The Good Fight: What Does Labor Stand For?; Quarterly Essay 100

The 100th issue of Australia's leading agenda-setting journal of politics, culture and debate

In Quarterly Essay 100, Sean Kelly considers the enigma of the Albanese government. With wide yet shallow support, will it change the country? Does it have big ideas, or is it content just to become "the natural party of government"?

Kelly gives a definitive account of Albanese's political style and asks what lies behind it. In speaking to a fragmented, disengaged electorate, the Prime Minister places a high value on moderation. Often that means ducking fights with entrenched interests. But this runs the risk of embedding an ever more unequal nation, led by a government that can seem gutless.

In this subtle and brilliant essay, Kelly explores whether Labor is still up for the good fight.

"Labor has cast itself as a version of what the conservatives once were: the defender of the way things are. This may well appeal to large numbers of Australians, as it did in this last election. [But] Labor's task, historically, has been to change things on behalf of those who desperately need them to change." -Sean Kelly, The Good Fight

Sean Kelly is the author of The Game: A portrait of Scott Morrison, an award-winning columnist for the Nine papers and regular contributor to The Monthly and a former adviser to Labor prime ministers.