The Labor Disconnect
People often accuse me of being a ‘conservative’. When they say that, it’s often meant as an insult. I don’t consider myself a conservative. In fact I really struggle to fit my views into an Australian political spectrum which at times seems only to have two shades.
Conservatives don’t support diverting intergenerational wealth to government. They don’t suggest making all financial services a government function. Of course progressives rarely criticise horizontal fiscal equalisation and other like forms of wealth distribution. So I find myself a little like Treebeard. I am on nobody's side, because nobody is on my side.
With that in mind this post, and those to follow, deal with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the tensions rippling through its organisation at present. The ALP’s national conference has recently concluded. I’d like to highlight something in particular which in my view illustrate the deep divide that exists within the ALP.
Consider the contentious ‘turn back the boats’ policy. Bill Shorten has publically shifted the ALP’s stance to more closely align with the current governments views on turn backs. It seems the party has accepted this (1). This acceptance however has come at much cost.
Leading elements representing the left of the Labor party delivered a number of emotional speeches clearly against the policy of turn backs at the recent national conference. It’s an emotive issue. Whatever your opinion, surely most people would agree that we should care about what happens to refugees and that we should try to assist them where possible. Personally I’m still deeply undecided about what our government’s policy should be on this issue.
Now consider that one of the pillars of the Labor Party is unions. Even after significant recent reform union delegates still exercise a huge proportion of power in the selection of political candidates. I’m not sure how anyone could conceivably describe the pre-selection process of the ALP as democratic. Also as all members of the ALP have to be in a union in order to represent the ALP in government it seems difficult to imagine an ALP representative that doesn’t represent the unions.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is one of, if not the most, powerful union in Australia. The CFMEU funded a recent television advert which comments on the proposed free trade agreement between China and Australia.
The advert is critical of the current government. It implies that through this trade agreement the Prime Minister is allowing the Chinese to ‘steal’ Australian jobs. I could go on in greater detail. Instead I’d encourage readers to view the advert itself (2).
In my view the advert is a disgrace. I wonder if it is not in breach of existing anti-discrimination legislation. It is Xenophobic. It has racist undertones.
What I struggle the most with though is that the same party which can argue so passionately against turning back asylum seeker boats can also be affiliated with a piece of advertising that looks like it was taken straight from the White Australia Policy (3).
This country needs a reasonable centre-left party. The ALP does not meet that brief at the moment. It is torn between the far left and its progressive principals and the union organisations whose goals simply do not align with either the progressive left or the moderate majority which constitutes the majority of Australian voters.
Why do we need a reasonable centre-left party? A reasonable centre-left party keeps the less reasonable elements of centre-right and right wing parties in check. Without a viable alternative people gravitate towards a stable option. In Australia, right now that option is the Liberal Party (LP). That’s why despite their less than stellar performance over the past year and despite being behind on the polls at the moment, it’s likely that the Liberal Party will get a second term in office.
I’ll end this post here with the promise that the next post will deal with the LP, specifically the challenges it faces and the similar obvious conflicts which clearly impact on their ability to govern.