In 2001, “Howard’s Battlers” were the key demographic in securing a conservative re-election. Despite attempts to rewrite history by conservative columnists, shock jocks, and politicians, it was John Howard’s “dog-whistle” campaign that destroyed Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and delivered its voters to the government.
Six weeks before election day, pollster Rod Cameron identified swinging voters in regional areas and outer suburban suburbs as “less well educated, insular, conservative, and narrow minded, anti-elites in a big way…(and they) have a strong sense of discontent, of being ignored”. Analyst Hugh Mackay highlighted the strong racial concerns of this block of voters by stating, “just below the surface, there is a high degree of anxiety about Asian immigration, about the idea that Australia’s culture is being changed in unexpected ways, and that recent immigrants are associated with unacceptable increases in crime and violence”.
At the end of the election it became clear that the Liberal party had appealed to the fears of these voters and not their aspirations. In 2001 the Liberal tacticians were much more effective than Labor in identifying this crucial demographic, and with the help of ultra conservative media personalities such as Alan Jones, Piers Ackerman, and Andrew Bolt, they clinically secured their votes.
There is little doubt that the Redneck vote will again be critical in the 2004 election, especially in light of the latest budget. Howard’s battlers were essentially ignored, however. They missed out on tax cuts, and there was virtually nothing in it for public schools and hospitals. Meanwhile, it was those further up the economic tree who were the big winners. Rather than closing holes in the safety net, or providing a chance for the working poor to genuinely break the poverty cycle, this budget was squarely aimed at the comfortable middle class.
The end result will increase the gap between rich and poor, and increase resentment from the real battlers. Increased resentment, as long as it is not directed at the government, is not a problem for John Howard. In fact, the conservatives have made great political mileage out of turning the working poor against the non-working poor, and the working and non-working poor against the immigrant poor.
Howard’s brand of wedge politics very much follows the tactics used by the US Republicans, and only works on sections of the population who are largely disengaged from the political process, want someone to blame, and are easily spooked.
The rise and effect of Australia’s new right (aka Howard’s battlers) on our political process, is comparable to the extreme right Christian Coalition in the United States. Both groups draw from the same demographic base. Supporters are largely from white, middle to lower socio-economic backgrounds, have narrow educations, and are often the ones most affected when low skilled jobs disappear overseas.
Both groups rhetoric target Muslims. Right-wing US Christian evangelist, Pat Robertson, claimed that, “what the Muslims want to do to the Jews is worse than the Holocaust.” Leading conservative Baptist, Jerry Falwell, called the prophet Mohammed “a terrorist”, and veteran evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, claimed Mohammed was a “sex deviant” and “a pervert” and demanded that Muslim students in the US be expelled.
This type of rhetoric is not dissimilar to that of Melbourne’s Herald Sun columnist, Andrew Bolt, who states: “so let’s compare these two most holy of men – these founders of great religions. Unlike Mohammed, Christ did not slaughter unbelievers, execute women who sang rude songs about him, cut off the limbs of apostates, sleep with a woman whose family he had just killed, have sex with a nine-year-old, urge the murder of Jews, authorise the beating of wives, demand the physical subjugation of other religions, cut off hands and promise heaven above all to those who made war on infidels.”
Spokespeople for both groups seem to be immune from criticism. Sex scandals by fundamentalist crusaders, defamation suits against Andrew Bolt and the Alan Jones cash for comment scandal, seem to have no effect on their supporters.
Both groups have significant links to right-wing political parties and deliver a significant section of the voting public to their cause. Their definitive role in national elections cannot be ignored.
The Christian Coalition boasts of securing victories for the Republican’s 2000 presidential campaign and the 1998 mid-term elections that saw the Grand Old Party regain control of congress. In 2001, Australian conservative columnists celebrated the conservative victory and gloated over the defeated “elite”.
In the United States, religion seems to take a back seat to party political affiliations when it comes to the Christian Coalition’s endorsement. Ronald Reagan was the preferred candidate to the born-again Jimmy Carter in 1980, with the Reverend Jerry Falwell Declaring, “I think God is a Republican. With a small r.”
George Bush Snr’s presidential campaign in 1992 was endorsed, funded, and highly co-ordinated by the Christian Coalition. Churchgoing Bill Clinton received no support at all.
Australia’s new right religious base is very narrow and does not have the advanced infrastructure of the far-right in the United States. Australian fundamentalist Christian groups such as the Festival of Light, Salt Shakers, and the Christian Lobby are small players compared to the US Christian Coalition. Australia’s new right is not so much a religious movement, but it does have remarkable access to the mass media.
In the US, it is the preacher who has enormous influence, while in Australia the shock jocks send out the message, which is often thinly veiled racism, from his pulpit behind the microphone.
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“Are the Muslim rapes of Australian women in the Bankstown area the first signs of an Islamic hatred towards the community that welcomed them here years ago? Have we now, because of multiculturalism, created an Islamic community in Australia that’s more aligned with Islam than it is with Australia?” Alan Jones, August 2001.
Like the US preacher, the Australian media personality gets away with extreme comments while skilfully steering their flock to the conservative government. Anyone who disagrees with them is labelled an “elite” and a threat to “free speech”.
Australian conservatives have learnt from their colleagues in the US, and have adopted rhetoric and tactics to attract the disaffected voter. Both Howard and Bush are currently leading an anti-gay marriage campaign.
“Politically correct”, “free speech”, “family values” and “values neutral” are key phrases that have made their way across the Pacific. The moral panic against the “elites” is strictly an Australian phenomenon. Just before the 2000 presidential election, George W Bush visited a Deep South college that banned inter-racial dating to appease the Christian Coalition. On May 29, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello will be guest speaker at the Catch the Fire Ministry.
This event may link Australia’s relatively small Christian fundamentalist movement with the not insignificant secular Redneck vote.
The Islamic Council of Victory launched civil action against Catch The Fire pastors, Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot, following a seminar on March 9 2002 at which Pastor Scot allegedly described Muslims as terrorists and rapists.
During the hearing, Pastor Nalliah has argued that too many Muslim refugees had been allowed into Australia, and he’d written that English Muslims had cleverly infiltrated parliament – to spy on Western governments.
Australia’s new right preaches, Andrew Bolt and Piers Ackerman, have already taken great interest in the Catch the Fire Ministry case. Costello’s May 29 visit to the Catch The Fire Ministry is to celebrate a National day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. Could this visit, which has all the key ingredients (free speech, nationalism and Islamaphobia), ensure the coalition secures the overwhelming majority of the lunar Right vote?
Just like a big football game, it is the 3% who count.
Iain Lygo
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