Richard Jones’s Echo articles are always a good read. Last week he questioned how Albanese’s Labor government will convince voters that they’ll be worse off, if they elect, the Dutton Coalition.
Richard suggests bold actions: firstly, get the Teals back onside; they are Dutton’s number one obstacle. Problem is, Albo has already made them an enemy in 2022 by stripping them of their meagre staff numbers and they won’t support Labor in a hung parliament post-election.
Secondly, negotiate an outcome with the Greens and stop wasting resources and energy attacking them. This makes great sense, and may have begun; Justine Elliot has dropped her ‘Extreme Green’ slogan. But any deal would be like giving Ukraine nuclear weapons to fire at Russia! Dutton would have the ultimate ‘crowing’ platform: ‘Greens and Labor in bed together’. Labor tried this once and it cost them seats.
Thirdly, dump Scomo’s outrageous AUKUS nuclear submarine plan and use the $400 billion for social housing and repair of the health system. The AUKUS plan was a Scomo deal done in Washington behind everyone’s back including the French, with whom Australia already had a contract for several submarines and had to pay significant repartitions, but any attempt to scuttle the deal would see Labor in South Australia consigned to the ‘deep blue’ as the state gears up for some of the work. That’s before the American fallout. News headlines would read badly for Australia not to mention Labor: ‘America withdraws from AUKUS, Trump says Australia is traitorous’. Labor would finish up with less seats than the Greens as the country bent the knee, ever since 1945, successive Australian governments have told voters that in times of trouble America will save us, true or not. That’s the perception. Sorry Richard, ‘a political bridge too far’.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
