One way to lose an election

Was it the economics or the politics of John Hewson’s Fightback! strategy that failed, asks Norman Abjorensen in Inside Story • THE conventional wisdom in politics – if that is not a kind of oxymoron – holds that oppositions don’t win elections so much as governments lose them. But just over twenty years ago a bright newcomer to political leadership valiantly tried to turn this maxim on its head – and failed. Never before had a political party produced such a detailed and comprehensive election manifesto as John Hewson’s Fightback! program for the Liberal Party – a thumping 650 pages of economic policy, densely argued and statistically detailed. Its basic thrust was a radical remodelling of the economy in general and the taxation regime in particular; at its heart was a shift away from direct to indirect taxation aimed at easing burdens on business and creating, Hewson claimed, some two million jobs… Read the full article &nbsp