Labor's Future (2 Viewers)

[Generator]

I'm partial to Crean myself, Iron.

Crean denies seeking factional deal

Powerbroker blasts Crean, Gillard

Labor infighting worsens

The senior Ludwig actually thinks that Gillard doesne't deserve to be on Labor's frontbench in light of her recent comments. Now, surely this is a strange position when one takes note of the undisputable fact that she is Labor's best parliamentary performer and one the ALP's most promising shadow ministers. Then again, Ludwig is a factional warlord (and the reason for Craig Emerson not being on the frontbench), so I guess that such a childish position is to be expected.

The Bomber must be dreading the coming weeks. Here's to hoping that he finally takes a stand against the factions, but I'd still much rather see a new leadership team that the helm.

 

[Iron]

Factions are inevitable and should serve the strict function of generating better policy through competition and training junior members.
The dirty tricks and tribalism of having your group prevail, no matter what it takes, is the shit that needs to be stopped. It moves away from policy and dwells on power - challenging safe Labor seats rather than marginal Liberal seats, flaring things up and leaking lies to the press, positioning the best person in your faction -rather than the best person- to take the big jobs - all this is killing labor in ways that the Libs have never had to confront.

Kim didnt even have the decency to say that Crean's valuable. He clearly wanted him gone. I mean, look at the lengths Latham went to to get Gareth preselected.

What to do now comes down to two things:
1. Knock over Kimbo before next election
2. Knock over Kimbo after he looses next election (no doubt he can claim disloyalty now)
The first gives Gillard the option of snatching some of Ruddy's buddies. The second gives a mandate for sweeping reforms which are about 100yrs overdue.

 

[Generator]

Two more Labor MPs lose Victorian preselections

Beazley tries to refocus on industrial relations

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Mr Beazley wants Labor to remember an election is just 18 months away. He'd like the focus back on the Government's industrial relations reforms.

But on talkback radio this morning, Mr Beazley didn't have the support of one union member who called in.

UNION MEMBER: I belong to the Electrical Trades Union and I think that, and a lot of the people that I work with, think that you're really a cream puff.

KIM BEAZLEY: Yeah well, I've been in this business for 25 years. Let them jump into the fight as well, mate. That's what you need to be doing with them.

If you're a member of the Electrical Trades Union, John Howard and Nick Minchin are coming for you. And they're coming for you and your standards and conditions.

And you're going to need somebody like me who knows what they're up to, to fight it.

So if you tell that to your fellow workers, if we don't win this next election, the things that make their family life worthwhile, their ability to get decent holidays, their ability to get paid proper penalty rates on over time, out the door. That ought to get them interested.

25 years... Generational change, anyone? Of course, the dominant factions (as they currently stand) would hardly seek to displace the one leader of the ALP is unlikely to ever go against the factional grain.

Such negativity aside, the above appears to be a reasonably clear, concise and directed response, especially for Big Kim.

 

[Rafy]

IN A two-party political system such as Australia's, both sides need to be viable if the system is to work. The federal Labor Party this week has been doing its best to show that it is not viable.
Its leader, Kim Beazley, unable to control his party, has rendered himself so irrelevant that he now "has the smell of death about him", as one of his factional supporters put it yesterday.
[...]After 10 years in the wilderness, federal Labor is in a narcissistic funk. In the past two days I spoke to eight federal frontbenchers for 20 to 30 minutes each. They talked only of the party. Not one mentioned the Howard Government. So why are they there? For many, it is to satisfy old grudges, to advance factional interests, and stoke egos.

Opposition is opposed to itself (SMH)

 

[Generator]

Beazley to Gillard: let's talk

Beazley to Gillard: let's talk
By Misha Schubert and Jason Koutsoukis
March 11, 2006


FEDERAL Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has pledged to take on the party's factions in a significant concession towards internal critics, acknowledging the preselection furore has damaged Labor.

The embattled leader yesterday indicated he was open to discussion on a range of issues, including this week's suggestion by frontbencher Julia Gillard that the four members of Labor's leadership team should sever their factional connections.

[continued - see link]

Waiting for Gillard
Authority crisis

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Heart of the matter

The Labor Party doesn't understand today's Australia and will wither and die unless it finds new ways to address the nation's deeper human needs, according to Clive Hamilton.

An interesting piece.

In his diaries, Latham describes the suffocating impact of the factional system. What he writes has been confirmed by many others with detailed knowledge of how the party operates. There is one glaring anomaly in the overall argument of Latham's book, however, and it demands explanation.

The party that he so sharply condemns is the same one that elected him as leader. It is possible that Latham stood out as a potential leader because of the flatness of the surrounding countryside; yet everyone knew that he was a high-risk choice. His election revealed a hidden aspect of the Labor Party that has received little attention.

Despite the oppressiveness of the factional system, it seems there are enough members of the parliamentary party willing to buck the factional bosses if the circumstances are right. The attraction of Latham, sufficient to persuade a majority of caucus members to overcome their fears, was that he presented as a man of bold ideas.

POLITICS is about seizing the initiative, and it is through ideas that this can be achieved. The Latham election indicated that there is a subterranean recognition, even within the parliamentary Labor Party, that the old social democratic model is no longer tenable, and yet neither is the strategy of emulating the Liberal Party.

The willingness of Labor's caucus to elect Latham as party leader was perhaps the only sign of hope for the future of the ALP as a party of social reform. His demise, due at least in part to the conservatism and control of the factional bosses, has meant a retreat to the reactionary politics embodied in the figure of Kim Beazley.

 

[Rafy]

Rudd waits while leader flounders

LABOR leader Kim Beazley has three months to stamp his authority on his warring party or senior party figures will tell him his time is up.

After a disastrous week of brawling within the federal team, Labor and union figures have set the deadline for Mr Beazley to take control of caucus and increase his popularity with the public.

Ahead of a meeting tomorrow in Sydney with bitter former leader Simon Crean to discuss factional thuggery, Mr Beazley is being warned that ambitious frontbencher Kevin Rudd is waiting in the wings to take over.

 

[Generator]

Gillard slams Labor enemies

Gillard slams Labor enemies
Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
March 13, 2006


JULIA Gillard has attacked her enemies within the ALP as "lying cowards" for dredging up allegations first raised more than a decade ago that a former lover rorted union funds to renovate her home and buy her dresses.

Just 24 hours after the ALP's Right faction accused Ms Gillard's political allies of attempting to broker a deal to allow her to defect from the Left faction, her enemies have again raised allegations twice aired previously under privilege in the Victorian state parliament.

[continued - see link]

 

[Generator]

Labor's been warned: Beazley

Labor leader Kim Beazley warned tonight that the ALP risked being in opposition for a long time if it did not stop its infighting and focus on taking on the government.

Mr Beazley was speaking after meeting tonight in Sydney with Labor frontbencher Simon Crean, who asked for the meeting after winning his Victorian seat of Hotham in a bitter preselection stoush.

Mr Crean last week publicly called on Mr Beazley to stop the ALP's factional warlords, who he said had threatened members to vote for his opponent, union official Martin Pakula.

Mr Beazley said both he and Mr Crean realised they had to get on with the job of winning the next election.

[continued - see link]

As important as winning the next election may be, the ALP will have to deal with its own structural issues at some stage. In particular, the factional stifling of talent is a key issue that should be addressed sooner rather than later.

 

[Rafy]

The latest Newspoll, taken after two weeks of non-stop Labor bloodletting, was even worse than expected for the ALP. For the Leader of the Opposition, it is catastrophic.

Beazley hits an all-time low

18%. Ouch.

Preferred PM: Beazley 18% ; Howard 61%

Voter support for Mr Beazley as preferred prime minister has dropped nine points to just 18 per cent, a Newspoll shows.

Voter satisfaction with Mr Beazley's leadership fell six percentage points, to 27 per cent. At the same time, dissatisfaction rose from 52 to 60 per cent. The Coalition's primary vote rose four points, to 45 per cent, and Labor's fell four, to 35 per cent.

A whopping 61 per cent of voters, up from 53 per cent last month, think Liberals leader John Howard makes a better prime minister than Mr Beazley would if he ever won government.

The coalition has improved its two-party preferred standing from 49 per cent to 53 per cent.

___

But the Newspoll figures point to trends that will entrench fears that Labor MPs have been afraid to name: first, Beazley no longer has an appeal for the Australian public; second, Beazley is suppressing the party's vote; and, third, Labor's primary vote could drop again at the next election.

After two weeks of Labor turmoil, it is impossible for Beazley's future not to be in question.

# The crucial primary vote is at 35 per cent; Labor can't win with a primary vote of 39 per cent or less.
# The two-party-preferred calculation puts Labor's vote at 47 per cent; Labor couldn't win government in 1998 with 50.1 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.

Sketchy Future

___

How Beazley can rebound

Fears of more ALP bloodshed

Go local and stop play-acting: Rudd

Crean and Beazley catch up

Beazley yields to Crean

Get rid of the deadwood, Labor told

 

[Generator]

Two more -

Beazley offers Crean little

Why good times are bad news for parties out of power

 

[Iron]

Latham's having a bit of a chat at ANU next week. I might ask him about his take on this, just to be polite.

 

[loquasagacious]

When's he here?

 

[Iron]

Wednesday 2pm. Im going to give him a handshake to end all handshakes, perhaps culminating in headbut (although most likely result is a broken arm on my part) then nervously ask him to sign the diaries

 

[Generator]

Wednesday 2pm. Im going to give him a handshake to end all handshakes, perhaps culminating in headbut (although most likely result is a broken arm on my part) then nervously ask him to sign the diaries

Hah on that note I finally saw the full handshake exchange between Howard and Latham a few days ago. It was interesting to finally see that Howard matched Latham's initial shake with a slap to the back, but from what I can remember of the coverage at the time you would think that Latham was the only one trying to take control of the situation in an aggressive manner.

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Labor can still win election: PM

Colourful Labor connections

 

[Rafy]

Another day, another poll; this time on individual issues. Unfortunately for Labor and Beazley, the news isnt any better than yesterday.

Voters run out of ways to lose faith in Beazley

KIM Beazley's personal support is crumbling, with voters finding fault with his leadership on every measure - his worst result since he became Leader of the Opposition in 1996.
The latest Newspoll shows Mr Beazley is viewed by voters to be the least "likeable" since 1997, the most "out of touch" since 1996 and generally weaker than when he first took over the job.
At the same time, John Howard is now seen as four times more capable of handling the economy and as good as Mr Beazley on handling education - one of Labor's historical strongpoints.

Voters run out of ways to lose faith in Beazley
__

Why Gillard (with her 'scary robot voice') is basically unelectable....

Julia won't be PM

LET'S get the unspeakable out of the way first. A Labor Party led by a left-wing feminist lawyer would be unelectable in 2007. But that mini-disaster would be only the start of the cascading catastrophe that a Julia Gillard ascendancy would represent for Labor. Gillard is single and childless, has the Mark Latham albatross hanging around her neck and has been a strident critic of the US alliance. Add the scary robot voice and you have more than certain defeat at any foreseeable future election: you may well have the recipe for the collapse of Labor as the natural alternative to the Coalition at federal level.

__

Beazley pleads for unity

Beazley told to shield mps from duds and grubs

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Personally despite my ideological problems with gillard do respect her and would consider labor with her at the helm a far better opposition.

 

[Generator]

Pakula is about to get a seat.

Crean rival backed for state seat

 

[Generator]

Dumped MP angry at leader's indifference

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On the policy front, the ALP seems to be doing all that it can to sweep the past few weeks under the carpet -

Labor to protect buyers' rights

ALP brings out child care policy

Though the factions will continue to be on the agenda for some time, it's good to see that the ALP is finally presenting the odd policy or two to the public.

 

[Jameswilmot2000]

Even though i am a supporter of the Liberal Party I would prefer that the Labour Party did not fade into obscurity ... one party have too much power in a democracy is a bad thing and a large political party in opposition is needed to keep the Liberals accountable

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I think one of their biggest problems is the leftist stance they've taken on various social issues which has lost them their traditional blue collar worker vote. If they went back on that a little and just focused on workers rights I think they'd gain much more votes.