By Stephen Saunders
Major-party election-offerings are unsympathetic to ordinary voters. Coalition indolence (and overstated Trump fears) may well re-elect Labor or (heavens no) Labor-Greens.
At MacroBusiness also The Australian, I’ve portrayed Election 2025 as a winning romp for the top 20% regardless of who becomes prime minister.
Meaning, little improvement across crucial indicators such as inequality, immigration and housing, energy and environment, education, and taxation.
This comes through in parties’ motherhood policies. Taken in alpha order, no hidden bias, eh?
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Coalition
World-north discourse rues the backslide to inequality, beneath post-Nineteen Seventies neoliberal insurance policies. Down Beneath, income inequality and wealth inequality are on a roll. Even the Coalition cites collapsing real-income development. Post-COVID – if not pre-COVID.
The intelligentsia, notably Treasury overlords, is relaxed and cozy. Are we lucky or what? Look over there, chirps authorities ABC, it’s depraved Donald Trump.
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In January, Peter Dutton soft-launched his Again on Observe coverage booklet. Which mentions inequality as soon as—as an Indigenous drawback. Final 12 months, the Coalition promised internet migration at 160,000, now they speak about “rebalancing”.
What a squib, contemplating Labor’s damaging 1.3 million immigration deluge over 2022-25.
For housing, they’d enhance provide, fund infrastructure, combat inflation, and “sensibly” cut back migration. These platitudes would ship one other 20 years of housing starvation video games.
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Meantime, the guiding gentle of Labor’s ideological and unaffordable vitality coverage is UN fairytale, net-zero emissions. As “realised” by an alphabet-soup of federal climate-energy bailiwicks – AEMC, AEMO, AER, CCA, CSIRO, DCCEEW, EAP, ICEDS, ISP, NZEA, you title it.
Dutton too defers to net-zero, by way of nuclear not renewables. He affords an vitality “plan” to decrease vitality payments and “unlock” extra gasoline. The gas-export cartel has nothing to concern.
Schooling would go “again to fundamentals”, matching present dollar-for-dollar funding agreements.
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That won’t budge the previous (coming) decade of accelerating inequity, enrolments shifting to advantaged faculties, drawback concentrating, diverging pupil achievement. You don’t want the next schooling, to cotton onto Australia’s divisive church-versus-state system.
Neither is it any secret; our tax system panders to firms and assets. The system leverages actual property hypothesis, leaving wage earners marooned by post-Nineteen Seventies bracket-creep.
What about broadening taxes on assets, land, and consumption? Sorry, Ken Henry’s booklet stays mum. Supposedly, voters get “decrease, less complicated and fairer” taxes.
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Greens
Life being a field of goodies, Greens retail 47 policy flavours. Their particular sauce for Economic Justice is UN gobbledegook of “internet unfavourable world carbon economic system”. Immigration coverage too is boilerplate UN. Residents—who largely reject mass migration—get no say.
Belief the Greens to seek out harshness in Labor’s world-level open-borders blitz. Which they one way or the other construe as a vile migrant-bashing race to the bottom.
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Something lower than 300,000 every year is demonic racism. Relating housing to inhabitants development is an unacceptable premise. Cue their Housing and Homelessness coverage. “Free” authorities cash would generate perpetual provides of eco-friendly public and rental housing.
However the Greens are pro-environment, proper? Really, as early as 1998, they denied the results of inhabitants on the surroundings, deeming that line to be racist. As we speak, their fully-woke Environmental coverage trumpets world citizenship and world warming.
The highest 20% embraces UN climate-action net-zero groupthink. However belief the Greens to go the additional mile. As with the pixies at Local weather Council and ANU-ICEDS, net-zero 2050 isn’t unique sufficient. It must be 2035.
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Greens favour state faculties, if not contesting the church-schools funding. Arguably, their soak-the-rich tax policies have benefit, however these wouldn’t be supported by Liberal or Labor.
Labor
Mate, if Labor even has a plain spun coverage prospectus, you’ll have to attend. Meantime, let’s patronise voters with brief lines of web site motherhood and 170 pages of platform motherhood.
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How “fortunate” are voters, enjoying three years of decrease inflation, transferring wages, tax cuts, and vitality reduction? In his second time period, Anthony Albanese will…zzz…zzz.
On truthy ABC recently, Labor’s Well being Minister derided an embattled dad-renter. We’re “working very onerous” he smirked, to cut back immigration and “construct extra homes”.
Wow, the gaslighting relating to immigration and housing is off the charts.
Take a look at this glorious query and the stunning responses from tonight’s Q&A program: pic.twitter.com/5rEik8gFND
— Biko Konstantinos (@BikoKonstantin1) March 10, 2025
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In reality, Labor platform (para 85) buried Albanese’s radical population-agenda. In successive Budgets, his Treasury has lied about immigration targets, by 50% and extra. To homosexual applause from the highest 20%, his 1.3 million tops Kevin Rudd’s report by an inconceivable half 1,000,000.
Icing the cake, Albo signed amateur-hour {qualifications} and migration compacts with sectarian India. These lopsided deals wouldn’t have proceeded in Bob Hawke’s day. As we speak’s power-elite loves it, notably the Coalition. To question it might be racist.
Mendacity about cheaper energy, Labor platform didn’t “resolve the housing disaster” both. Therefore their housing agenda, accord, council, fund, goal, and schedule, for an “aspirational” construct of 1.2 million properties over 2024-29.
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It’s never happening. Even when it did, that wouldn’t speed up housing affordability. Not whereas the relentless inhabitants development and juicy tax breaks stay.
Once more, Labor’s energy-policy hinges on net-zero. However our bodily emissions received’t really have fallen 43% by 2030. The bipartisan safeguard mechanism is a crock.
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In Treasury agitprop, pretend net-zero promotes Australia to a globally envied energy superpower within the UN net-zero transformation stream. Amongst bizarre voters, nonetheless, vitality costs creep ever higher, abated by “free” vitality reduction.
Although Labor’s surroundings platform ticked containers, inhabitants development is off the size, disregarding land clearing, habitat destruction, native-forest logging, water profligacy, and species extinctions/invasions. Possibly the net-zero pilgrimage is paved with coal.

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That funding-settlement favouring church-schools is a Coalition-Labor concordat. Bishops, imams, rabbis, all can breathe straightforward, regardless of the election consequence. Whereas Labor, just like the Coalition, evinces little curiosity in broadening the tax base.
Pauline Hanson One Nation, Sustainable Australia Occasion
PHON has a few federal senators, although voting for this social gathering is deemed racist. They used to advocate net-zero migration, backpedalling to 130,000 migration visas yearly. Yep, like Dutton, Hanson has wobbled.
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SAP was as soon as Sustainable Inhabitants Occasion. Like almost all environmentally involved teams, they’ve gone woke. Desirous of low migration (70,000 internet) however also net-zero by 2035.
Teals et al
Backed by Climate 200 funding, Teals support local weather motion and anti-corruption.
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Heiresses Kate Chaney (WA) and Allegra Spender (NSW) are big hypocrites on immigration and housing. Esteeming local weather motion, in addition they endorse open borders. The immigration deluge will get parked at a protected distance from their ritzy habitats.
David Pocock (ACT) favours “wise conservation” on immigration. Amongst 227 federal members and senators, solely a tiny minority strongly demand low migration or a net-zero rethink. Pocock wouldn’t brazenly consort with them. In woke Canberra, that’s a suicide letter.
Influencers overplay the Teal-Inexperienced variations. Extra not too long ago, nonetheless, Teals have began to push for tax reform.
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Onya bike, Coalition
Positive, Australia continues to be wholesome and rich, with untold iron and carbon but to ship. Granted, particular person parliamentarians win respect, by onerous work for his or her communities.
However the social gathering “contest” is dispiriting, eying off one another, not voters. Platforms drip with indolence and contempt. Revelling in visibly damaging (gasoline cartel, huge migration) or plainly silly (supply-side housing, net-zero 2035) options.
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There’s little craving to maintain the economic system long-term, serving communities, and containing inequality. Triennially, events faux to care.
Within the different hemisphere nonetheless, you will discover nationwide polities showing to attune extra to native citizen welfare. Little Denmark and Norway are oft cited. Nearer to dwelling, take into account Japan and Singapore.
Then rethink our Nineteen Seventies and Eighties. The Financial institution of Mum and Dad might snaffle housing, however native paisanos additionally had a shot. Deliberately, as we speak’s housing goodies are strongly directed in the direction of financial migrants and BMD. It’s so unsuitable.
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Therefore my remark that the highest 20% is the true election winner. As they stoke sectarianism and inequality, their imagined Australia is a socially-just multicultural nirvana ascending to net-zero.
The highest 20% declare altruism while deriding “hip pocket” considerations of the remaining. Strange voters are ignorant. Heavens, most lack levels. How might they start to fathom our industry-sectoral pathways to net-zero?
For the left-elite specifically, bizarre voters are additionally racist. Flouting high-level directives, they rejected The Voice. In the event that they’re struggling now, they deserve it.
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Albanese and his Treasurer are apparatchiks, loyal to globalism, donors, and social gathering. Not voters. They speak of 1 million jobs plus actual wage development. They stroll open borders, the lengthy dive in real-wages, suburban crush-loading, falling residing requirements, and world-ranked housing unaffordability.
Since 1931, no first-term authorities has misplaced. But even Dutton, I declare, might have gotten nicely out entrance. After cyclones Trump and Alfred nonetheless, the newest polls put Labor again ahead.
Again on Observe doesn’t minimize it, being cautiously me-too. With Dutton own-goals, proposing nuclear net-zero and squibbing immigration-housing. Now comes his red herring of deporting deviant dual-nationals. He spent too lengthy at Dwelling Affairs.
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At docile ABC, Labor’s open-borders net-zero demolition-derby is known as “enjoying it protected” and did we point out Trump? Certainly, Labor could nicely return to energy, driving overblown Trump insinuations.
The uninspiring Coalition might need to attend their 6-12 years for Australia’s largely ceremonial changeovers of presidency.
As for a Labor-Greens authorities? Heavens forbid. To my out of date 20th century mentality, their poisonous mixture of UN-dogma and race-hysterics is scarcely recognisable as Australian.
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