No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn’t until Howard that the coalition started to catch up and Labor still take a very responsible and balanced approach to economic management.
To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world and wouldn’t be competitive politically here. They can’t maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like public healthcare and education for granted.
What we call left and right wing are centre-left and centre-right. Neither extreme works, and neither party are extreme. Some, mainly the centre-left, are starting to dabble with extreme opinions - “gender identity” and mass immigration for example - but neither are full “left wing” or “right wing”.
It’s not just my “conceptualization”, it’s the public perception.
Labor are left wing.
No. They are center. They were way ahead of the coalition on market friendly economic reforms, floating the dollar, abandoning many tarriffs, reducing subsidies, privatizing the comm bank etc. It wasn’t until Howard that the coalition started to catch up and Labor still take a very responsible and balanced approach to economic management.
To be fair radical left wing politics has not been competitive in the world and wouldn’t be competitive politically here. They can’t maintain the economic productivity needed to deliver wealth and quality of life improvements demanded by working people so they always end up in autocracy or revolution. That is why social democracy thrived and why China has a successful mixed system. The problem is maintaining the balance between social policy and capitalist wealth creation. The social policy side is constantly undermined by the ultra rich, lobby groups and the flip flop election cycle and people start to take things like public healthcare and education for granted.
What we call left and right wing are centre-left and centre-right. Neither extreme works, and neither party are extreme. Some, mainly the centre-left, are starting to dabble with extreme opinions - “gender identity” and mass immigration for example - but neither are full “left wing” or “right wing”.
It’s not just my “conceptualization”, it’s the public perception.