October 30, 2005
I have to catch the red eye special plane from Adelaide to Canberra tomorrow morning , so I can only note this essay entitled The Politics of Polarization by Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck. I'll return to it tomorrow, as it refers to the situation of the Democrats in the US. How relevant is their account for the social democrats in Australia?
Galston and Elaine Kamarck say that:
Today's crisis of confidence in political leaders and institutions is in large part a crisis of competence, at home and abroad. The American people are learning the hard way that visions are not plans and that hope is not a strategy. Whatever its specific agenda, the leaders of a new majority coalition will have to persuade the people that they can close this gap.
The ALP in Australia is not doing that. It's chance to seize the center and build a stable governing majority is proving hard to achieve. How can it do that?
The ALP is on the defensive on the broad areas of economics, national security and values and it is only travelling well on industrial relations reform. It's scare campaign has made contact with everyday life. However fractures appear because the right fraction which controls the ALP takes a pathway that brings it close to the conservatives.
An example from this report about the state ALP in Victoria:
In a 24-page critique of Mr Bracks' reform blueprint, the Left accuses the Premier of ignoring major problems confronting the Australian economy, failing to consult with his party, lending support to the Howard Government's "attack on public education" and leaving the way open for the Higher Education Contribution Scheme to be extended to TAFE students.
The Left's paper, which includes input from members of the state ALP caucus and has been sent to the Premier's office, also labels Mr Bracks' call for a 25 per cent cut in business red tape as "narrow and ideological". It suggests Mr Bracks, who is associated with the dominant Right faction, should be wary of advocating increased policy co-operation with the Coalition "at a time when the Howard Government has launched the biggest attack in more than 100 years on the labour movement and workers' rights".
Brack's has rejected the concerns of the ALP as irrelevant.
So what then distinquishes the right dominated federal ALP from the Coalition when the Coalition has a hold on the centre?
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