The sin of progressive politics is being on the right side of history too early. What is so radical in working towards something better?

Think about some Australian political truisms you “know” to be true. Politics must play to the centre to have any chance of success. Change must be gradual if it’s to hold. Don’t shock the centre and always remember the base. Those who uphold the centre are the purveyors of sense. The feelings of the individual are paramount to those of the collective. Stick to the line and eventually they’ll fall back.

Doesn’t it make you tired?

Watching Australian politics is like watching a bucket of crabs —anyone who attempts to rise above the fray and promote change or a better way is pulled back into the bucket by their peers. Freedom is viewed as a finite resource; it is better for no one to have it, if it can’t be you. Success is measured by how many crabs can be pulled back into the bucket, rather than how many can be freed.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Australia could be brave?

It shouldn’t seem like such a big idea. But a lack of bravery, especially in this modern era of political centrism, has seen politics drift to the right as the centre trails after to keep up with the most dominant forces, and policy stays stagnant, offending no one. Upholding the status quo.

Once-progressive politicians now find themselves so paralysed by the possibility of being dragged into a culture war, they fold at the first sign of a fight.

It has left Australia a land, politically at least, of small thinking. There is no bravery in small targets. And yet, there is a whole apparatus set up to ensure no one even thinks of thinking bigger. “Centrist” journalists will scoff at any new idea which could benefit a collective not represented by their class, lambasting left-of-centre policy offerings as “radical” or “preposterous” while never examining what their own centrist views are rooted in. Press gallery hall monitors fall over themselves to verbally whip anyone they think has transgressed without stopping to consider why they are so eager to uphold the status quo.

So, politicians and the media work to keep pulling crabs back into the bucket they dwell in, never once considering what, or whom, it is they are serving.

But imagine, for a moment, if those guiding and explaining Australia’s policies were brave.

The sin of progressive or left politics is being on the right side of history too early. Of seeing the potential for a better world and trying to bring it to light before it’s considered undeniably the right way. What is so radical in working towards something better? Why must Australia be tethered to those who fear, those who are so timorous of the unknown they dedicate their lives to ensuring no one steps outside of the strictures? Conservatism is forged in a certain world order,where difference is seen as a threat, rather than a thing to celebrate. The status quo will claim that its world view is protecting “freedom” and the “individual”, when it’s really just freedom for the few.

And for the most part, Australians fall into line. We comfort ourselves that mandatory voting and a smaller population mean we haven’t fallen into the “extremes” of the United States, but we whitewash our history and rework the national narrative to suit how we like to think of ourselves.

We lack the bravery to push ahead with what is right, as we worry about the fights with those who are wrong. A brave Australia could reckon with its past and sit with Indigenous truth-telling and treaty. A brave Australia could tax land instead of labour, and make those who profit from the nation’s resources pay for the collective benefit. A brave Australia could make housing a human right and mean it. A brave Australia could lead the climate transition in a way that benefits communities and the planet. A brave Australia could follow through with eliminating poverty. A brave Australia could have politicians who do what is right, even when it’s a fight.

Instead of Australia’s powerful pulling-back of anyone who sticks their head out of the bucket, a brave Australia would work to help everyone. Even those fighting against it. Centrist politics benefits no one who doesn’t already hold power. It proffers aspiration, a modern-day snake oil, while moving the “centre” further and further right, telling you it’s always been there.

Big ideas always start small. For Australia to embrace its best self, it just needs some bravery. If politicians and media won’t lead the way, then it is up to the people to force it.

Because the thing those in power forget is that truisms are banal. Truths shouldn’t need to be sold. They should be innate. And we know when we’ve been sold a lie. Oftentimes the bravest among us are those who have nothing left to lose. Or in the case of Australia in 2024, those who have never had anything to conserve.

And if the crabs won’t let anyone climb out of the bucket, the only thing left to do is kick it over.