"We’re not dead yet": connecting with the missing middle

They view all levels of Government – federal, state and local - in a negative light – just there to take their taxes without delivering anything tangible to them in return.

Many have private health insurance and private school fees to pay and don’t readily see the benefit to them of greater public investment in these areas.

This middle class suburban voter is Labor’s great challenge. It's no good thinking they will come along for the ride out of curiosity – they have to be convinced.

Both the ‘Battlers’ and the ‘Westfield Mallers’ are what US social policy expert Theda Skocpol calls the ‘missing middle’ – families who live on modest wages or wages made modest by the cost of their responsibilities to their children.

They work hard but find themselves under financial pressure. They see themselves as struggling in the middle.

Often, in standing up for the weakest and most vulnerable, Labor is wrongly perceived to have neglected both the ‘Battlers’ and the ‘Westfield Mallers’ – the ‘missing middle.’

The way forward

We need to develop a bold, outward-looking, social democratic vision. If we do, I am confident the Australian people, including the two groups I have mentioned, will embrace us.

But people are sick of the "business as usual" approach to politics where politicians pay lip service to the concerns of the people and do what they want.

That is why we need to embrace political, constitutional, parliamentary and party reforms that confront people’s distrust head on.

Our approach to the republican referendum is an example of our lack of boldness.

People became sick of the long drawn out fizzle of the campaign in which their popular choice – a direct election republican model was sidelined by both John Howard and elite opinion.