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August 5th, 2013 
Darren Cheeseman’s staff hand out pamphlets for Labor in the marginal seat of Corangamite.
Source: News Limited
SIX years of Labor’s policy backflips and leadership squabbles combined with a rocky economic ride have left Australians unsure about the future and unwilling to spend, creating a vastly different electoral landscape to that of 2007.
Despite Kevin Rudd’s insistence our triple-A credit rating has set Australia on an enviable path to prosperity, voters are “almost fearful of the future” and have a “profound level of distrust” in government, say leading social commentators.
PNG YET TO SIGN ON DOTTED LINE
Families are saving more than three times the amount they were the last time Mr Rudd led Labor into an election and the cost of living has soared, with electricity almost doubling in price.
The increased cost of health and housing by a third, and education by almost 40 per cent, has far outstripped the growth in wages of 23 per cent, while discretionary spending on items such as clothes and recreation are down.
“This is a very different space to what we had in 2007,” says demographer Bernard Salt.
“Back then we were very positive about the future, perhaps even naively confident, and this was reflected in our spending.
IS KRUDD READY FOR THIS CAMPAIGN?
“In 2007 we hadn’t really heard of a term like the GFC. They had experienced 18 years of prosperity … everyone had a plasma TV and mobile phones, they were taking Bali holidays.
“That spending rampage that we went on was really a vote of confidence in our future.”
Mr Salt said there was growth in almost every job sector prior to 2007 while the current joblessness rate is three times what it was.
“Job growth has slowed significantly and some employment sectors, such as manufacturing, agriculture and retail have contracted markedly,” he said.
WILL LOWER RATES CHANGE YOUR VOTE?
Local tourism has been hit by the booming Aussie dollar.
“A lot of the traditional areas of confidence and growth of the Australian economy have been eroded,” he said.
And none of it has been helped by three years of a minority government.
“The hung parliament coming two years after the pain and global paralysis of the GFC has contributed to people being unsure about the future,” he said.
“And then this year Julia Gillard announced effectively a seven month election campaign, so what was already a slowing, fearful mindset ground to a halt. That followed by the leadership change lead to further uncertainty, and so there is a confluence of events that have caused Australians to be almost fearful of the future.”
David Chalke from Australia Scan said the increased cost of living was the electorate’s main concern.
“We are so much richer than we were then, we are so much better off with more discretionary income – and yet we feel poorer,” he said.
MEET TONY, FAN OF MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA
“That cost of living pressure from electricity, gas, water, all those things are creeping inexorably but massively, and there’s nothing we can do about it so it makes us vulnerable.”
This had led to levels of household savings not seen since the 1970s.
“Back in 2007 it was less than five per cent of discretionary income into savings and today it’s over 10 per cent. We are back in the prudent days of the 1970s where if you have any cash you save it, which is why retail is flat.
“In terms of policy changes, they gave me a carbon tax they promised not to and have overseen, both through state and federal governments, a massive spike in the cost of utilities.
“There is complete electoral distrust already, but who knows what would be different under a coalition – because so far it isn’t a policy battle it’s a personality battle.”
Dr Aaron Martin from the school of social and political science at the University of Melbourne said electoral distrust was at an historic low.
“What tends to happen is political trust declines over the term of a government and then it actually rebounds when a new government is elected,” he said.
“But what we have seen over the past few elections is something different. In the 2010 election political trust went down quite dramatically and satisfaction with democracy, which has traditionally been quite high in most other countries in the world, also went down so there is a pretty profound level of distrust in government at the moment.”
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