Labor Party leadership

[tcpip]

This post is friends-only, as I would be expelled from the Labor Party if I made it public.

The Australian Labor Party, in an act of political suicide, has chosen Mark Latham as its leader for the next Federal election.

I'm seriously thinking of voting Liberal.



The empirical evidence to date suggests Mark Latham is disliked by a lot of people and liked by a few. In contrast, very few actively dislike Kim Beazley, and a lot of voters think kindly of him. But if these are general statements for the Australian public they are even more extreme within the Australian Labor Party itself.

Latham is simply despised by huge sections the Labor Party membership. Enormous numbers of ordinary members will simply refuse to staff the stalls, do the letter-boxing, hand out the 'how-to-vote' cards. Why is this? Because Latham is a evangelical economic rationalist. Take the following statement:

"I believe in an upwardly mobile society where people can climb the rungs of opportunity, climbing the ladder of opportunity to a better life for themselves and their family. I believe in hard work."

Now this is an extraordinary remark from a leader of Party which once advocated the democratic socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange, that once fought a referundum to nationalise trading banks, that introduced free tertiary education, and is supposedly based on overcoming class disparities. But you can only have the "upwardly mobile" with "rungs" in a non-egalitarian society divided by "haves" and "have-nots" - as that's the sort of world which Latham supports.

Let me spell it out in simple terms. Latham wants to abolish the welfare system.

Or, in words I couldn't express better myself, the conclusion of Robert Manne's article


If Latham takes the Labor leadership tomorrow the ALP will gradually abandon interest in Aboriginal reconciliation. It will demonstrate a growing contempt for what Latham calls the left-wing "rights agenda". It will seek to match or outbid the Coalition on questions like the threat of terrorism, "illegal immigration" and the war on crime. Just as Tony Blair transformed the British Labour Party by incorporating Margaret Thatcher's economic ideas, if Latham succeeds in winning the ALP leadership he will attempt to incorporate into Labor Howard's brand of populist, cultural conservatism. After Blair, Britons could say "we are all Thatcherites now". If Latham wins the Labor leadership Australians may soon be able to remark: "We are all Howardites now."


If Beazley was leader, Labor would have won the next Federal election (unless Howard managed to organize yet another war). More importantly Beazley, commanding respect across the entire Party would have been able to organize the fifty-thousand or so volunteers that make up the backbone of the ALP.

There is no chance of that with Latham. The champagne corks must be popping across conservative households tonight. Truly, as Kim Beazley Snr once remarked, the Labor Party once was led by the cream of the working-class. Now it is led by the dregs of the middle-class.

Nota bene for my Canadian and U.S. and other overseas readers: The Liberal Party in Australia is dominated by conservatives. They are politically closer to the Reagan/Thatcher era than political liberalism.

Comments

[the-christian.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I realised earlier today that aside from some attacks on Bush that any basic single-celled creature can make, I know very, very little about the man, aside from his breaking of a cab drivers arm.

And "climbing the ladder of opportunity to a better life for themselves and their family. I believe in hard work."...

Fuck. That's about my only response to that.

You seem like a smart, informed fella. Tell me, why is it the labour party has swung so desperately far away from it's working class roots and become this wishy-washy unrepresentative polling dead whale of a thing that stands for no one I ever met?

[radiumlabs.livejournal.com]

Big Kym goes silently to the back bench and Simon Crean has the opportunity to take up the shadow acting treasurey job but is unlikely to do so ( I think ). So with that if Latham does win there will be little internal muscle behind him or ppl to check him from within the party ( which ever your point of view.

[jazzyjay.livejournal.com]

Why did Labor choose him if he is so despised?

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Labour won't win the next election, there'll be another 4 years of J-ho, and my spirit will get ground into the dirt a bit more.....

Doesn't leave me many options with my useless part Polish parentage. It effectively traps me.

Wow, that's really suicidally depressing.

[jesusandrew.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. I didn't really know much about Latham before, other than that he was "controversial". I was hoping it was in a good way, rather than a Blair way. Dammit.

[darkstardeity.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously thinking of voting Liberal.

Wouldn't that be cutting off your nose to spite your face though? Not to mention aiding J.Ho in his claims to have "a mandate"? Vote for one of the other parties, even if only to register your discontent. Who knows, enough people might be jacked off with both major parties by the time of the next election that numbers of votes for the Democrats and the Greens might give them both a wake-up call. OK, OK, I'm being overly optimistic, aren't I? By the gods, the political landscape in this country at the moment drives me to despair sometimes.

[angel80.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to whip up enthusiasm for Beazley. The Philip Adams article linked by Zey puts it better than I could. He is very, very conservative. Was never happier than when playing with the military toys. Was unmentionable on the Tampa and detention issues. Likeable as a person, yes, but leadership material definitely not.

Besides, I beg to differ with you on this, he would NOT have won the next election. Australians have shown time and again that they do not vote for nice politicians. From Whitlam to Howard (and probably before, but I didn't pay enough attention), they have voted for head kickers.

I don't know Latham from a bar of soap. Nor I suspect does anybody else outside the ALP and the press gallery. Therefore he has a chance to tailor his image. Do I see spin doctors???

I agree, he'll have to do better than that awful 'vision statement'. I don't think it deserves your attempt to analyse it - it's just a bundle of cliches plucked out of the ether.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I've decided to take off the "friends only" security rating and run the risk of being dragged in front of the Disputes Tribunal if some headkicker from the Latham camp finds my comments objectionable and against the Party's public interest.

Heck, I find Latham against the Party's public interest, so I guess that's par for the course.

Seeming that his comments about George Bush and John Howard were about the only sensible things he's said so far, it's been impressive to see how quickly this leopard can change his spots.

Latham in bid to heal US wounds

"Mr Latham told ambassador Tom Schieffer that his judgements on the US would be different now that he was Opposition Leader. He said the US alliance was the first pillar of Labor's national security policy as it was fundamental to Australia's national interest."

Good one, knucklehead.