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June 4, 2005
The ALP continually suprises me in terms of its oh so clever parliamentary tactics and its bad long term strategy. The classic example is the way it handed control of the Senate to the Coalition by directing its preferences to Family First. One presumes that as the ALP did not want to lose control of the Senate to its enemies, so the clever tactic backfired.
Tactics have priority over strategy. Presumably it did not occur to the smart political operators to consider what the political landscape would be like for the ALP with John Howard controlling the Senate for a decade. That should have been the possibility to prevent at all costs. Alas, as the political operators in the party machine did not see beyond the horizons of their short term tactics, they handed their enemy dominating power on a platter.
This oh so clever way of political operating continues, as we rapidly move towards a new political order where John Howard will control both houses of parliament:
Now it's not just Beazley. It's the inner circle that runs the ALP these days. I presume the clever 'block the tax cuts in the Senate' tactic was devised by that smart political operator Wayne Swan, the shadow Treasurer, with help from Stephen Smith. Smith went public with the rationale for the tactic.
A similar situation has happened with mandatory detention. Remember it is the Liberal dissidents who are trying to soften the hard edges of mandatory detention, and to limit the time people spend in carceration, not the ALP. The ALP says that the policies advocated by Liberal dissdents, such as Petro Georgiou and Judy Moylan, are in line with its own policies. So openly supporting the Liberal dissidents would increase the pressure on Howard, and it help to keep the momentum up for the much needed changes to mandatory detention.
That is good long term strategy as the mandatory detention camp has become the heart of our political life.
Did the ALP provide support for the Liberal dissident's private members bills?
No. The ALP is being low key: it is asking few questions in parliament on the issue and, as the Opposition, it has not bothered to put up its own legislation to force the pace of change.
The ALP's parliamentary tactics last week were designed to attempt to embarrass the Coalition by highlighting the divisions within its ranks. Changing the mandatory detention system was the instrument used to play the short-term parliamentary tactics game.
That means the short term tactics have priority over strategy.it is normal operating procedure of the ALP's political culture. That means the ALP doesn't really care about changing the mandatory detention system.
Good policy is sacrificed for parliamentary stunts. That is the judgement we citizens make. We also judge that the ALP's political culture needs changing.
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No, they probably do not, but it's funny that if you live in Lindsay Tanner's seat all the direct marketing you receive highlights refugee concerns loud and clear as tho the ALP's main issue was asylum seekers.
This is due to strong Green performance in the electorate, of course, but it'd be nice to see Tanner making some noise in Canberra to match his local propaganda.