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December 9, 2012
Here is one reason for why the national mood is downbeat. Luke Foley, a NSW Labor MP of the left, gives us an insight in the NSW Labor Right, after the departure of the former Premier Bob Carr. The NSW Labor Right, which was the dominant faction inside the government declared itself open for business.
Leunig
"Open for business" for the NSW Right meant letting it rip whether it be for the coal, coal seam gas or property development and this was associated with a contempt for, and repudiation of, Labor's environmental agenda. The implication is that the NSW Labor Right is the political wing of the property development industry and of the coal and coal seam gas companies. That means a deep contempt for community concern over mining and development.
A further implication is that the NSW Labor Right is opposed to climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and to carbon pricing and to preventing coastal development in areas affected by rising sea levels. They have been consistent in their attacks on the green economy and associate with the professional dis-informers who facilitate and encourage climate denial, and who obstruct and delay a solution to the problem at great cost in dollars and human lives in support of their own short-term economic and ideological agenda.
The national mood is downbeat because sectional interest is placed before the national interest and that sectional interest is premised on political patronage and political corruption as the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is increasingly showing.
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We are downbeat because we realize that the NSW Labor Government in its last days operated in terms of a pervasive and toxic mix of corruption spanning politicians and businesses (no organised crime yet). It was this particular mix, this system of power, which kept NSW Labor afloat, above and beyond any popular political consensus they may have had.
This system relied on clientelistic – and often nepotistic – ways of managing public affairs and is far removed from liberalism. We are now witnessing political theatre between tragedy and farce as NSW Labor tries to reform itself.