The rise of Canberra extremists

Via Andrew Charlton and Lachlan Harris at Domainfax:

The fundamental operating model of Australian politics is breaking down. The data, from the Australian Election Study (AES), reveals the dramatic polarisation of Australian politics over the last two decades. In 1996 more than one in three Australian politicians (37 per cent) rated themselves as “moderate” – that is, centre-left Liberal and centre-right Labor politicians. This share has shrunk dramatically. At the most recent federal election in 2016 only one in 10 politicians described themselves as moderate.

…But what if our politicians are simply mirroring what they are picking up from the community? They are, after all, “representatives”, chosen from communities across the country, and their professional success depends on responding to voters’ concerns. And voters, too, are becoming more ideologically polarised. In 1993, 54 per cent of voters surveyed by the AES described themselves as centrist. By 2016 that number had fallen to just 42 per cent. This data proves that Australian political polarisation is not just limited to the political class. In fact, we cannot understand the polarisation in Canberra without reflecting on the polarisation in our communities.