Jim Chalmers’ facts, an ordinary voter’s feelings and the political reality

But first, I wanna talk about Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

So Jim Chalmers gave a speech to the Australia Institute this week where he really wanted to emphasize how much he empathizes with One Nation voters or even voters who are just a little bit One Nation curious.

Can you tell us more about this speech, Shane? What was he really trying to signal?

Well, it, it is interesting because this isn't the first time that Chalmers has actually spoken about One Nation and tried to sort of thread the needle between like, say, elements of the Labor Party that, uh, dismiss One Nation supporters or the One- or One Nation in general, and those who can see it as a real risk to, uh, to the party, um, and trying to engage with One Nation voters.

And I think it goes to the fact that he represents a part of Brisbane, uh, Logan City area, which w- is an area that you would expect to see a bit of One Nation support.

Here in Australia, support for One Nation has doubled in the past year.

Now, I've never been complacent about them or complacent about this at any stage.

We have-

So he gave this address which effectively said, "Don't talk down to One Nation supporters.

What they are feeling, what they are complaining about, it's real."

But facts don't beat feelings.

Feelings are as real as facts.

The past will always feel safe and familiar and desirable because by definition we understand it better than we understand the future.

That's normal.

That's human.

And when a significant swathe of our fellow Australians find that message of returning to an idealized version of the good old days appealing, we shouldn't turn on them for that.

And so it's really interesting that he's having to ... he's making that point, and it was to the Australia Institute which, uh, there's a, a left-wing, uh, advocacy slash, uh, think tank which sometimes doesn't really go to the, uh, depths of the, the real politic of the fact that One Nation is polling quite well and you don't want to offend One Nation voters.

You actually want to win them back and actually come up with policies that resonate with them, and that's largely where you've ... where Chalmers got to in his speech.

Yeah.

Yeah, he did talk a lot about Logan, which is where he's from and now the, the, um, the district or the electorate that he represents.

And he also talked about, you know, we have all the facts to push back on why a return to a sort of nostalgic fictional Australian past is, is never gonna happen and is not a good idea anyway, but facts don't beat feelings.

Feelings are as real as facts, which I really liked and is very true.

He also said that, you know, that the desire for, for the past is rooted with the dissatisfaction in the present.

So he very much acknowledged that that di- dissatisfaction is primarily linked to the economy, to cost of living pressures, to interest rate rises and so forth.

And he did sort of say like, "Give us a bit of time," right? He basically said things are gonna be pretty difficult or like ropey for the next while, but in 12 months things will get better.