Who wins when every political argument becomes a choice of ideological loyalties? This week, we talk to Tim Dunlop, the author of The Culture Wars: Identity, Belonging and the Transformation of Australian Politics, about how politicians, media outlets, think tanks and campaign groups such as Advance turn genuine disagreements into electoral weapons. Culture wars work because they draw on things people care about: history, identity and belonging. What happens when voters are pressed to pick a side before they’ve had a real chance to think through the issue?
We trace that strategy through the Australian history wars, from Paul Keating’s push to recognise the drastic effects of colonisation on Indigenous people, to John Howard’s appeal to national pride. We also examine how the Hawke–Keating market reforms changed the Labor Party’s relationship with unions and collective action. Tim Dunlop argues that neoliberalism reshaped Australian political culture as well as the economy, and that the history wars helped Howard distinguish the Liberals from Labor as their economic agendas drew closer.
Why did culture-war politics help build Donald Trump’s brand in the United States while exposing divisions within the Australian Liberal Party? We look at the role of compulsory voting, preferential voting and independent electoral administration in shaping how parties campaign, and also discuss the rise of One Nation, its influence on the immigration debate and the electoral fragility that can sit beneath a large parliamentary majority like Anthony Albanese’s.
Could citizens’ assemblies, kitchen-table conversations and a stronger crossbench give Australians more say between elections? And how much would change if more MPs owed their seats to the people in the room rather than the people in the party room?
