Randal Stewart writes in The Conversation (12.2.15):
‘The “new politics” of 21st-century Australia is much clearer after the extraordinary result in the Queensland election on January 31. Australia’s new politics consists of three elements that they will re-write the textbooks. These elements are:
- the franchise business model applied to political party processes;
- the community development model applied to political and policy decisions; and
- the central role of gender politics, replacing the class and interest-group politics of the past.
After explaining these three, he concludes:
‘The Queensland and Victorian election results have created a new politics that leaves the party hierarchy, the top-down powerbrokers and many old men, especially in the Coalition, confused and disoriented. The ALP is the first political party in Australia to run the new models and the result is sensational electoral success.
‘A crucial question, however, is this: can the ALP govern, as opposed to campaigning, in a way that is compatible with the new politics?’
Stewart describes the three crucial elements in this change.