The Path Less Travelled

A federal election tends to focus the Australian people on the future direction of their country. However, often lost in the scripted and sanitised party political message is the framework in which those running for office will seek to establish power.

These building blocks of government are determined by the overarching guiding philosophy of the party and the principles that their leadership espouse.

Broadly speaking, conservative principles have resolved themselves around personal responsibility, the primacy of the family, proven values, limited government and lower taxation. These are the historical platforms through which the centre-right have sought election for many decades.

The left of politics have generally sought greater regulation, higher taxes and bigger government, although they wouldn’t describe it in such forthright terms. Their mantra is always cloaked in PC words and class warfare rhetoric by demanding ‘social justice’ and a ‘fair share’.

That said, the centre-left have, on occasion, utilised aspects of the centre-right agenda and embraced deregulation and the benefits of the free market to the benefit of the country.

Yet those days seem to have gone.

The centre-left are now taking inspiration from the fringe-left in their economic policy work. Their united vision for the nation involves irresponsibly big government, reckless spending, more taxes and a citizenry increasingly dependent on government largesse for their economic survival.

In Australia, the Greens and Labor are both advocates for new and higher taxes. The loopy Greens want a price on carbon dioxide of $40 – $100 per tonne. They have backed Labor on a raft of tax increases and not once (in my recollection) have they criticised the level of debt being racked up; debt that will have to be repaid by future generations.

An irresponsible economic approach can have a certain political appeal to those who stand to benefit most and don’t seem to understand the serious consequences that will flow as a result.

Those consequences are evident in many other nations. The Greens and Labor were both celebrants of the green policies of Spain and California, suggesting they were model economies to follow. Indeed they are if you are seeking massive unemployment, business closures, recessions and a spiral of economic decline.

But our domestic politicians of the left refuse to take off their rose coloured glasses and recognise that the grand experiment with modern day Marxism is rapidly falling apart. Nations are being bankrupted under the weight of the welfare state. Economies are being frozen by the voracious appetite for new taxes from their governments. Citizens are bearing the brunt of the pain as their representatives refuse to confront the real problem.

That problem is too much government, too much debt and too much spending. Eventually, if these problems continue for long enough, the system has to collapse under the weight of demand and lack of supply.

That is what we can observe in other nations: the beginning of the end game. This approach to government cannot be sustained and no matter how desperately the ruling class demand others foot the bill for their excesses, you cannot change the iron laws of sustainable prosperity.

And yet, the ruling Australian alliance of Labor and the Greens insist upon continuing the socialist experiment – even though we know how it must inevitably end.

But there is hope. Hope for a more principled and sustainable approach to our future. That hope is vested in the Liberal National Coalition.

Without the hope, reward and opportunity that government built around established and proven conservative principles will provide, our nation will be committed to a path from which it will be very difficult to return.

This is the most important election in decades. The fate of the nation depends on the decision the Australian people make on 7 September. I trust they will choose wisely.