In the 1990s, Prime Minister John Howard led a rightward shift in rhetoric that has until recently dominated Australian politics. He cast himself as an ordinary suburban champion of mainstream Australia and the “Howard Battlers,” the supposed traditional Labor voters who turned to him and away from a Labor Party dominated by cultural elites. This myth gained wide acceptance due to the Labor myth that it was the party of the working class. Howard also appropriated the “radical nationalist” narrative historically associated with Labor and adapted it to class language and the idea of “the forgotten people” made famous by Robert Menzies. But the Battlers myth led the right-wing Coalition to believe they were the parties of the working-class. Then they ignored moderate voters and this resulted in defeat in 2025. Despite the travails of opponents, labor has not recovered its former rhetorical glory.