Fred Chaney Independents are the shock the major parties need

The former British prime minister Harold Macmillan may never have said, “Events, my dear boy, events”, in response to the question of what made the job of prime minister difficult or pushed governments off course. Nonetheless, it expresses a truism. Both Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese might find the response relevant during this time, as they consider the bumps in the path of their carefully planned election campaigns. The government set the stage with a budget that trumpeted historically low unemployment and success in getting through the Covid-19 thicket, with cash for welfare recipients and tax bonuses on June…