As a Fulbright scholar recently returned from 9 months studying Australian politics, I eagerly awaited the results of this past Saturday’s federal election down under. (By the way, Australians think weekend elections are one of the many improvements they made to representative government which the United States ignores to its own harm.)  Before the election, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of the Australian Labor Party, with his party having lost his previous two elections as leader, was asked by journalists if he would step down from Australia’s federal parliament in the event of defeat this year. Shorten, rightly full of confidence, jauntily queried the newsmen if they had inquired the same of his opponent.

Shorten’s mood was probably justified. The governing Liberal Party was led by Scott Morrison who only rose to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2018 after his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, was thrown out of office not by electoral defeat, but at the hands of other ministers, such as Peter Dutton, who wanted the top spot for themselves. Further, Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth, which had been held by the Liberal Party or its direct predecessors since Australia became a nation in 1901, was lost to an independent after the former Prime Minister declined to seek election. As a visitor and student of politics, I can relate a fairly solid and far-reaching conviction among ordinary Australians that Labor would win the federal election in 2019, a belief that shared a bipartisanship rare in political conversation these days.

On Saturday night, Bill Shorten conceded electoral defeat. Minutes later, he stepped down as Labor Party Leader. His opponent, avowed Christian Scott Morrison, called the outcome a “miracle.”  (https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/may/19/ive-always-believed-in-miracles-scott-morrison-claims-victory-for-the-coalition-video)

Now, I’m not going to go as far into the details of the Australian political system, both institutions and accompanying attitudes, as I would like. I spent nine months there, and I still don’t fully grasp the way everything works. However, hopefully I’ll be able to give a bit of what happened and a little of the significance for Americans of an event nearly 10,000 miles away(From Canberra, Australia, to Cedarville, Ohio), despite the fact that most in the US probably didn’t see much about the election. (Just a guess, without the necessary evidence. Please note my error in the comments if you had already read two or three articles about this election – I would be fascinated and thrilled to hear that I am wrong!)

First, several explanations were similar to those with which many of you will be broadly familiar from other recent voting surprises. Polls taken leading up to the election, and even exit polls, appeared to show a solid Labor victory. After the election, the pollsters have come in for heavy criticism, even if this election could simply be further evidence that those on the wrong side of current standards of political correctness aren’t enthusiastic about making this stance publicly known. One term I’ve seen describe this phenomenon in relation to the Australian situation – Tory shyness – seems like a good way to capture the emotions and decisions behind a phenomenon that is lacking, to my knowledge, an equally handy descriptor in the US.

Another explanation involved wishful pre-election thinking by Australian media and elites, whether unique to this event or part of a broader leftward shift among those groups toward the Labor Party. Sound familiar? Naturally, several news outlets immediately compared the surprising electoral result, in which the underdog Liberal Party actually gained seats in Australia’s Federal lower house, to the initial Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s presidential victory.  (https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6132155/the-expert-who-predicted-trump-brexit-and-scott-morrison/?cs=14350)

Of course, there are particular features of Australian politics that make one-to-one comparison with America or the United Kingdom difficult. (Including vocabulary – what do you make of this phrase in a major Australian publication’s response to the election, no typos, I promise: “while the ABC and most press gallery journalists might have been gormless enough to argue that uncosted climate policies were worth a punt”.)

For instance, Australia features compulsory voting, backed by a fine as the penalty for not turning up at the polling booth (or voting early or by mail.) As a result, their politics is not the province of starry-eyed idealists, staring grimly across a political divide of World-War-I-trench-warfare proportions. Rather, there’s a bit of a regular-Joe leaven to the Australian electorate, and stability is appealing in those circumstances. An Australian friend pointed out to me some of the defeats of past campaigns run along the lines of paradigm-shifting crusades, by both parties. Labor took that approach this time in Australia, primarily regarding climate change, and experienced the same fate.

Moreover, the Liberal Party (Australia’s closest analogue to America’s GOP) has been in government in Australia since 2013, a bit different from the US context in 2016, where the Democrats had held the White House for 8 years. Thus, Scott Morrison often said, on the campaign trail, “How Good is Australia!”, a sharp contrast to Donald Trump’s, “Make America Great Again.” Further, there were some lingering dissatisfactions with certain Liberal Party leaders that the 2019 election resolved. Liberal MP Tony Abbott, Australia’s Prime Minister from 2013 to 2015 and the runaway winner in the category of “criticisms of a politician directed to me by Australians,” lost a seat he had held for 25 years. Thus, the 2019 federal election saw Australia’s Liberal Party moved a particular direction within government, rather than being brought into office, as Donald Trump was in 2016.

However, the Australian election is certainly relevant for American consideration, and should lead citizens and politicians to reflect a bit. The fact that many Australians weren’t convinced by a campaign centered around action on climate change should concern American proponents of the Green New Deal, or any sharp shift toward policy priority around climate issues. I would generally consider Australians to be a bit further to the left than Americans (Very squishy I know, but my mailbox in Australia was bombarded by so many electoral materials from the Greens that it often fell down. No joke. In case any Australian Greens read this, I’m still a little miffed). 

Further,  concerns with global warming are much more existentially important to Australian politics than in the United States.  (Anecdotally, some Australians told me of roads melting in the center of the continent during the summer. More importantly, Pacific Island nations consider global warming a major threat, and Australia is intent on maintaining healthy relationships with these countries). Thus, a vigorous climate-centered campaign may not be a winning ticket in 2020.

More importantly, in my opinion, Americans should recognize that the influences and tides in politics and culture at home are very much present in other places. Trump’s election was not due to some exceptional American virtue or vice, depending on which way you may have voted. The strident tones of political discourse exist down under as well, with cursing, disgust, and accusations of racism and other hatred directed at Liberal Party voters on Saturday night, followed by Liberal supporters’ responding protests against these “oppressive” attitudes. Such exchanges, accompanied by the familiar refrain, “I’m going to leave this miserable, hopeless, very-not-good country,” just seems to be a standard condition of modern democracy, so emotionally invested in elections following long campaigns brimming with triumphalist rhetoric that the existence of an honorable opposition cannot be abided.

Of course, Australia, along with many nations around the world, examines American politics intensively and takes at least some of its cues therefrom. Australian institutions were also designed, to some extent, with America in mind, even if innovated later. Citizens of the United States should be humbled and challenged by the responsibility that this situation provides. Fine-tuning our political arrangements and attitudes can be a wider blessing than is often imagined or understood, and failing to do so has long-term consequences outside our own polity. Nevertheless, if the current American condition is not due to a peculiar primordial quirk in our national personality, as the recent federal election in Australia reveals, then we are not helpless to take action toward a better state of affairs. While we may not enjoy or approve of the current bitterness and bile of our politics, we can at least look for improvement to Australia, where citizens get to enjoy a “democracy sausage” along the way. (Worth looking up and adopting, along with Malcolm Turnovers, Bill Shortbreads and other Australian cuisine).