February 26, 2006
The event. An ex-leader of the ALP is to be rolled at pre-selection with the blessing of the ALP leadership, despite an unequivocal pledge a year ago that Simon Crean shouldn't be nudged aside?
The implication? The federal ALP is a party divided between the factions of right, centre and left:
Geoff Pryor
It is a party that has a dysfunctional culture based around smear and innuendo in which the machine men preserve their hierarchy of command and control by ensuring tha the people below them say yes and yes. As Mark Latham says in the Latham Diaries:
It's a dense network of influence, a political mafia full of favours , patronage and, if anyone falls out with them, payback. (p. 399)
We are witnessing payback against Simon Crean now by the Right, because Crean organized Latham for leadership against Kim Beazley after Simon Crean was dumped as leader of the ALP by the Right.
Latham spells out the dysfunction:
Each machine man is determined to run something, and if they can't run a full faction, they have split the groups into their own little fiefdoms. It may involve just two or three people, but they see it as a power base of sorts...This has led to chaos in Caucus, and the institutionalization of conflict: fiefdoms fighting fiefdoms about all sorts of trivial issues. In Opposition, the problem is worse because of the lack of positions and patronage to hold them together as a cohesive federation. (p. 399)
Hence the politics of the lowest common demoninator.
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I don't know if this situation can continue indefinitely, but they seem to be taking so many things for granted. Obviously, gaining preselection only has value if the public think the party is worth supporting. Many of the non-swinging voters for both parties vote by force of habit. But if there is an economic downturn or some trouble with the new IR laws, and the voters have to actually THINK about who they are going to vote for, what would make them vote for the ALP over the LP? I don't think that they are adequately working on that. Me-too-ism won't cut it!
The polls are saying that the public want an alternative to the Howard Government - remember we vote Governments OUT of office.