The arrogance of power: Labor’s complacency is becoming its biggest threat

From $10,000 dinners and corporate-sponsored conferences to ignoring party members and abandoning struggling communities, Labor is displaying the complacency that eventually destroys governments.

This might be the point where Labor’s massive parliamentary majority develops the complacency that eventually destroys all governments, irrespective of which side they come from. Anthony Albanese is facing questions over an exclusive fundraiser at a $40 million Point Piper mansion, where guests were “encouraged” to contribute $10,000 each – no pressure – although, of course, nobody was purchasing influence: dinners of this kind can be quite expensive and the prime minister does have to eat at some point.

The dinner was hosted by businessman Felix Lee, whose billionaire father, Phillip Dong Fang Lee, has been accused by the Australian Taxation Office of tax deception and funnelling money from China, and why not lobby the government go easy on this case, in between servings of lobster mornay.

The double-standards are quite predictable. Labor has spent weeks attacking Pauline Hanson for her relationships with Gina Rinehart and other wealthy benefactors, presenting those relationships as evidence of One Nation’s fraudulent claim to represent the working classes. Yet Albanese’s defence – that he attends many dinners and does not discuss these private engagements – suggests Labor’s concern is not that billionaires enjoy privileged political access, but the wrong billionaires are accessing the wrong politicians.

We can recall that former Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton attended a Vaucluse fundraiser before the 2025 election at $25,000 per head – and didn’t he cop a hiding over this, and rightly so – so this isn’t a practice that’s restricted to the Labor Party. And that is exactly the problem. It’s a stinking stain on Australian politics, but no one – except for the Australian Greens and independent MPs – has the fortitude to stamp it out.

Political access goes to the highest bidder, while the hoi polloi are kept at bay, their political involvement restricted to fundraising emails from the parties begging for $20 donations, or carefully managed community forums, where it’s all about talking, but no listening.

This has got the potential to become a full-scale scandal for Albanese but, even if it doesn’t, it’s a sign that Labor’s massive parliamentary majority might be causing complacency within the government.

Labor fears One Nation, but also feeds it

The aftermath of Labor’s national conference has revealed a glaring contradiction: the party is terrified of the impact of One Nation but is unwilling to address many of the economic conditions that seems to be feeding it. Labor leaders repeatedly warned that Hanson threatens social cohesion – which is correct – yet Anthony Albanese has ruled out a 25 per cent gas-export tax that could raise billions for public housing, regional investment and targeted cost-of-living relief, an action that could remove some of the key planks of One Nation’s support.

Apparently, One Nation is an existential danger to Labor – but asking enormously profitable gas corporations to contribute more to the public good is just a step too far.

Although the conference is more about Labor’s overall principles and the Labor Platform – the one that Labor MP’s laud over when they’re in opposition but ignore when they finally get into government – it produced no transformative program for blue-collar workers, struggling outer suburbs or regional communities hollowed out by privatisation, insecure employment and decades of withdrawal of government and public services.

Instead, Labor seems to think Hanson is a branding problem that can be defeated through speeches, denunciations and warnings about extremism. Scare the rank-and-file membership enough through an email campaign, and surely they’ll cough up an extra $20 “to prevent One Nation from turning polling momentum into seats”. That’s far easier than standing up to the gas corporations.

It’s a sign that the Labor government is ignoring: people rarely abandon the established parties because they suddenly develop an enthusiasm for grievance politics of One Nation. They do so because wages are stagnant, housing is unaffordable, public services are deteriorating and nobody in government – or the opposition, for that matter – appears willing to challenge gas corporations at all.

Condemning Hanson’s racism and divisive rhetoric is necessary, but that’s not an economic remedy. Unless Labor materially improves people’s lives in a substantial way through gas export taxes and taxes on wealthy interests, it will continue supplying One Nation with precisely what it needs: angry voters, abandoned communities and a political establishment that’s more frightened of taxing gas exporters than losing its own working-class base.

The “look-but-don’t touch” democracy

One of the clearest examples of Labor’s national conference lack of practical authority was over the issue voluntary assisted dying. Delegates did endorse removing federal barriers that prevent telehealth consultations for lawful voluntary assisted dying – an especially important reform for terminally ill people in rural and regional Australia, who are physically incapable of travelling long distances. It seems like a straight-forward proposition.

Anthony Albanese responded almost immediately by opposing the proposal, citing the importance of face-to-face “protections be placed around it” – try telling that to the terminally ill cancer patient in rural and regional Australia who can no longer tolerate the pain, even after endless supplies of morphine – making a mockery of his belief that “people have a right to die with dignity”.

The Australian Greens and independent MP Kate Chaney are now preparing legislation to change these laws, leaving Labor’s parliamentary executive resisting the policy endorsed by its own conference. So, what’s the point of a national conference, if there’s no meaningful relationship between the membership of the party, and government?

Members are invited to debate, amend the platform and celebrate their participation (without the brawls, of course) – until they endorse something the leadership finds politically inconvenient which they then end up ruling out – leading to the conference just becoming a very expensive box-ticking exercise.

And it’s not just VAD: it’s the same process that applies to Gaza, AUKUS, gambling advertising, gas taxation and standing up to corporate and vested interests. Delegates might express dissatisfaction – as Labor MP Ed Husic did – but not much is going to change.

We’ve been told that the food was good though: networking lunches sponsored by Macquarie Group and Conexus Financial, a large 400-plus-person dinner funded by law firm Maurice Blackburn, and bar tabs and coffee carts hosted by corporate groups like Endeavour and CropLife.

These conferences will continue to be a waste of time and just an exercise in travel and gastronomy, until they provide a more meaningful link between the rank-and-file membership and executive government.

The long goodbye in Victoria

It’s the worst possible way to approach a state election, and it seems that the parliamentary members don’t care. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan faces the most dangerous point of her leadership, with Labor MPs considering whether to demand her resignation or force a spill. Disastrous polling, the government’s handling of alleged CFMEU corruption and organised crime – and now this potential leadership spill – is leading to the growing expectation of a defeat in the November state election.

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll is the most frequently mentioned replacement, although Allan might survive because her opponents can’t agree on who should inherit the political wreckage and the lead the party to a likely defeat. Will changing leaders improve the prospects for Victoria Labor? Scott Morrison managed to do it federally in 2019, taking on the leadership eight months before an election – which he won – but generally, these types of leadership changes mainly signpost a far deeper problem: a tired, faction-dominated government trying to resolve a crisis by rearranging the deck chairs.

And despite their best intentions, it always works out this way. In New South Wales, Labor between 1995–2011, the Coalition between 2011–23; federally, the Coalition between 2013–22; and now Victorian Labor, in office since 2014. It always happens when long-term governments stop acting in the public interest, and start acting in their own interest.

Unpromoted backbenchers discover principles that they should have acted upon years ago, factional operators start counting numbers, and ministers insist everything is under control. It’s a form of complacency that leads to reactionary defensiveness; and that defensiveness then leads to paralysis.

Allan has tried everything to hold onto power, including offering a toast to the state of Israel at an event hosted by the Zionist Federation of Australia and announcing a long-term medical research deal with leading Israeli hospitals and medical institutions, even though there’s so many other countries in the world that such a partnership could have been developed with.

The issue is no longer simply whether Allan remains premier. It is whether Victorian Labor can remember why it got into office in first place all the way back in 2014 – or whether the only remaining objective is keeping its people in government for another four years. The Victorian Liberal party is unfit for office, but surely there need to be better reasons for staying in government than just to keep the other side out.