Tag: Kevin Rudd

There’s a reason why the cohort of voters colloquially known as “Howard’s battlers” have a semi-mythical status in contemporary Australian politics. This group of working and lower-middle class Australians had traditionally voted Labor, but for much of Howard’s reign they kept the plain-talking and mostly uninspiring PM in office. Labor will repeal tax cuts for companies earning $10m-$50m Read more Howard had little of the charisma or gravitas of his previous prime ministers, but he was a canny political operator who knew how to connect with the majority of voters who made up working class and middle Australia. It’s also why his opponent is trying to use the very same group to bring the PM down. Even before Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek mentioned in an interview last week that the term “aspiration” was a mystery to her, Malcolm Turnbull and his ministers had been accusing Labor of denying workers the motivational benefits of personal income tax cuts and trumpeting that only the Coalition understood the aspirations of such everyday Australians. “Stick with me if you want to get ahead”, the PM was essentially promising voters. The opposition couches its approach in terms of equity and fairness rather than resentment. But the effect is the same The difficulty for Malcolm Turnbull is that aspiration ain’t what it used to be. Longman byelection: will One Nation decide who wins? Read more Of course Longman is also the tightest of the five byelection contests, with the seat being extremely marginal after Labor snatched it with the help of One Nation preferences in 2016.