They’re not Menzies’ forgotten people, they’re One Nation’s fed-up people

They're not forgotten, they're fed up!

 

When Menzies spoke of the ‘forgotten people’, he meant the middle class – the engine room of the economy, neither rich enough to live off capital nor poor enough to live off the state.

Under Albanese, that class has been crowded out by a client class of grant recipients, public-sector dependants, and subsidised NGOs for whom government is not a last resort but a business model. To Menzies’ forgotten people that idea was sacrilege. To Labor’s clients it is an entitlement.

Somebody always has to pay.

The people paying, in money and in culture, are ordinary Australians.

When I read Barnaby Joyce’s statements, I cringe a little at the language and the repetition. His message is right, but the delivery is rough. Polish it and you would only sound like the Coalition. And people have stopped trusting the polish.