The Selfie State

Amid rising hardship, the theatre of politics trumps the work of governance.

By Michael Newman

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems, of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.” — Thomas Sowell

This quote typifies the morass that Australian politics has sunk deeper into. Since federal parliament resumed last week, an endless stream of cringeworthy social media posts from our political class has been doing the rounds.

Never have our politicians been more out of touch in the face of the collective impoverishment we face as a nation. They are simply not fit for purpose to tackle the economic malaise ahead. So unsustainable is spending across our governments, they can only search for more ways to tax us, irrespective of the disincentive it creates for investors.

While the Albanese government holds a commanding 94 seats in the lower house, we can’t escape the fact that only 34 percent of primary votes—on a relatively poor voter turnout—was achieved. Hardly a decisive mandate, despite the self-serving victory laps on Instagram.

Having said that, both sides of politics have been equally pathetic.

Who exactly did Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s crack new media team think a ‘Charlie’s Angels’-style strut with two of her female colleagues on the way to the first Question Time would appeal to? It proved once again that authenticity can’t be outsourced to third parties.

The same can be said of Australia’s youngest elected female Labor Senator, Charlotte Walker, 21, who captioned a selfie-stick video titled, “Day in my life, first week done.” This was nothing but—to use the language of her generation—aura farming. She followed it up with a handshake video with Housing and Homelessness Minister Clare O’Neil celebrating their respective ‘youngest women’ in government accolades. Never mind that there are 128,000 homeless—an all-time high—and housing shortages continue to worsen. Clearly second-order issues compared to celebrating girl power on X.

Newly elected Labor candidates waxed lyrical about having more women than men in Cabinet, shadow-boxing female empowerment on TikTok and championing Welcome to Country in their maiden speeches like clapping seals at the zoo. It spoke volumes about immaturity and the calibre of people we’ve entrusted to govern us for the next three and six years.

Ironically, the social media post with the most cut-through last week was Mining Equipment Safety technical manager Gerry Noonan, the grumpy old man who issued a profanity-laden rant on the stupidity of our energy policies during a TV interview. Millions of views with overwhelmingly supportive comments. Compare that to the humiliating smackdowns dealt to our virtue-signalling politicians on both sides of the aisle. The truth is supposed to hurt.

Our opposition needn’t look far to see how conservative movements overseas are gaining traction against insurmountable odds.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris implored Americans to become "more woke" during her campaign. How did that work out? She was resoundingly thumped by Trump in all the swing states, the House, Senate, and popular vote. While President Trump is not everyone’s cup of tea, his popularity is proving all the pundits wrong, while the Democrats continue to plunge in the polls as they shift further to the left, with the New York mayoral run-off—where the nomination of an openly brazen communist in the city that is home to Wall Street—being the most egregious example.

Reform UK is currently leading Labour and the Tories in the polls by considerable margins because it is running a platform that is consistent, unabashed, and resonating with disenfranchised Brits. The media may be ratcheting up their hysteria around Reform’s leader Nigel Farage’s stance against immigration and Net Zero, but it is having the opposite impact. In local council elections, Reform UK took 677 seats—or 41 percent of the total—and took control of ten councils. From zero. The Tories lost all 16 councils they were defending. Even Labour’s backflipping UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will lower the voting age to sixteen in a vain attempt to stem the haemorrhaging. He’s toast come the next election, with a record-low net approval rating of minus 46 despite just clocking a year into his first term.

Look at the way Argentinian President Javier Milei defied all the odds to not only win with the young but deliver on promises to dramatically improve the fortunes of the country through heavy deregulation, the wholesale gutting of wasteful spending and culling 30 percent of the bureaucracy. He said life would be tough early on but would improve. Inflation is down to low single digits, investor confidence is through the roof, and Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in 123 years. No case could be mounted that people were left blindsided to the chainsaw-wielding maverick’s platform.

By and large, Australians would kill for this type of functioning parliament comprised of the most capable to get productivity, housing, energy, immigration, and cost of living under control. If the best candidates to get it done all happen to be female, then so be it. Capability should always take priority over identity.

Yet these videos reveal that identity is being put before capability. If these elected officials were truly confident in their ability to execute their portfolios, they would have no need to resort to juvenile smoke-and-mirrors shows. Taking their guidance from equally incompetent career bureaucrats almost guarantees failure.

For the Liberals, they should heed their National partners on junking Net Zero just like Milei, Trump, and Farage. It is a vote-winner. The mere fact the Albanese government—despite possessing such a sturdy majority—is having to make such an issue of it so early into a second term shows they’re scared to have sunlight shone on their flawed renewables-only plan. It isn’t working, and the economics never will without more of your tax dollars in perpetuity. No need to cower to the jibes or see the affluent buying subsidised home batteries as evidence of overwhelming support for Net Zero.

We should be mindful in acknowledging these stunts are also being seen by overseas investors. A major North Asian conglomerate, on seeing these clips, sent the following unsolicited message:

“I think you are right. No matter how you look at it, I don’t think Australia is looking to attract foreign investment from a medium to long-term perspective.”

Miyamoto Musashi, Japan’s most revered samurai warrior, said, “never fight the last war.” What he meant was that what worked in the past to win battles won’t necessarily work with a different foe. In his greatest duel, he faced off against Sasaki Kojiro, who possessed the largest samurai sword—enough to panic most opponents at the mere sight of it. Musashi turned up to the duel three hours late, dressed like a drunken, dirty peasant and holding a wooden oar. So infuriated was Sasaki at Musashi’s overt signs of disrespect in a culture so steeped in status, ritual and protocol that his frustrations got the better of him, and he was instantly killed with one blow. Musashi won the battle of the minds. The weapon was a secondary device.

The lesson here is that it is clear the opposition continues to fight the last war. It appears to only possess a hammer in the toolkit and sees every problem as a nail. Time to change tactics wholesale. These social media videos only prove they are up against a pack of complete lightweights. What seemingly looks an impossible challenge to take victory is exactly what makes it possible.

In closing, the Coalition should revisit the charter and put forward the most capable leader to win an election from whichever party they sit. Be bold. Be brave. Ignore focus groups and perhaps study why the authenticity of Gerry Noonan, a modern-day Musashi, hit such a nerve.