How Australia’s Labor Party Lost an Un-Losable Election
Pundits are blaming the Australian Labor Party's left-wing turn for its shocking defeat in Saturday's election. But the failure lies in the fact that this leftist program came too little, too late.
Leader of the opposition and leader of the Labor Party Bill Shorten, flanked by his wife Chloe Shorten concedes defeat following the results of the Federal Election at Hyatt Place Melbourne on May 18, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. Scott Barbour / Getty Images
It was a bright morning, the Sunday after Australia’s 2019 federal election. At Melbourne’s Trades Hall, the home of the unions and the Left, the late-autumn sun slowly reddened the face of a passed-out Labor campaigner. Champagne bottles were strewn around him; some empty and some containing dregs. Is there anything sadder than champagne meant for celebration, drunk in consolation?
The night before, the Australian Labor Party (ALP), led by Bill Shorten, lost an unlosable election. Virtually no one predicted that come Monday, Scott Morrison, leader of the Coalition (the long term alliance of the conservative Liberal and National Parties), would form the government.
It is a profound setback. Few on the Australian left were expecting four more years of cruel, vindictive mediocrity. Worse, the ALP went into this election with an agenda well to the left of their usual offering. The obvious — but incorrect — conclusion to many will be that this was the cause of their defeat.
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