Labor must stop pandering to the ‘sensible centre’ and start fixing Australians’ real-world problems | Paul Karp

There's a common argument loved by politicians that if they're being attacked from left and right, they must be doing a good job.

Australians' self-conception as a laid-back, not intensely political people promotes this view that there is something inherently "sensible" in sticking to the centre.

Closely related is the concept of "median voter theory" - that electoral success can most likely be found by doing what the average voter would do in your shoes - so candidates tend to converge on that centrist position.

One area where that convergence has had a disastrous impact on the lives of the most vulnerable is the rate of jobseeker, frozen in real terms for decades except for a small $50 a fortnight boost in early 2021.

While Labor MPs this week found their voice in calling for an increase, the message from the top was if the rate of jobseeker is miserable the answer is to get off it.

"It is tough to live on the jobseeker payment," the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said. "And that's why we want to move as many people as we can off that payment and into good, secure, well-paid jobs."

The problem with this logic is that the government's own poverty experts on the economic inclusion advisory committee found that the level of the payment was itself a barrier to getting into a job.