?”
Erickson:
We did win in our own right.
And don’t agree with the proposition that my speech or my remarks have made an argument that we didn’t win it and they lost it.
I think in my remarks I set out how we thought about the election and that we felt that we had two arguments we had to make. First, how would Australia be different under a Labor government led by Anthony Albanese? And we set that case out.
We set it out in principle in terms of Anthony’s leadership style and we set it out in detail on issues like climate, childcare, health and wages and the cost of living.
Erickson denies misleading voters on cashless debit card
Labor national secretary Paul Erickson is now taking questions at the National Press Club.
Anna Henderson from SBS: “Labor was accused during the election campaign of misleading voters in relation to the cashless debit card and paid advertising suggests it was going to be expanded to all age pensioners. On reflection, was that a lie?”
Erickson:
Absolutely it was not a lie. We campaigned against the cashless debit card and pointed to the Liberal government and Anne Ruston the former minister’s own words and we have now taken steps as we committed to abolish the cashless debit card.
