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At the time, with the rising popularity of Donald Trump, political certainties were collapsing, and this was a convenient pejorative to cast at one's political opponents.
In the years to come we’re going to have plenty of motley parliaments, with fewer major party parliamentarians and larger crossbenches of independents and minor parties.
That Australia has so readily embraced the populist-right politics of nationalism and xenophobia perpetuated by former prime minister John Howard in the 2001 Tampa incident and beyond will be seen as a great error.
Echoing the rhetoric of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, Bill Shorten recently claimed in a speech that rising inequality was the single biggest threat to Australia's social cohesion and the economy.
On the other hand parts of the self-identifying left these days have in many instances distanced themselves from class politics instead embracing identity politics and liberalism.
