Australia will lose if Fatima Paymans identity politics triumphs [Video]

First they ignore you, then they call you a culture warrior, and then you win. The argument, that is. The big picture is that Australia will lose if Fatima Payman’s brand of identity politics triumphs. Pundits who have warned of the dangers of identity politics may feel vindicated. Vindication is a sorry consolation prize.

In 2018, political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted that identity politics would shatter liberal democracy. In fact, he argued that it was already doing so. Australia has always liked to show up fashionably late to global trends, but in 2024, Senator Fatima Payman has got us caught up quickly.

Her timing is devastating. She has derailed the Labor Party’s key election messages (some tax thingies happened this week and some kind of policy on local manufacturingwas announced, FYI). And she chose a week that will inevitably put her politics in the context of a …