Comment

A few days from now, it will be 33 years since the Mabo decision. Dr Koiki Mabo, of the Meriam People, was a humble man, determined to right the wrongs of a system imposed on these lands and its peoples by those seeking to extend their empire.

My generation has grown up thinking our votes and voices do not matter. Yet on the night of May 3, they did. For the first time, almost half the voting population at this election was either Millennial or Gen Z. The impact was unmistakeable.

In politics, it is easy to misread a victory or a loss. It is only the subsequent election that can prove whether that judgement was correct or not.

I have just returned from a writers’ festival in Auckland and I am still processing the experience. I was humbled to be among several writers to deliver the opening night address. Each of us was tasked with riffing on the theme ‘The moment I knew’.

Australia has the resources, the talent and now a government with enough political capital to build better and fairer education systems, if we’re brave enough to act.

It is now so blindingly obvious that we confused information with wisdom, immediacy with knowledge. None of us are wiser because we google what we then accept as facts. None of us are truly more attached to strangers because we can use social media to snap ill-thought-through views back and forth.

Fresh from the papal inauguration in Rome, and after Leo XIV blessed the prime minister’s late mother’s rosary beads at his request, Anthony Albanese could be excused for thinking God is on his side.

The memes began with, ‘We need to talk.’ Then the internet lit up with a flood of break-up staples … ‘We’ve grown apart.’ ‘We want different things.’ And of course, frighteningly, ‘I think we should start seeing other people.’ By Thursday, the 80-year relationship could be best described as ‘off again, on again’. What does this all mean?

Unfortunately, the old campaign funding laws mean we need to wait several months for details of the money involved in this month’s election. The promised real-time exposure will make a significant difference in the future. Voters will know where the money is coming from and where it’s being spent as the election campaign unfolds.

I will turn 93 in October. On the balance of probabilities, the federal election of May 3, 2025, will be my last. Going into the poll, I predicted this would be the last victory for a hegemonic party: a small majority for Labor, with the possibility of a hung parliament. I was far too cautious.