How the Left plans to rebrand growth

Thanks to the book Abundance, progressives have co-opted pro-growth language, seeking to claim the upside of supply-side economics - which the Right has championed for years - while shedding its ideological baggage.

By Nico Louw

First published in the MRC’s Watercooler newsletter. Sign up to our mailing list to receive Watercooler directly in your inbox.

In the weeks between the election and Parliament’s return, one book was seemingly everywhere in Canberra, Abundance. Written by progressive US political journalists Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, it has been hailed as a sensation among progressives, including in Labor ranks.

Jim Chalmers described it as a “ripper” and said it was “doing the rounds” through Labor MPs. Assistant Treasury Minister Andrew Leigh said he had been “abundance-pilled” and recently gave a speech titled “The Abundance Agenda”. It’s a safe bet that Labor MPs spent the first fortnight back in Parliament talking about Abundance, even if they hadn’t read it.

Beneath the hype lies a deeper political shift with serious implications for the Coalition.

Abundance urges progressives to stop sabotaging their own priorities with endless rules, bureaucracy and overreach. The authors seek to reposition the idea of abundance not as an indulgence, but as a responsibility to deliver things that make life better. This is being seen as a kind of manifesto for a new progressive politics: one that ‘builds’ rather than blocks. 

Having read it, I can assure you there’s nothing new here. In fact, for anyone from the Right of politics, Abundance should land less as a revelation and more as a provocation. Because the core message of Abundance—that supply matters, that you can’t deliver social goods without economic growth, that overregulation holds us back—is not new. It’s what the Right has argued for decades.

The problem Abundance calls "vetocracy" is one the Right identified long ago. The Coalition has consistently warned that overregulation and a risk-averse bureaucratic culture holds back growth and drives up costs in everything from housing to energy to transport. We know a strong economy is not the enemy of social progress; it is the precondition for it.

The fact that the Left is only now discovering this is tempting to dismiss. But it poses a profound threat to the political message that has underpinned conservative political success for decades.

The danger for the Right is not that progressives are discovering the merits of economic growth, it’s that they want to own it. What was once dismissed as neoliberalism or trickle-down economics is being repackaged and rebranded by the Left. By co-opting pro-growth language, they are seeking to claim the upside of supply-side economics while shedding its ideological baggage and owning its political rewards. 

In this new narrative, material abundance moves from being a technocratic project to a moral imperative. Supply-side solutions are couched in the moral language of social equity and climate change. Progressives are told to promise not just more, but more of what matters.

This positions progressives to claim the mantle of builders: urging more housing approvals, fast-tracked infrastructure, and easier approvals for energy and mining projects (where they align with net zero). This is a compelling message that is likely to be particularly appealing to a new generation of younger, more moderate voters seeking to do better than their parents.

This is especially relevant in Australia. Many of our biggest political and economic challenges, such as housing affordability and energy costs, are the direct result of the same kind of restrictive governance mindset and “vetocracy” that Abundance critiques.

Our environmental laws are a clear example of where a culture of risk-aversion has smothered ambition. Well-intentioned though they may be, they are often responsible for extensive delays and higher costs for major resources projects and the infrastructure we need, even hindering the energy transition that progressives want urgently completed.

But nowhere is this more visible than in housing: a system of land use planning, zoning, and environmental assessment that makes building everything slower and more expensive. The impact on homeownership is generational. As a result, younger Australians are showing a growing cynicism about politics, based on the sense that the system is working for others. 

The Coalition has long warned about the chokehold of regulation on housing, energy, infrastructure and private industry. But it risks becoming a bystander if Labor embraces the political shift Abundance advocates and takes ownership of the narrative of growth and prosperity. That shift would leave the Coalition as the ones saying ‘no’ and blocking progress.

What does this mean for the Coalition? It cannot concede that supply-side thinking is merely an instrument for achieving Labor and the Left’s policy priorities. Economic growth is not just a means to fund government services and renewable energy. It is the foundation of individual opportunity, economic freedom and a stronger society.

To hold this ground, the message of the Coalition needs to evolve. The old language of economic growth sounds stale to many voters, especially younger ones who don’t believe growth will deliver for them. Talking about "cutting red tape", "supporting business" or “improving productivity” is not enough. Unless the Coalition steps forward to renew its own supply-side story in a modern, values-driven way, it risks being outflanked on ground it once owned.

To remain competitive, the Coalition must reposition itself as the party that can deliver both prosperity and progress. It must re-learn to use the language of morality and again explain why we must build: so that the next generation of young families can afford a home, so that affordable energy can reach the grid, so that Australian resources can power global industry, and so that infrastructure keeps up with population growth. In short, it must sell growth in a way that is personal and moral, not abstract.

If Labor adopts the language of Abundance, the challenge for the Coalition will be carving out a different message: one that supports progress while remaining respectful of the past and conservative values. Be the party that defends the family home and enables a million more to be built. Encourage private enterprise and oppose big businesses that act against consumers’ interests or abuse their market power. Stand with the resources industry and the renewable energy sector. Support conservation and insist that infrastructure gets built on time and on budget.

Abundance doesn’t say anything the Right hasn’t argued for years. But if the Left succeeds in owning that story, we will lose more than the policy debate. We risk surrendering the core of our economic identity.

The Coalition must meet this moment. Otherwise, Labor won't just borrow its ideas, it will take the very ground the Coalition’s political future depends on.