From AUKUS to Gaza and now Iran, the government’s instinct has been to avoid political traps rather than confront hard choices – and voters are drifting away.

The Albanese government has made an art form of not been wedged – from AUKUS to Gaza and now Iran. The results are showing in the continuing erosion of ALP support.

The post war peak of ALP first preference votes was 53 per cent in 1972. At the last election it was 35 per cent. In current polling it is now down to 32 per cent.

The last election was described as a wide but shallow win for the ALP. It is increasingly looking very shallow with the Prime Minister’s net approval slumping from plus 30 points in 2022 to minus 15 points now.

Most of the ALP loss has gone to the Greens. But the ALP doesn’t seem to care as about 80 per cent of those votes come back in preferences.

There is clearly a growing frustration around the world in a lurch to the right by people who believe that governments and established political parties are not listening to them and seem more interested in serving privileged elites.

This disillusionment with major political parties was obvious in a remarkable result in a recent by-election in the United Kingdom. In one of the safest Labour seats in the country in Manchester the Labour vote fell to 25 per cent and put the party in third place. The Greens won on 41 per cent. The British Labour Party may be on the way to extinction. The ALP should take heed.

Anthony Albanese has power but is reluctant to use it for fear of upsetting special interests at home and abroad. His first impulse on any difficult issue seems to be, how can I avoid being wedged?

The most recent example was the Israeli inspired US attack on Iran. Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and the unfortunate Richard Marles couldn’t get out of the blocks fast enough to support the illegal attack on Iran. They feared being wedged for not supporting Israel and the US. It was painful to watch.

We were given dishonest and confusing reasons for the attack – that Iran threatened the United States, and that Iran was on the verge of getting nuclear weapons. Then the crazed Trump told us that it was about regime change and he wanted to appoint the new Ayatollah.

When asked about the illegality of the attack on Iran, Penny Wong said: “I’ll leave it to the US and Israel to speak on the legal basis for the attack.” She was in effect saying that we should ask criminals whether their actions are legal or illegal. God help us.

Asked about Pine Gap, Penny Wong told us that she “would not comment on that facility.”

Earlier, commenting on whether US aircraft out of Tindal would carry nuclear weapons she gave us the same tired old response that the government would “neither confirm nor deny” that the aircraft were nuclear armed. So much for our sovereignty.

Does the Government support the vile comments of US Secretary for War, Pete Hegseth on Iran? He insisted that US forces were acting “without mercy,” and of the Iranian regime,“they are toast, and they know it”. The US would deliver “death and destruction all day long.” There would be no “stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.” And “this was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down which is exactly how it should be.”

This is our ‘ally’ talking. Hegseth was a former Fox News TV host, frequently interviewing Donald Trump.

An evangelical Christian, Hegseth believes that the west is on a crusade against Islam and has no concern against proselytising in the armed forces. Some combat commanders are reported as telling troops that Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to earth.” So much for the separation of religion and state that the US used to proclaim.

The US keeps murdering people and then brags about it. Do we share values with these people with their moral depravity?

Washington is being run by dangerous criminals. Yet our government lines us up in support of these crazies for fear of being wedged by the ailing Murdoch media and the Austral Americans in our midst.

Only last week the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was here telling us that the rules based international order is at an end and that middle powers should find ways to cooperate and not be pushed around by a hegemon.

Unfortunately, in that week both the prime ministers of Canada and Australia pledged their support for the most dangerous hegemon on this planet, the US. Despite the rhetoric both Canada and Australia decided to line up again with the United States for fear of being wedged.

There was no suggestion of collective middle power diplomacy to restrain a crazed US President and his rabid Secretary for War.

The standout example of the government’s fear of being wedged was Anthony Albanese agreeing to AUKUS before the 2022 election. We will be paying a heavy price for that for many years to come. AUKUS will cost about 60 times our annual defence budget. We can’t have AUKUS and a sovereign defence capability. To keep sweet with Hegseth’s Department of War we keep paying large sums to the US that will bring little or no value for Australia.

And it will bring great risks. We’ve just learned that Australian sailors were on the US nuclear powered submarine when it sank an Iranian frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka. Again, Penny Wong avoided the issue again by telling us that naval operations were an issue for Washington.

On Gaza, Albanese was fearful of being wedged by the Zionist lobby and Sky After Dark. He feared being accused of being soft on Hamas. As a result, he has been complicit in the genocide in Gaza. He won’t even use the word ‘genocide’.

Albanese was initially doubtful about a royal commission on the Bondi shootings but under pressure from the Zionist lobby he gave way and established a commission with loaded terms of reference to highlight antisemitism. Once again, abdication of responsibility for fear of being wedged by a powerful lobby.

Islamophobia is commonplace in Australia. It is the daily diet of our mainstream media. Violence by a few Muslims results in the whole Muslim community being tarnished. Islamophobia has been normalised. Pauline Hanson finds it so easy to play to the widespread hostility towards Muslims. She knows better than anyone how to tap into prejudice.

Yet we have a royal commission focusing on antisemitism when racism and Islamophobia are much more serious problems.

The weaponisation of antisemitism by the Zionist lobby gravely weakens legitimate concerns about antisemitism. ‘Antisemitism’ has been hollowed out by Zionists.

Fearful of being accused of being an “ISIS sympathiser” Albanese attacked the Australian women and children in exile in Syria – “make your bed and you lie in it…I have contempt for these people.” History will not forget this cruelty.

What does Australian citizenship mean anymore? Making a mistake should not mean being denied benefits of Australian citizenship. Albanese feared being wedged again.

Albanese has developed an art form of avoidance of key issues for fear of being wedged. His government keeps running away from hard decisions. Pragmatism and compromise rule.

When institutions no longer serve useful purposes, they wither and die. We are seeing that with the Liberal Party. And the ALP now has only about 30 per cent of Australians as direct supporters!