Every morning, the first thing our federal government ministers do is wake up worrying about ways they can repair our poor productivity growth and resulting stagnant living standards.

Last thing at night, they worry about bringing our budget deficit into positive territory by cutting spending.

They constantly return to ways of bringing ‘peace, order, and good government’ to our now threatening streets and universities, in place of allowing virulent antisemitism to grow and flourish.

None of our ministers are distracted by the student politics many began their political life with, and which concerned foreign hotspots we have no influence over.

Nor are they obsessed with ways of boosting government welfare, and new ways to run up the government credit card and announce it as new reform.

Is this assessment actually accurate in any way…?

Or is the reverse the case, and we have on our hands a government plagued by systematic inadequacy?

Are we expecting real and useful measures on productivity and spending in the May 2026 Budget?

When Parliament is recalled this month, will it properly address antisemitism?

Many feel we have a government that has systematically ignored the grown-up problems that a constitutional government should address. That our leaders do not represent the best of our values but tolerate the worst. Edmund Burke described the worst as being those who came in from the wildlands ‘and prowled about our streets in the name of reform’ without good judgement, prudence, or balance.

We certainly have grown a very strong system of constant complaints.

One publicly funded radio program accused the taxpaying public of being racist about ten times in one hour and then did it again every week. Some would be happy about their taxes financing this; most probably not.

I was told it was racist to object to giving one ethnic group special privileges. And they were not special privileges.

Many argue instead for equal treatment. Which does not seem racist.

George Orwell supposedly said, ‘Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.’ That is one explanation for part of the broadcast, one among many, although many today would disagree and shout at you.

This sort of debate and obsession is common. There are no mass frenzied riots or debates about ways we can improve productivity or cut back on government spending.

Instead, we have major intellectual movements arguing in favour of ideas that have the opposite effect.

Complaint ideology has a strong presence in Parliament where we see abuse and complaints hurled at others by people who cannot be abused in the same way, because of who they are.

Those are the rules of modern etiquette. Along with demanding respect for their own views while consistently blustering or abusing.

We are regularly riven by dreadful and unacceptable incidents which lead to widespread complaints and campaigns, and to actual lasting reform.

Although sometimes the cause partly lapses into disgrace when new information comes to light.

The outrage factory of intolerance and incivility that US Democrats turned American intellectual life into is highly influential. Which is also awkward, given that we are very different countries.

Those who Australia admits to the country through immigration should be committed to democracy and our way of life, not the virulent hatreds of overseas hotspots. No one claims that we succeeded in this. Instead we allowed antisemitism to take a firm grip. We gave priority to multiculturalism, valuing and respecting all cultures particularly tribal cultures, while denigrating our own history and values. This systematic denigration continues.

Australian Courts and tribunals are jammed with complaints, some merited and some baseless.

We are now too close to government by outrage. We are still the Commonwealth of Australia. But our Constitution heavily relies on it.

At some point we need to admit that in our dominant political and intellectual life we fundamentally and consistently miss the point. At some stage we need to ask – what would our founding fathers think?

Government does not have the practical commonsense, analytical scepticism, and civility, to manage outrage and complaints. Instead, various types of virulent ideology are part of the problem.

Compatibility with progressive goals and feelings is arguably now needed before complaints are taken seriously. Jewish people were well down the list, along with Anglo-Celts. Others aggressively shouldered their way to top of the list and took priority as better victims.

That was a great mistake and we must now rectify it.

The Australian achievement was to gradually bring everyone within the Constitution, although we like other first world nations will always be improving democracy. This beneficial settlement is under severe challenge.

Government must act on real complaints which are not exaggerations, US political ideology, fashion, political abuse, or victimhood. But there is not an endless catalogue of equal problems. We have to deal with our main problems.

There are key phrases and ideas which are inherently worthless and should lead to immediate questions, from ‘pregnant people’ to ‘privilege’. Do they perhaps mean ‘pregnant women?’ ‘Systemic discrimination’ can be formless as a column of smoke.

If a complaint is put with belligerence and hate that may be all it is. ‘Grow up’ seems a relevant phrase.

We should not worry whether people of colour were fairly represented amongst the Vikings as they hacked their way through the Monks of Lindisfarne in 793 AD. Although TV producers do. But we should worry a lot about antisemitism, productivity, and spending.

The Hon. Reg Hamilton, Adjunct Professor, School of Business and Law, Central Queensland University