Politics has "gone mad", and Australian politicians shouldn't blame a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment or opposition to multiculturalism as the main reason.
Instead, according to Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers, it's because of a "deeper disillusionment" in society, linked to low wages growth and falling living standards.
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And it's that same fall in wages and living standards that has driven the rise in popularity, on the right of politics, of Pauline Hanson, Donald Trump and the successful Brexit vote while on the left, it has driven the rise in popularity of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in the US and UK, respectively.
In a fiery behind-closed-doors speech to the Transport Workers Union, Dr Chalmers argued that the Australian economy - despite strong headline growth figures - was simply "not delivering for most people".
He also warned against any move to tack towards a more populist approach to politics, arguing Labor "shouldn't fish in the same waters as Pauline Hanson".
In the Australian context, Dr Chalmers argued that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull "can't even go to the bathroom, let alone finalise a tax or super policy, without checking with [National Party firebrand] George Christensen first".
"Many are tempted to try to explain it socially and culturally, by pointing to a rejection of Muslims and multiculturalism. That's part of it. The poll last week, which had 49 percent of Australians supporting a ban on Muslim migration, certainly gave that argument succour. And yes, Hanson and others are more likely to stoke controversy and coverage by adding fuel to that particular fire," he said.
"But I think what's going on here is overwhelmingly economic rather than social or cultural, or at least has economic foundations. It goes to a deeper disillusionment in our country; not just about the state of the economy, but despair over ordinary people's place in that economy."
Dr Chalmers singled out one statistic - record low wages growth - out of an "avalanche" of evidence as the best-supporting his thesis.
Lower wages growth had, he said, "severed link between effort and reward" and that, in turn, had caused a loss of faith in the value of hard work.
And in a speech that developed a similar theme to that explored by Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen last week, the finance spokesman argued Mr Turnbull and the Coalition "treated workers as peripheral to national prosperity" and as such, could not "stitch back together that link which has been severed, between hard work and getting ahead".
"We have a chance of building another quarter century of continuous growth on top of the one just finished...[but] the next one won't be achievable with trickle-down economics."
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