In terms of public policy, she is a child of McEwenism rather than the Information Age. Stott Despoja is actually quite unrepresentative of the views and values of young Australians, the so-called Generation X. People under the age of 30 have only ever known economic openness. Their understanding of economic policy is based on the trade liberalisation and market deregulation of the Hawke and Keating years. While these reforms have been unsettling for older age groups, they have delivered a new generation of skilled and stimulating work for younger Australians. In an era of new technological horizons and opportunities, the Xers, the best-educated group in our nation's history, have the world at their feet.
Economic closure is abhorrent to their instincts and aspirations.
Stott Despoja, by contrast, has no experience with the knowledge economy. Her views were forged on the anvil of university politics, re-fighting the lost ideological battles of the 1960s. While Meg Lees tried to give the Democrats a sense of economic reality, Stott Despoja will take them back to the bottom of the garden, reliving the fairytale of fortress Australia. In this policy environment, the Democrats are likely to recapture their core constituency of inner-city interest groups. They will once more become a boutique party, specialising in abstract left-wing issues.