MARK RILEY: Labor fast burning through store of goodwill as voter discontent grows

Our politics at present is characterised by complaint.

It stands to reason. There is much to complain about.

But it is a big problem for the Government.

People with complaints are not happy people.

And when people are not happy, they demand change.

The first thing they usually want to change is the government. That also stands to reason.

Voters hold governments responsible for the quality and cadence of the national mood. And they should.

As legendary press gallery journalist Peter Bowers told me when I was just starting out in Canberra 33 years ago: “Mate, governments are always responsible. Especially when they’re irresponsible.”

The only antidote to the pervading sense of negativity and despondency is hope.

It is only a little word but ingraining it in the hearts and minds of Australian voters in the current circumstances is no little challenge.

And this is one regard in which Australia — despite its topographical bearing — isn’t an island.

It is an international phenomenon.

Look at the US, Britain, France, Germany — they are all being consumed by a growing culture of complaint.

That’s because many of the drivers are international.

And, yes, as always, it is mainly “the economy stupid”.

But not all of it has been outside the Albanese Government’s control.

It has taken conscious decisions to abandon parts of its central undertaking to the Australian people and it is now paying the price.

This is a Government with a large store of political capital.

It has the largest majority in the House of Representatives since federation.

And it has listened to the entreaties of party legends like Paul Keating who insist that political capital is there to be spent. There’s no point in taking it with you when you inevitably get tossed out.

But like any form of currency — real or metaphorical — political capital must be spent wisely.

This Government has dispensed a large amount of its goodwill in abandoning its pledge not to mess with property taxes.

Senior strategists seem convinced that they will eventually assure voters it has been both a necessary and positive move.

But as things stand, the Government simply does not have control of the narrative.

It really hasn’t since before the Budget itself.

Its insistence that unpopular reform was needed to address the imbalances and inequities faced by younger generations in the property market hasn’t dominated the conversation as it had planned.

Instead, the debate has been overwhelmed by grievance and complaint.

Much of that has come from sectors who have found themselves the victims of “unintended consequences” — negative impacts that were not foreseen in the political war-gaming.

They are self-inflicted wounds the government must wear.

And there are many of them.

But one stands out.

The fact that neither Treasury nor any of the political architects of these changes within the Government realised that the negative gearing changes would create an effective “widow’s tax” is absolutely gobsmacking.

Spouses who assume full ownership of an investment property from their partner through death or divorce would lose their grandfathering protections and get thumped with the new higher taxing regime? How didn’t that instantly stand out like a porcupine in a nudist’s colony?

I mean, seriously?

An overwhelming heave of relief reverberated throughout the ministerial wing when the Government managed to pass its tax bills through the Senate with the help of the Greens.

Ministers relaxed in the belief that they could now put all that into the rearview mirror and move onto the next big thing.

The problem is that the next big thing is NDIS reform.

And that could be even more damaging for the Government than the tax debate.

It is about real people’s lives; real people with disabilities who need and deserve the greatest of care and support from their government; real people who are now facing the biggest cuts to any program in recent political history.

That will bring yet another justified wave of complaint.

The Government’s plan is to get that Bill through Parliament in the August session and then move on.

But to what?

You can bet it won’t be more backflips, about-turns and broken promises.

At that stage, the Government will have a bit over 18 months before the next election to turn voter complaint into contentment.

That might sound easy. It isn’t. And this Government is about to find that out.

Mark Riley is the Seven Network’s political editor