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December 23, 2010
It is not just asylum seeker policy is it. The minority Gillard Government appears to be all at sea in a number of areas: the Murray-Darling Basin, climate change, health reform, urban renewal --nay reform in general. The exception is the national broadband network, where there has been vision, policy competence and leadership. Why so? Why does the federal Labor's primary vote continue to fall, and not just in the mining states of Queensland and WA?
Bernard Keane's interpretation in Crikey is in the form of an identity crisis:
It’s genuinely unclear, even to Labor MPs, what Labor now stands for, what it believes in its heart of hearts. The party’s turn away from reform under Kim Beazley and Simon Crean was, evidently, more than just petty politicking. But the bigger problem was it didn’t abandon economic liberalism in favour of something else -- say, old-fashioned big government and a regulated economy. No, it continued to talk the language of economic liberalism, but without the commitment to it of the previous generation. In such a party, unmoored from core principles, unsure what its philosophical foundations are, the hucksters of NSW Labor, with their relentless focus on announceables, and focus groups, and media management, could have a field day. And they have. There’s little evidence that Labor is finding a way to repair these deep tears in its soul.
His judgement is harsh but accurate. The political hucksters from NSW run a hollowed out party; one squeezed between the suburban mortgage belt parts of the capital cities and the inner-city areas. The Coalition keeps acting as if an election is just around the corner.
Does that identity crisis mean the social democratic left has to go back to its roots?
Update:
In the Australian Financial Review Geoff Kitney says:
Not since the early days when the two party system evolved has a prime minister faced the challenges Julia Gillard has faced. No modern political leaders have had their power so circumscribed as hers. No modern political leaders have had so little leverage on the system with which to build their leadership authority....Her task is huge. The critical question hanging over her---and which will probably determine the fate of her government --is this: is she up to the task. Does Gillard have the leadership qualities---the negotiating skills, the inspiration, the ideas, the drive, the team, the breadth of vision--- to inspire her government m her party and the people.
This is the great person view of politics--the great leader--when it is the cabinet that shapes the politics; a cabinet in a de facto coalition with the Greens over a normal parliamentary term; it is a collective approach because ministers do have responsibility for their portfolios.
It is the business world that demands strong leadership to push through economic reform to create a market society. A minority government, by definition, cannot be strong. So corporate Australia is sceptical about the Gillard Government.
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So... at some point the Coalition became the radical reformers and Labor became the risk-averse CONSERVATIVES.
How cool is that!!!