Bunnings politics and the 2022 Federal Election

Today, our elections, have become less and less about a contest of ideas, let alone policies, and more just bidding war between the major parties to gain the support of disaffected voters and to appease the growing cavalcade of interest groups.

It is akin to going to Bunnings Hardware with a competitor’s product and price tag and asking them to beat it by 10 per cent as part of their lowest prices guarantee.

This is what the 2022 federal election has become.

Witness how the Morrison Government’s promise to make pharmaceuticals $10 cheaper was outbid by Labor a few days later with their $12-50 bargain cut price promise.

It’s repeated over and over, every day during the current election campaign.

While this bidding war has long been a feature of democratic elections it has become worse for many reasons.

First and foremost, it is because government is now involved in more areas than ever before so there are more programs and funding for voters and interest groups to chase for increases.

Also, during the pandemic governments abandoned former spending restraints, expanded the reach of government even more, threw out orthodox economics and created the expectation that government spending was unlimited and could solve all policy problems. The electorate has been conditioned to ask for more and expect it to be given. The emergence of modern monetary theory further undermined the conventional wisdom that government spending needed to be restrained by revenue or borrowing limits.

In addition, the decline in support for the major parties and the fragmentation of our society, has led to an expansion in interest groups whose members no longer feel able to be accommodated within the confines of political party structures.

Moreover, these interest groups have a narrower focus than those in the past. They are less based on the economy, and more focused on post-materialist values of personal well-being, local concerns and very particular needs all accompanied by demands for immediate government action.

These demands have little regard for their wider implications on the economy or even other interests. The only concern is to procure the demands for your issue by playing the major parties off against each other in a game of spend and match please.

That game is being played out right now in every party campaign office as they respond to hundreds of questionnaires from interest groups wanting answers to their demands for funding and support.

Interest groups then compare those responses and state their preferred party on who has outbid the other. That’s what get reported.

This bidding process produces policies devoid of any assessment of whether they are needed, cost-effective, or even contradictory to other policies. It is a rejection of evidence-based policy and good policy process.

Both parties are playing the game.

The current government on a narrow margin, desperate to cling to office, has seemingly ignored its philosophical base of fiscal restraint, and succumbed so easily to this form of political blackmail with a cascade of spending promises that makes it indistinguishable from the opposition.

Meanwhile, the opposition, fearing another loss, has sought to garner votes from any quarter by giving support to any demand from any group regardless of its value to get them across the line on election day. There is no coherent vision, no reform agenda, and contrary to public statements, no real plan either, just a patchwork of promises trying to appease everyone.

This is what Australian politics has become. A bidding war with no constraints fueled by continuing, unrestrained government spending and rising debt. With policies being proposed and adopted with little regard to evidence, affordability or the possibility of success.