Australian politicians must help restore faith in democracy in 2018

In 2018 policy and politics in Australia will probably be exactly like it was in 2017. Confused, confounding and contradictory. Because the policy positions of the major parties on so many key issues are nearly identical, whether there'll be a federal election during the year and whether there'll be a change of government is almost irrelevant.

Australian politics is caught in the slipstream of a phenomenon impacting on liberal democracies around the world.