Category: ALP

31 Jan

Comments Off on Where has the light on the hill gone? Labor, economic justice & progressive politics

Where has the light on the hill gone? Labor, economic justice & progressive politics

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Here’s me being quoted in today’s Fairfax papers by ALP member Sarah Burnside, in a solid defence of the need for the Left to combine economic redistribution with progressive social policies: Similarly, former NSW treasurer Michael Costa argues that “most traditional Labor voters are not supporters of the Greens’ policies”. Costa’s solution to ALP woes […]

Filed under: ALP, class

07 Dec

Comments Off on Michael Costa, George Megalogenis & the strange death of ‘reform’ politics

Michael Costa, George Megalogenis & the strange death of ‘reform’ politics

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Now also cross-posted to ABC’s The Drum website. The last fortnight saw the release of two significant contributions to the post federal election debate on the state of official politics, and more specifically its intimate connection with the fortunes of the Australian Labor Party. The first, the new Quarterly Essay by George Megalogenis of The Australian, is a detailed attempt […]

30 Nov

22 Comments

The forward march of the Greens halted?*

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The Victorian Liberals’ victory came as unsurprising to me, and not just for the reasons outlined by the ever-perceptive Peter Brent. There has been voter crankiness against state and federal Labor governments that reflects the exhaustion of the party’s attempt to use technocratic managerialism as a substitute for traditional social democratic politics. As Left Flank has pointed out, this […]

Filed under: ALP, class, Featured, Greens

21 Nov

16 Comments

Taken at face value, Labor is in a lot of trouble

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It was difficult to know how to approach Paul Howes’ Confessions Of A Faceless Man, his public “diary” of the 2010 election campaign. Was it to be a tell-all insider’s account delivering anecdotes that journalistic efforts would miss? Was it to be a re-evaluation of the problems the first-term federal government got itself into, a thoughtful […]

16 Nov

11 Comments

The perils of playing political footsie: The Greens, preferences & the Victorian Election

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Me in today’s The Drum Unleashed on the ABC website, where I look at the collapse of the Greens’ strategy to secure Liberal Party preferences in some key inner-Melbourne seats. Just why is a Left party playing these games? Since 2006 the ALP has hammered the fact the Greens are willing to do deals with the Liberals, a line […]

25 Oct

5 Comments

NSW Labor — Degeneration versus resilience

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[Continued from the last post] The erosion of the ALP’s long grip on the working class vote in NSW has been spectacular, reflecting the long-term processes that Left Flank has repeatedly drawn attention to. Yet it can still rely on a significant party organisation, and even more so the active endorsement (or at least passive […]

Filed under: ALP, Greens, NSW, trade unions

23 Oct

4 Comments

Last drinks for the NSW Labor Party?

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It is now received wisdom that the NSW branch of the ALP is responsible for everything that is wrong with Labor politics in Australia. Even smug Victorian state ministers have felt comfortable parroting this line publicly. In particular, the argument goes, the NSW Right are a bunch of unaccountable thugs who singlehandedly destroyed what should […]

Filed under: ALP, Greens, NSW

26 Sep

7 Comments

Desperately seeking authority

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That new paradigm thingy didn’t last long, now, did it? At least not the world of “kinder, gentler” politics that Tony Abbott was promising. Nor the ability of rural Independent MPs to rise above the fray of deal-making and remain untainted by “old-style” party politics. Nor, of course, the dream of politicians finding more “consensus” […]