Progressive side of politics must not retreat into comfort zone, Albanese warns

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has warned people on the progressive side of politics to avoid retreat into a comfort zone, arguing it is vital to reach out to people who disagree with your views.

Albanese used the John Button lecture to encourage fellow travellers not to conduct their advocacy in a bubble but instead “talk with people who disagree with us – engage, debate, advance”.

“To put it simply, we need to argue our case – every forum, every opportunity,” Albanese said on Thursday night. “Conducting politics in an echo chamber does nothing to advance a progressive agenda”.

The speech examined political disruption and what he termed “the new politics”, particularly the polarisation now evident in political systems around the world.

“The polarisation in global politics has seen the demise of many of the historically successful progressive political parties such as France’s Socialist Party, Pasok in Greece, the Partito Democratico in Italy, the Social Democrats in Germany and many other affiliates of the Socialist International,” Albanese said.

“In many countries parties of the radical right have emerged with disillusioned working class people as their social base”.

“The disruption of economic change in these economies has incubated a group of people who are angry that change has not benefited them, and opportunist politicians such as Donald Trump have found an audience from those looking for answers as to why their expectations of quality of life have not been met”.

He said on the progressive side of politics, “some have retreated into the comfort zone”, aided by social media, with algorithms designed “to encourage people to engage with the content of people who share their world view”.

Albanese said the disrupted environment discouraged problem solving and championed the expression of feelings. He said increasingly, compromise and searching for outcomes were seen as weakness. “Alternative views are not just dismissed, they are not even considered”.

“This creates a shock when the outcomes of elections are not what was anticipated, the most notable of which is the election of Donald Trump as US president. To a lesser extent the fact that many Labor electorates in suburban areas returned solid votes against marriage equality surprised many activists”.

He said the Coalition had been trapped during this period in government by a right-wing echo chamber, and he said it would be a mistake for progressives to conclude the material presented to them in their Twitter feed was representative of the general community.

Albanese said to secure government, and then build an enduring legacy of reform, it was important to mobilise support for reform, engage with working people “to ensure change benefits them as change occurs” and engage with business to promote employment and fairness.

He said the big lesson of the Hawke era was consensus building yielded dividends.

Albanese said ruthless partisanship was “a failed model of government”.

“It produces plenty of heat. But no light. It saps your energy, but gets you nowhere”.