Can Labor rise above the chaotic carnival of our politics? We’re about to find out

September 21, 2026 — 5:00am

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I’m sorry – is this real? Australia, according to the latest international results, ranks poorly for classroom discipline. On Saturday, the Coalition announced a solution: it would hire military veterans. The shadow education minister said: “When I think about the need for better classroom behaviour and more discipline in our classrooms, and the need for more support for Australian values, it seems to make sense.”

“Let every school have a flag,“ the Coalition spokesman also said, in keeping with Angus Taylor’s call two weeks ago to protect the Australian flag more stringently from being burned. These are unserious ideas, but will they work politically? I have no idea because the truth is they match the carnival-esque atmosphere of the past few weeks.

An ex-soldier crying blasphemy because of a cartoon. Revelations that Pauline Hanson had criticised Anthony Albanese’s mother. Suggestions – denied – that One Nation was stealing policies from the Coalition. Golf club renovations, drug use and “sexual deviance”, melons, “feminisation” of our curriculum, the prime minister touring the home of the iPhone. These are not minor stories, but events that have dominated recent weeks.

There are various substantive things that can and should be said about the treasurer’s release of the Intergenerational Report today and the immigration minister’s speech at the National Press Club last week. But they are most accurately viewed as attempts to ground the overarching political........

© The Age