Comment

The unemployment rate published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is an incredibly stable, accurate and reliable indicator of something almost entirely irrelevant. 

If there’s one thing Australians want in January, it’s not to be bothered. The Albanese government is doing its best to oblige.

At the heart of the case for the Voice is that it will mean Indigenous Australians will be recognised – for the first time in our founding national document, and for the first time in practice on anything like this scale – not just as the subjects, for better or worse, of government policy choices but as agents of policy change.

It’s that special time of the year again, when people talk about reconciliation, treaty, land rights, invasion, colonisation and Australia.

The debacle that played out in the United States house of representatives over the new year provided more than just a window into the dysfunction of a political system hijacked by the far right. For me, it raised a fundamental question that is relevant for us here, too: Have our political systems and processes become too adversarial to facilitate good government?

As surely as Rio Tinto blew up Juukan Gorge, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has blown up the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Dutton rose from the political dead this week, challenging the Albanese government to detail its Voice proposal so Australians could cast informed votes in the referendum on it later this year.

For those returning to work in 2023, and for those entering an office for the first time, an epic change is afoot, one that will make Australian workplaces safer. The specific change to the law advocated for in the Respect @ Work report will put the onus and burden on the employer to take action to eliminate sexual harassment from the workplace.

Australia has now joined the United States in refusing to discuss the ANZUS Treaty, let alone claim it is the foundation of Australia’s security. What was once seen as a virtue is now considered a drawback.

Risks to the economy are mounting at such a rate that the challenge they present to our economic managers in 2023 may well overshadow even the shocks of the pandemic-related shutdowns and the global financial crisis.

There are so many issues in the ‘big and hard’ basket that Labor can’t afford to spend political capital on unforced fumbles like this week’s decision on inbound Chinese travellers.