Fast-forward 17 months and the Liberal Party and Greens both have new leaders and both have dispensed with their respective party’s flirtation with being constructive.
Not only do both leaders appear to be doubling down on the respective strategies that took their parties to an electoral hiding in 2025, but they are now adding extra sauce to the mix.
“sensible centre” - meaning twisting a few economic knobs while the economy is in crisis and also removing civil liberties, just slower then the fascists would.
Yep, ‘centre’ has always been a friendly/deluded term for the right, it allows people to pretend to be decent, while maintaining the status quo.
“Sensible centre”… ahh yes, the Ed Sheerans.
Dodgiest headline
Why?
- Deliberately grouping The Greens and Liberals when they are polar opposites.
- Suggesting that either of them ever was chasing the sensible centre.
- Suggesting that there is such a thing as ‘the sensible centre’, or even just ‘the centre’.
I agree with you but ‘mainstream Australia’ understands the term and most identify with it. I suggest that might be why it is being used. You pitch your commuication to the readers you want to reach, even if you know that the ‘sensible centre’ is a vague concept. I remember Bill Shorten using the term in describing the aim of his government.
Mainstream Australians are very easily manipulated, that is why the term is used, it sounds safe, but there is no such thing as sitting on the fence, it is just pretence.
Well, pretence is what this society is about (mostly).
It may well be that ‘the safe centre’ is just convenient for people to take a way out without having to think too much, like fast food, no matter what harm it does.
Having said that, I’m qualifying with adding that a lot of people are tired, stressed financially and generally and seek some sort of reassurance, whether it’s from Labs, Libs, PHONeys or Greens.
The people who are voting for the mythical centre, are really voting for the right wing. Their bullshit led us here.
Bullshit that makes a lot of people feel reassured. You can’t blame voters for wanting stability and Australia has always been a majorly conservative nation. Left-wing people may think that the centre does not exist, but the majority of Australians are not left-wing. I’ve talked to people in the region where I live who think that Labor is left-wing and the Greens are fringe radicals.
I agree insofar as The Greens appear to have taken the gloves off and that will inevitably alienate “sensible centre” voters, but I’m not sure the comparison to Angus Taylor’s Liberal Party is accurate. He hasn’t said or done anything of relevance and is not a clear departure from previous iterations of his party (are we forgetting he was the Shadow Treasurer with no ideas during Dutton’s huge fail of a campaign?).
Which dickhead wrote this
by Patricia Karvelas
Ah should have guessed.
Say more. Why do you think Karvelas is wrong?
She’s fairly contentious to a lot of people. Right wing parties accuse her of left wing bias, left wing parties accuse her of right wing bias, she basically pisses everybody off
Isn’t that a sign she’s her own person and doesn’t say what this or that mob prescribe? I’ve seen the ‘centre’ term used here, as I said by Bill Shorten. It is also used in Europe.
yeah generally you want your reporters to not be biased.
Unfortunately we’re a full two generations into Internet Confirm My Bias, so when it doesn’t happen people go all reddit
Everyone needs to biased against the bad guys.
No, you need people to be coldly mechanical in identifying and reporing their crimes and sentencing them. Bias allows wriggle room.
“No”, everyone just needs to hate the bad guys, then the bad guys have no power (aren’t tolerated, funded, or voted in), and being a bad guy isn’t fun any more.
