Left and Right are last Century’s Paradigm

Climate, Country, human rights and accountability are too important to be trapped in old ideological boxes.

One of the great distractions of our time is the idea that every serious issue must be forced into a left-wing or right-wing box. Climate change becomes “left wing”. Human rights become “left wing”. Accountability becomes “right wing”. Welfare reform becomes “right wing”. Caring for Country becomes “left wing”. Public safety becomes “right wing”. Opposing genocide becomes “left wing”.

These labels don't help us understand the world. They help us avoid its reality.

Climate change isn't left wing. The atmosphere isn't enrolled in a political party. The oceans aren't progressive. Bushfires aren't woke. Cyclones don't care how we vote. The climate is an Earth system. It sustains us all. It feeds us, gives us water, regulates heat, shapes seasons and makes human life possible.

When climate denialists call climate advocacy “left wing”, they're deliberately moving the conversation away from physics, ecology, food security, insurance, health, fire risk, flood risk and intergenerational responsibility. They're trying to turn a question of survival into a culture war.

It's a very effective tactic. Once something is successfully labelled “left wing”, many people who see themselves as conservative are told they no longer need to engage with the evidence.

It is the same with human rights. Opposing genocide isn't left wing. Opposing the killing of civilians isn't left wing. Saying that children shouldn't be bombed, starved or dehumanised isn't left wing. Upholding international law isn't left wing. These are human positions. They come from a place much deeper than ideology.

None of this means politics and policy are simple. But it does mean that most serious issues have much deeper foundations than political identity, especially when that identity is reduced to a binary. Human dignity isn't a left-wing value or a right-wing value. Country isn't a left-wing place or a right-wing place.

I learned this the hard way more than 20 years ago, when I worked in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. I saw disadvantage, government neglect, violence, trauma, lack of services, lack of accountability and the human consequences of policy failure. I also saw strength, culture, kinship, courage and love. The reality was complex. It couldn't be reduced to a slogan.

When I spoke up about what was happening, I did so because I believed Aboriginal women and children deserved safety, services, dignity and the same basic human rights as everyone else. I believed governments had responsibilities they were not meeting. I believed governments couldn't use the language of self-determination as an excuse to abandon people or avoid accountability.

I certainly didn't think that was right wing. I didn't think it was left wing either. I thought it was human. But I was attacked by some people on the so-called Left as being “right wing”. I remember how much that hurt. I didn't identify as right wing. I never have. So it felt like a harsh and personal criticism.

But here is the thing. It wasn't really about the ideas. It was about the label. And once a label is attached, some people think they no longer need to engage with the substance.

That's the danger.

If someone identifies a problem in an Aboriginal community and says governments need to be accountable, that's not automatically right wing. If someone says welfare systems should support human wellbeing rather than trap people in cycles of dependence, that's not automatically right wing. If someone says Aboriginal people deserve real self-determination, but also deserve safety, services, opportunity and a basic level of government responsibility, that's not right wing. It is a serious policy argument. And serious policy arguments deserve more than ideological name-calling.

I've been attacked by the so-called Right for caring about climate, nature, refugees, multiculturalism, human rights and Gaza. I've been attacked by the so-called Left for talking about welfare reform, community safety, government accountability and the need for practical solutions in Indigenous affairs.

So where does that leave me? I'm not a socialist. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a libertarian.

I identify as human. I identify as Australian. I identify as D’harawal and as someone with a deep connection to Country. I identify as someone who believes in dignity, responsibility, inclusion, truth-telling, human rights, ecological reality and practical human solutions.

That doesn't fit neatly into a left-right box. And I am increasingly convinced that the box is part of the problem. The old left-right spectrum comes from another world. At a simple level, it might still explain some things. But it's dangerously inadequate for the major crises of this century: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, mass displacement, war, genocide, inequality, disinformation, authoritarianism, loneliness, cultural fragmentation and the failure of institutions.

These are not left-right problems. They're human survival problems. They're systems problems. They're truth problems. They're ecological and scientific problems. And when we reduce them to left versus right, we make ourselves smaller and dumber.

We stop asking whether something is true and start asking whether it belongs to our side. We stop asking whether something works and start asking who said it. We stop asking who's being harmed and start asking which political team benefits. We stop asking what our responsibilities are and start asking how we can win the argument.

That's how ideology becomes a cage. It's also how injustice survives. Once an issue is successfully branded as “left wing” or “right wing”, people are given permission not to think about it. Climate action becomes left wing, so conservatives are told they must oppose it. Human rights become left wing, so people are told compassion is weakness. Accountability becomes right wing, so progressives are told they must avoid hard conversations. Community safety becomes right wing, so the people most at risk are left without protection. Caring for Country becomes left wing, so people forget that every farmer, fisher, firefighter, parent and child depends on healthy land, water and climate systems.

This is not just a political problem. It is a moral and intellectual failure. It also pushes people into more extreme places. When people feel that the only way to be accepted in progressive spaces is to agree with every slogan, use every approved word and never ask a difficult question, some will leave. When people feel shamed rather than persuaded, they become vulnerable to movements that offer belonging without accountability.

That's one reason MAGA and Hansonist politics grow. Not the only reason, but one of them.

At the same time, when conservative politics turns every act of care into a threat, it becomes empty. If caring about climate, children, refugees, Aboriginal people, Palestinians, biodiversity, workers or the poor is dismissed as “woke”, then what remains? Cruelty? Denial? Extraction? Performance?

The climate is changing. Biodiversity is collapsing. Children are being killed in Gaza. Aboriginal communities have been failed by governments for generations. People are lonely, angry, economically stressed and losing trust in institutions.

These are all realities. The question is not whether they are left wing or right wing. The question is what kind of people we become when we face them. Do we deny? Do we deflect? Do we attack the messenger? Do we retreat into ideological tribes? Or do we think, listen, feel, act and take responsibility?

The world is increasingly becoming too dangerous for binary and lazy categories. The atmosphere doesn't care whether we call ourselves left or right. Country doesn't care whether we win the argument on social media. Children under bombs don't care which ideological tribe claims the moral high ground. Communities suffering from neglect don't need slogans. They need safety, services, respect, culture, opportunity and accountability.

We need to grow up politically. And we need to stop using left and right as weapons to avoid uncomfortable truths. Because the world is bigger than left and right. And so are we.