Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has acknowledged Labor treated non-urban voters in a similar way to how Hillary Clinton did during her failed presidential bid, saying “when we declared that we were going to take from the rich to give to the poor, we forgot to define who the rich are”.
Conservative Party leader Cory Bernardi called out Labor’s disengagement with the Australian electorate during the campaign and said he was delighted with the Coalition’s victory.
The Australian reports, the opposition spokesman for agriculture made the comments on the ABC’s Q&A, where he was joined by musician Jimmy Barnes, author Sisonke Msimang, Liberal MP Nicolle Flint and energy policy specialist Matthew Warren.
Barnes was the most animated and dominating voice of the evening, in an episode that examined Labor’s shortcomings at the recent election, renewable energy, the proposed Adani coal mine, domestic violence and mental health.
Asked if Labor viewed non-urban voters like Donald Trump’s “deplorables”, which Hillary Clinton referred to, Mr Fitzgibbon said Labor was “far too complex” for the electorate.
Ms Flint said the coalition would remain ‘technologically agnostic’ when assessing energy projects, and mentioned the need for “reliability in the system” after she saw how recent power outages from heatwaves affected her hometown of Adelaide.
