tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/labors-future-9797/articlesLabor's future – The Conversation2017-02-22T02:08:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/731802017-02-22T02:08:29Z2017-02-22T02:08:29ZPuzder’s failed nomination reminds us why the secretary of labor matters<p>Andrew Puzder’s brief foray into government ended last week when he withdrew his nomination as Donald Trump’s secretary of labor. Just a day later, the administration named its new nominee for the job, Alexander Acosta, dean of the law school at Florida International University. </p>
<p>Put simply, Acosta is a qualified nominee for the position. Puzder was anything but. Why Puzder was ever put forward for an office dedicated to the well-being of American workers – and the agency most responsible for the interests of the white, middle-aged voters making up Trump’s <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/">electoral base</a> – requires some explanation. </p>
<p>Trump’s particular approach to governance became apparent during his first weeks in office as he populated his cabinet with Wall Street financiers such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/business/dealbook/trumps-economic-cabinet-picks-signal-embrace-of-wall-st-elite.html?_r=0">Steven Mnuchin at Treasury</a> and big campaign donors like Betsy DeVos for education. </p>
<p>But Puzder, who headed the fast-food operation that owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., turned out to be more than a number of <a href="http://www.nelp.org/news-releases/poll-voters-urge-senators-murkowski-collins-reject-trump-labor-nominee-puzder/">Republicans</a> could swallow. Puzder has the distinction of being the only Trump cabinet nomination to date who has been rejected. </p>
<p>Charges against him ranged from <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/puzder-oprah-winfrey-labor-235030">allegations of spousal abuse publicized by Oprah Winfrey in 1990</a> but recently withdrawn, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/01/27/wage-and-labor-violations-flourished-at-restaurants-linked-to-trumps-labor-pick/">alleged violations of federal wage and hour laws</a>, the employment of an <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/16/sen-alexander-undocumented-worker-key-labor-secretary-nominee-puzders-demise/97995174/">undocumented worker</a> in his household and an advertising strategy based on soft-core “<a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246487">food porn</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article133102649.html%5D">Acosta</a>, in contrast, served as an attorney in the Justice Department and has extensive experience in labor relations, including as a member of the <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov">National Labor Relations Board</a>. </p>
<p>As a student of labor history, I know the backgrounds of the many distinguished individuals who have led the Labor Department and advocated on behalf of workers. This important position deserves a leader of competence and commitment. </p>
<h2>Why the job matters</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/dolorigabridge.htm">battle to establish</a> a cabinet-level federal agency whose sole purpose was the “care and protection of labor” began shortly after the Civil War. </p>
<p>Early efforts found mixed success, but activists eventually managed to establish a sub-cabinet Labor Department in 1884, which <a href="https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/dolorigabridge.htm">quickly became</a> the “most important statistical agency of its period” by publishing reports on many worker-related subjects such as the impact of machinery, demand for housing and women in the workforce. </p>
<p>A short-lived Department of Commerce and Labor followed in 1903. Today’s Department of Labor was finally established in March 1913, when William H. Taft reluctantly signed a bill into law in the final hours of his presidency that separated the two often competing interest groups.</p>
<p>From the outset, <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/mission">Labor’s mission</a> was to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today, the department gathers and disseminates vital information such as the monthly unemployment report, the consumer price index and workplace benefit trends. In addition, it provides important protections for workers on issues like safety, contracts and wages. Those and other agencies ensure compliance with the federal regulatory regime that immediately affects American workers.</p>
<h2>The first secretary of labor</h2>
<p>President Woodrow Wilson appointed William B. Wilson (no relation) as the <a href="http://millercenter.org/president/essays/wilson-1913-secretary-of-labor">first head of the agency in 1913</a>. </p>
<p>Secretary Wilson had a long record of service in labor relations, beginning with positions at the National Progressive Union and the United Mine Workers of America. He also served three terms as a Pennsylvania Congressman and introduced the bill that split up the Department of Commerce and Labor in order to give workers a stronger voice in government affairs. </p>
<p>As an impartial representative, Wilson played an important role in the federal response to the <a href="http://aurorak12.org/gateway/academics/Social%20Studies%20Dept.%20Pages/documents/LudlowDBQDocuments.PDF">infamous strike</a> at a Colorado Fuel and Iron Company owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr., an event that would become known as the “Ludlow Massacre” and that led to an important innovation in industrial relations. </p>
<p>During a labor dispute in April 1914, a detachment of the Colorado National Guard overran and burned an encampment of miners leading to the deaths of a number of women and children. It prompted national outrage and was immortalized in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A">song by Woody Guthrie</a>. <a href="http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/history_of_labor_unions.html">After pressure from the government</a>, Rockefeller created internal employee representation plans that became pervasive in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Employee-Participation-American-Workplace-Contributions/dp/0899307523">American labor relations</a>. These so-called company unions gave employees a new voice but not much actual leverage in labor negotiations. </p>
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<h2>From then until Puzder</h2>
<p>The many distinguished individuals who have headed the agency since William Wilson have continued his legacy of service. The roster includes prominent labor experts such as <a href="http://francesperkinscenter.org/life-new/">Frances Perkins</a>, the first woman appointed to a cabinet position, who served during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945. </p>
<p>Perkins first became dedicated to improving the condition of American workers during her college years. <a href="http://francesperkinscenter.org/life-new/">Her aggressive agenda</a> as labor secretary included efforts to establish a 40-hour work week and a minimum wage, abolish child labor, set up Social Security and support universal health insurance. </p>
<p>Many of those programs became part of the New Deal, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-us-labor-unions-and-why-they-still-matter-38263">led to a generation</a> of middle class prosperity in the country. </p>
<p>Other notable <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/sec-chrono">office holders</a> include George Schultz, appointed by Richard Nixon in 1969 and who went on to serve as secretary of the treasury and state; John Dunlop, appointed by Gerald Ford in 1975, who was an eminent labor economist at Harvard and the author of a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-relations-systems-Thomas-Dunlop/dp/B0006AVW88">foundational study of labor relations</a>; Ray Marshall, appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and an economics professor from the University of Texas; and Robert Reich, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993 and now a professor at the University of California (Berkeley) and a <a href="http://robertreich.org">popular author</a>. </p>
<p>Overall, what every secretary of labor from Wilson through the the outgoing Thomas Perez had in common was either a detailed familiarity with the labor relations environment or an understanding of political processes and the administration of complex governmental agencies or both. Their backgrounds demonstrated a capacity to undertake the administration of an institution aimed at improving the lives of American workers. </p>
<h2>Puzder v. Acosta</h2>
<p>In nominating Puzder, Trump said he “created and boosted the careers of thousands of Americans” and had an “extensive record” fighting for workers. But compared with previous labor secretaries, Puzder would have been the least qualified in the history of the agency in terms of experience, temperament and training. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/andrew-puzder-labor-secretary-trump.html">corporate lawyer</a> by training with no government experience, Puzder has been a major Republican donor, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/andrew-puzder-labor-secretary-trump.html">giving more than $300,000</a> to Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee in the most recent election cycle. </p>
<p>Puzder became CEO of CKE Restaurants in 2000. He <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/23/news/kfile-puzder-best-of-the-worst/">described his employees</a> as the “best of the worst,” illustrating how little sympathy he has for the tens of millions of workers he would have represented at the Department of Labor. The company’s restaurants such as Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/us/politics/andrew-puzder-labor-secretary-trump.html">have been cited</a> for <a href="https://tcf.org/content/facts/mapping-andy-puzders-labor-violations/">numerous labor violations</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, Puzder <a href="http://www.wsj.com/article_email/no-wonder-growth-has-been-so-anemic-1444948315-lMyQjAxMTI1MjE2NjIxMDYwWj">strongly opposes</a> increasing the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/vickyvalet/2017/01/26/where-secretary-of-labor-nominee-andy-puzder-stands-on-employment-and-jobs/#322621e4446e">minimum wage</a>. And to me, how he deals with gender issues – such as in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvEnVY99DUE">racy restaurant advertisements</a> – shows <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/12/09/puzder-women-ads-carls-jr/">complete insensitivity</a> to important concerns such as sexual harassment in the workplace.</p>
<p>With Puzder’s nomination sunk, the next man up for the job is Alexander Acosta, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/alexander-acosta-labor-secretary-trump.html?_r=0">has already made it through the Senate confirmation process</a> for other jobs three times. </p>
<p>From 2002 to 2003, he served on the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in over 100 decisions. He also held several jobs at the Justice Department, including assistant attorney general in the civil rights division. While <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/17/does_new_labor_secretary_nominee_alex">some have criticized</a> his failure to sufficiently protect voting rights while there, his confirmation will most likely succeed. </p>
<p>Richard Trumpka, head of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/alexander-acosta-labor-secretary-trump.html?_r=0">credited</a> “working people” with torpedoing Puzder’s nomination. “In one day, we’ve gone from a fast-food CEO who routinely violates labor law to a public servant with experience enforcing it.”</p>
<p>The Department of Labor has a rich history in the American political and economic landscape, and it deserves a leader who has potential to fulfill its mission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Hogler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The purpose of the Labor Department is to advocate on behalf of workers. As such, it deserves a qualified leader of competence and commitment.Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/258542014-04-24T03:20:19Z2014-04-24T03:20:19ZShorten, the unions and the challenge of Labor Party reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46949/original/w3mfdggn-1398297138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bill Shorten’s objective of an 'inclusive' Labor Party is hard to argue against in theory, but achieving it in practice is likely to prove fraught.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has outlined <a href="http://billshorten.com.au/towards-a-modern-labor-party">his vision</a> for a rejuvenated Labor Party. His speech earlier this week was a call to arms for the reform of federal Labor’s organisational rules. While Shorten’s objective of producing an “inclusive”, “membership-based party” is hard to argue against in theory, achieving it in practice is likely to prove fraught.</p>
<p>Although the speech was light on detail and did not set a timetable for action, the most important ideas contained within it included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>reducing the barriers to individuals joining the party by introducing a “one-click” online model and reducing the cost of national membership;</p></li>
<li><p>removing the requirement that prospective party members be affiliated to a union;</p></li>
<li><p>reforming federal pre-selection processes to increase the weight accorded to ordinary members in the selection of Labor candidates, including the use of community-based pre-selection methods in non-held lower house seats;</p></li>
<li><p>altering the composition of delegates at National Conference, the party’s <a href="http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/australianlaborparty/pages/121/attachments/original/1365135867/Labor_National_Platform.pdf?1365135867">supreme governing body</a>, so as to privilege individuals over union delegates; and</p></li>
<li><p>advocating for all state and territory Labor leaders to be elected by a combined vote of caucus and the membership.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As Shorten acknowledged, party reform is an uncertain venture. Changing party rules will inevitably make losers out of winners. Those who find themselves on the wrong side of the reform agenda are likely to seek to frustrate it by any means possible. </p>
<p>An added risk is that the conflicts that the reform putsch will produce will spill over into the public arena with damaging consequences for the Labor Party’s image.</p>
<h2>Victim of its own success</h2>
<p>It is not clear that organisational reform can fix the problems at the heart of Labor’s malaise. Labor’s main challenge is <a href="https://theconversation.com/dysfunctional-brand-at-the-core-of-labors-current-crisis-25427">fundamentally sociological</a> in nature. The ALP, like many other social democratic parties in industrialised democracies, is a victim of its own policy successes.</p>
<p>Over the decades, Labor has addressed some of the worst excesses of societal disadvantage and inequality when in government. In doing so, it has transformed both the life opportunities but also the political and social expectations of Labor’s former working-class base.</p>
<p>This has left Labor with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/identity-crisis-who-does-the-australian-labor-party-represent-25374">constituency</a> that is fractured between a progressive and traditional cohort. The gulf between these constituencies is wide. Increasing the party’s membership is unlikely to bridge the policy and cultural divide that separates these voting segments.</p>
<h2>The unions problem</h2>
<p>Some of the reform sentiments within Shorten’s speech might also prove disadvantageous to Labor’s actual interests. For example, Shorten was at great pains to put distance between <a href="https://theconversation.com/whither-the-unions-what-shorten-can-learn-from-uk-labour-25385">Labor and the unions</a>, making clear that the modern Labor Party he wanted was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…not the political arm of anything but the Australian people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shorten justified this distancing from the union movement on the grounds that the role of the unions within the party “has developed into a factional, centralised decision-making role”. While the union connection is clearly messy and embarrassing for the party on occasions – such as in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-alp-becomes-its-own-worst-enemy-in-wa-senate-shambles-25306">disastrous WA Senate election</a> – it is also a relationship that remains beneficial to Labor. That is, the relationship between Labor and unions is not just historical but is ongoing.</p>
<p>The union movement has long served as a recruiting and training ground for many aspiring Labor politicians. This includes Shorten himself, who was national secretary of the powerful Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) before entering parliament. The unions also mobilise for the party at elections and make a substantial financial contribution to ALP coffers.</p>
<h2>A faction-free Labor Party?</h2>
<p>It is far from clear that a larger, more inclusive party will produce a factionless party, free from the destructive power struggles that can grip this – and any other – organisation.</p>
<p>It is difficult to prevent power from aggregating around cliques in any organisation. The larger the party grows in terms of its numerical size, the stronger are the incentives for power to collect around individuals and groups. The rank and file can become disempowered by the sheer size of the organisation.</p>
<p>Also, reforms aimed at breaking up extant power groupings may only temporarily frustrate them. As labour historian Bradley Bowden <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ending-union-ties-would-change-little-for-labor-25439">recently noted</a> on The Conversation, union bosses are likely to circumvent any efforts to significantly sideline them by encouraging their members to join as individuals.</p>
<p>Shorten is <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-kevin-rudds-new-labor-party-15888">not the first Labor leader</a> to aspire to reforming the party organisation, nor is he is likely to be last. He is staking his leadership on achieving a modernised Labor Party and is leveraging his status as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rob-manwaring-12769/profile_bio">first member-elected party leader</a> as the basis for his mandate to pursue these reforms. </p>
<p>But as a factional warrior of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party who profited from many of the rules that he now seeks to challenge, Shorten’s credibility on this matter might be somewhat tarnished.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> The Conversation’s recent series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/labors-future">Labor’s future</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Narelle Miragliotta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has outlined his vision for a rejuvenated Labor Party. His speech earlier this week was a call to arms for the reform of federal Labor’s organisational rules. While Shorten’s…Narelle Miragliotta, Senior Lecturer in Australian Politics, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253742014-04-16T20:28:51Z2014-04-16T20:28:51ZIdentity crisis: who does the Australian Labor Party represent?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46400/original/sn4s2cjm-1397527380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Australian Labor Party is constantly faced with an expectation to be true to traditional 'Labor values' but to then adapt them to a changing Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Daniel Munoz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The key problem facing federal Labor leader Bill Shorten in the wake of the Western Australian Senate re-election is one he has in common with every past Labor leader. The Australian Labor Party is always expected to be true to traditional <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-class-war-searching-for-labor-values-in-the-labor-party-13047">“Labor values”</a> but also has to adapt them to a changing Australia.</p>
<p>While the ALP can talk about good and necessary government policies to help particular groups (such as the <a href="http://www.ndis.gov.au/">National Disability Insurance Scheme</a>) and it can talk about health and education broadly, when it comes to economics and the need to help in a globalised age it has lost the ability to talk of government doing public good for all. All it can do is talk about the free market.</p>
<h2>From Calwell to Whitlam</h2>
<p>A recent <a href="http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport/page/2">poll</a> asked if Labor looked after the interests of working people. And 54% thought it did, but this was hardly resounding, since 49% thought it was out of touch with ordinary people. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are clear assumptions that Labor exists to look after the working class. This is a legacy from the past that is a burden and a blessing.</p>
<p>The problem is, who are the working people in today’s Australia when most Australians define themselves as “middle class”?</p>
<p>The ALP began in the 1890s as a vehicle for blue-collar working-class people who felt they had no political voice. Unions were woven into their lives in the small communities from which they barely strayed.</p>
<p>Appealing to the blue-collar vote was acceptable as long as flat caps, heavy boots and misshapen trousers were the uniforms of working-class men. But in the 1940s Australia started to change appreciably. The link between the ALP and the votes of blue-collar workers started to break down. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46429/original/zqkjw8jt-1397538703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gough Whitlam broadened the ALP’s appeal as party leader.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Parliamentary Library</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blue-collar workers now make up only a small portion of the labour force. Among other things, industrialisation after World War Two expanded the working class in the factories but also changed its composition with immigration from all sorts of countries. </p>
<p>Also, the seemingly widespread affluence of the new consumer society and burgeoning levels of home ownership during the 1950s and 1960s seemed to leave behind the old socialist arguments about poverty, exploitation and depression. Labor was moribund and stuck in the past with leaders like <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/calwell-arthur-augustus-9667">Arthur Calwell</a> who refused to modernise the party.</p>
<p>This was the case until Gough Whitlam came along. He broadened party organisation. He dropped the references to the working class while calling everyone <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/22/1037697884953.html">“comrade”</a> and attracted new categories of voters and new constituencies for Labor.</p>
<p>Whitlam was the first political leader to recognise women as a political category in their own right and not appendages to men as daughters, wives and mothers. He appealed to Aboriginal Australians as voters and to migrants as more than New Australians or refugees. </p>
<p>But Whitlam also aimed to keep the core voters of Labor with a general approach that emphasised the general good that the government could do for all. In other words, Whitlam broadened the ALP’s appeal beyond the unions and the traditional constituencies because all major political parties must be seen to appeal to sectional but also national interests.</p>
<h2>Reclaiming the core constituency</h2>
<p>The ALP has never just looked to the working class and unions to win office. The working class has never just been a solid Labor voting bloc.</p>
<p>The growing sentiment of mythology and party lore over the decades has been an understandable but also distracting nostalgia. From the beginning of the 20th century, the ALP had to look beyond the core constituency of unions and workers to sections of the middle class to win office and to insist on ruling for all groups – not just for the union movement.</p>
<p>This is what happens when you have to aim for more than 50% of the vote. And failure to look further afield helped account for the 23 years Labor spent out of power federally between 1949 and 1972.</p>
<p>The ALP must get a majority by going beyond its core constituency while risking offence to this constituency. And yet, it must try to keep both. Consequently, there was often conflict in the past between trade unions and political leaders over this strategy.</p>
<h2>In recent years</h2>
<p>One of the problems since its 1996 election loss is that too many Labor MPs have swallowed the right-wing Kool-Aid. They took to heart John Howard’s critique that true Labor voters – the <a href="http://inside.org.au/howards-victories-which-voters-switched-which-issues-mattered-and-why/">“Howard battlers”</a> – left the ALP for him while the party chased the inner-city middle class and “minorities”. </p>
<p>Howard defined the ALP in the absence of the party defining itself, even though it was swinging voters – <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/apsa/docs_papers/Aust%20Pol/Brent.pdf%5F">not true Labor supporters</a> – who flocked to him.</p>
<p>Consequently, there was <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=TdlNNgAACAAJ&dq=australian+social+attitudes+2+wilson&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_zNHU-HTG8n7kgW7vYGIAQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ">the rush</a> of unrequited ALP affection for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gillard-tells-aspirational-westies-they-are-top-shelf-12582">“aspirationals” of western Sydney</a>, for instance. However, the party forgot about appeasing its core vote with the promise of help. It forgot about the balancing act. </p>
<p>Last year, voters in western Sydney were still squirming like a reluctant teenager embraced by an over-affectionate aunt when Julia Gillard toured the area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46421/original/ggk5wd7t-1397537892.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ALP has shown unrequited love for voters in the growth area of Western Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diagnosing Labor’s malaise</h2>
<p>The ALP has been unable to define itself as anything but a party devoted to free-market reforms since the Hawke government in the 1980s. The party has lobotomised itself of its history. Although there had been progressive deregulation and reform over the years, this was done as part of an overall plan of state intervention.</p>
<p>The Hawke government introduced <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lessons-of-the-accord-for-modern-times-think-outside-the-box-14985">the Accord</a>, a series of wage and tax deals between the government and the union movement. It also brought in compulsory superannuation (government-legislated providing rivers of gold to a finance sector that hypocritically talks of free market for others) and a series of plans for cars, steel, textile, clothing and footwear that involved the government, appropriate businesses and business organisations, and unions. And <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=S688AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=bhp+hawke&source=bl&ots=6kiafWfkqr&sig=1wfWXwDQjHzXYCHhwc9TyIVYiF4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Cs1MU9iqH8fNkQXj0IH4CA&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=bhp%20hawke&f=false">helping BHP</a> with almost A$1 billion doesn’t sound free market to me.</p>
<p>These plans involved government spending to help modernise in exchange for a timeline for dropping tariffs and targets for exports. But this history has been cut from the corporate memory, and in the process the ALP has lost the ability to talk about government doing public good for ordinary people. </p>
<p>This failure of the ALP to find its voice, except briefly in 2007, partly accounts for sentimental attachment to the unions as the ballast that will keep the party on the right social democratic path. This is even so despite union members making up only <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbytitle/9F48D6BD3EAF15FACA25742A007C0E8F?OpenDocument">18% of the workforce</a>. </p>
<p>This failure to find its voice also means the ALP is not knitting together constituencies when there is more than enough evidence that middle and working-class people will be loaded with the burdens of a changing economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Rolfe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Mark Rolfe, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253852014-04-15T20:39:07Z2014-04-15T20:39:07ZWhither the unions? What Shorten can learn from UK Labour<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46258/original/dqxdmkhf-1397361708.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has embarked on sweeping internal reform of his party. Should his Australian counterpart Bill Shorten follow suit?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Andy Rain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In a post-industrial and neoliberal era, questions of identity are posing acute problems for political parties with ties to organised labour all over the world. Reflecting on the Australian Labor Party’s dismal showing in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/wa-senate-results-labor-crashes-to-below-22-25304">Western Australian Senate by-election</a>, former WA premier Geoff Gallop <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-labor-party-and-the-pitfalls-of-the-politics-of-avoidance-25326">presciently asked</a> of the ALP:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is it a union-based party or is it a social democratic party?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This existential crisis about Labor and trade unions has been ongoing, and not just in Australia. But as federal Labor leader Bill Shorten <a href="https://theconversation.com/party-reform-is-vital-to-regain-public-support-shorten-25311">seeks to reinvent</a> his party, he will do well to examine <a href="https://theconversation.com/ed-milibands-historic-break-with-the-unions-is-bold-but-risky-22712">the reforms</a> his UK counterpart Ed Miliband has introduced to the Labour Party in Britain.</p>
<p>In Britain, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-the-unions-and-the-breaking-of-the-british-working-class-14506">relationship</a> between the unions and Labour has been fractious for a while. Since the 1990s, new “super-unions” have emerged. <a href="http://www.unison.org.uk/">UNISON</a> (formed in 1993) and <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/">Unite</a> (formed in 2007) are the current big players.</p>
<p>In addition, there has been a new generation of left-leaning trade union leaders. The late <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-fighter-and-a-man-of-character-bob-crow-dead-at-52-24237">Bob Crow</a>, the former head of the <a href="http://www.rmt.org.uk/home/">National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers</a> (the RMT), was perhaps the most prominent of these. Len McCluskey, who heads Unite, has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/unite-union-boss-len-mccluskey-threatens-to-launch-party-to-rival-labour-9231266.html">made noises</a> about severing the union’s historic link with Labour.</p>
<p>However, it was Unite’s activities that prompted the latest crisis between the unions and Labour. Unite was accused of vote-rigging in the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-24794093">Falkirk pre-selection</a>, leading to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10439443/Ed-Milibands-leadership-questioned-over-phantom-union-voters.html">further claims</a> that McCluskey (and in turn Miliband himself) were elected with the help of “phantom” members.</p>
<p>In response, Miliband has led a fresh round of internal reform. At a special conference in March, he won party backing to reform the link with the unions.</p>
<p>The main reform is to move towards one-member one-vote (OMOV) for choosing the Labour leader. Currently, the party leader is elected through an electoral college: one-third of the vote from the unions, one-third from the parliamentary party, and one-third from party members.</p>
<p>Significantly, Miliband has backing to reform wider membership of the party. Trade union leaders remain under fire for exercising disproportionate influence over Labour: not all of their members vote Labour, but their numbers count in shaping policy and pre-selections. Under the new rules, affiliated trade union members will have to choose to become a supporter or member of the Labour Party. </p>
<p>Debate continues as to whether either Labour or the unions gain from these reforms. McCluskey and Unite <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/10679228/Unite-union-cuts-funding-to-Labour-by-1.5-million.html">have signalled</a> that their donations to the party will drop dramatically. However, the number of individual union and party members could increase, bolstering Labour’s campaigning presence. That is a crucial factor in increasing voter turnout at elections.</p>
<p>These reforms build upon recent changes where Labour created a new category of “registered supporter” to increase involvement. In addition, Labour will move towards the greater use of primaries for pre-selections – starting with the 2016 London mayoral elections.</p>
<p>For Miliband, there is a dual pressure to both reformulate the link with the unions but also push for broader appeal. In Miliband’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/31/ed-miliband-labour-union-funding-shakeup">words</a>, the aim of the reforms is to “let people back into our politics”. However, the unions will still retain a 50% block vote at Labour’s party conference and also retain their quota on the party’s national executive.</p>
<p>Two wider issues frame this debate about Labour’s link with the unions. Structurally, trade union density is declining in both Britain and Australia, so there is pressure to reduce its bloc vote.</p>
<p>Politically, trade unions have been demonised and marginalised since the 1980s. In Britain, it started with Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s assault on what she called the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/01/margaret-thatcher-trade-union-reform-national-archives">“enemy within”</a> – the trade unions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46259/original/w35xt4k5-1397362165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trade unions have been politically demonised by leaders in both the UK and Australia, including by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Gerry Penny</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The unions themselves have not always helped their cause. In the UK, the Falkirk episode is damaging. In Australia, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/michael-williamson-jailed-for-health-services-union-fraud-20140328-35n3f.html">corrupt behaviour</a> in the <a href="http://www.hsu.net.au/">Health Services Union</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-28/union-accused-of-ties-to-crime-figures-kickbacks-for-jobs/5221234">allegations of corrupt dealings</a> in the <a href="http://www.cfmeu.asn.au/">Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union</a> fuel this antipathy.</p>
<p>As Labor historian Nick Dyrenfurth <a href="http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2014/03/29/union-busting-policy-shows-signs-amnesia/1396011600#.U0eDOh3FU1I">notes</a>, these events have helped prime minister Tony Abbott wage a political campaign against both the unions and Labor. However, the (unfashionable) case for unions is still needed. As federal Labor MP Andrew Leigh <a href="http://www.andrewleigh.com/blog/?p=2521">notes</a> in his book on equality, unions in Australia remain fundamental in the struggle against growing economic inequality.</p>
<p>Cut short by his mother’s passing, Shorten has yet to deliver his speech where he was to unveil his reform agenda. He has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/07/bill-shorten-says-labor-should-abolish-union-membership-rule">floated the idea</a> of removing the requirement for party members to be trade union members, and reducing the fee to join the party to boost membership. </p>
<p>Shorten also <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten8217s-plan-to-democratise-labor-20140414-zqun8.html">reportedly favours</a> reforming the way state leaders are elected, with a 50:50 vote between the parliamentary wing and the rank and file. Reports of the contents of the speech also suggest greater involvement for party members in the pre-selection process. Yet it remains unclear whether he will tackle the union bloc vote at party conferences, which is, in effect, their power to veto policy.</p>
<p>While the ALP might push to create party “supporters”, views are mixed about the growing use of primaries to pre-select candidates. Labor senator and factional powerbroker Kim Carr, in his <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/kim-carr/letter-to-the-next-generation-9780522864458.aspx">Letter to Generation Next</a> book, notes the low uptake at a trial of a primary election <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/usstyle-voting-trial-a-shot-in-the-arm-20100426-tncn.html">in Kilsyth</a> before the Victorian state election in 2010.</p>
<p>The lessons from the UK are complex. Ultimately Shorten might resist Gallop’s assertion that the ALP is either labourist or social democratic. It is, and has always been, a mixture of a number of traditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Manwaring does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Rob Manwaring, Lecturer, Politics and Public Policy, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253872014-04-14T20:40:54Z2014-04-14T20:40:54ZCareful what you wish for: the pitfalls of internal party reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46080/original/5rpjs75m-1397103713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor senator John Faulkner is one leading voice to call for reform of the party in response to recent poor electoral performances.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The dust had barely settled from Labor’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-alp-becomes-its-own-worst-enemy-in-wa-senate-shambles-25306">poor performance</a> in the Western Australian Senate re-election when calls for internal party reform from the likes of party elder <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/john-faulkner-to-pursue-real-change-in-nsw-labor-party/story-fn59niix-1226877903605">John Faulkner</a> and national president <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-president-jenny-mcallister-calls-for-party-reform/story-fn59niix-1226878335940">Jenny McAllister</a> began.</p>
<p>In practice, political parties are hierarchical organisations whose primary function is to select people from within their midst to be candidates at elections. If elected, these representatives will carry their party’s interests in the legislature. For Australia’s two major parties – Labor and Liberal – winning executive power is the benchmark of success. </p>
<p>Failing to win government, however, represents something of a corporate failure on the part of the party. Naturally enough, failure also results in party reviews. Both major parties participate in what is now becoming a post-election ritual for the losing side. </p>
<p>According to reviewers from both sides of politics, bringing in more ordinary citizens as party members is crucial to rejuvenating the party in the wake of a loss. But as enticing as the idea of a party bursting at the seams with members is to notions of party democracy, the reality is the empowerment of party members does have its dangers. </p>
<p>This is especially the case if the views and outlooks of these members are at odds with the electorate.</p>
<h2>What reviews find</h2>
<p>The conclusions major parties reach in post-election reviews have some interesting areas of commonality. They tend to see electoral failure as organisational failure - a conclusion that can conveniently absolve the parliamentary leadership of some of the responsibility. </p>
<p>Reviews by party elders John Valder (who <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/libs-must-face-facts-to-regain-power/story-e6frg73o-1111115097247">reviewed the Liberal Party</a> after its 1983 election loss), John Faulkner, Bob Carr and Steve Bracks (<a href="http://resources.news.com.au/files/2011/02/18/1226008/222073-labor-review-report.pdf">Labor, 2010</a>) and Peter Reith (<a href="http://australianpolitics.com/downloads/liberal/11-07-18_review-of-2010-election-campaign_reith.pdf">Liberal, 2010</a>) commonly concluded that one of the reasons their parties didn’t perform as well as they would have liked was poor candidate selection.</p>
<p>Another commonly held view is that increased membership can only happen if ordinary people have a reason to join. Party oracles all seem to conclude that giving the ordinary citizen more power to select candidates should act as an important incentive for becoming a party member. </p>
<p>For the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party, the very American party notion of having caucuses and conventions has become a model for the pre-selection process. The Labor Party also likes American ideas and has <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/05/14/labor-state-bosses-stare-down-pm-on-primaries">played around with primaries</a>. Both parties project these ideas as proof of their commitment to participatory democracy.</p>
<p>This is a powerful political argument used by the reformers to outflank their internal party critics. After all, who would want to be cast as an opponent of democracy?</p>
<h2>Swinging voters and ideologues</h2>
<p>There is potential for a significant disconnect to occur between party members an especially those voters who make up the “swinging” electorate.</p>
<p>Leaving aside those who join political parties because they aspire to a parliamentary career – or those who have been recruited by someone who aspires to a parliamentary career – the remainder may well be those who see politics as a clash of ideas and ideologies. They have very firm views on what changes to society their parties should make when they win executive power.</p>
<p>This may be quite different from the outlook of the 30% of Australian voters who reside in swinging marginal seats. Their choice is the one that actually decides which of the major parties governs the country. </p>
<p><a href="http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/jspui/bitstream/2328/26061/1/Manning%20Swinging.pdf">Swinging voters</a> are pragmatic in that they see politics not as a battle of philosophies or ideology, but as a question of which party is most likely to deliver services without raising taxes, and which is unified enough to at least give the semblance of order and stability. To win government, the major parties have to appeal to this very centrist and pragmatic constituency.</p>
<h2>The Victorian Liberals’ example</h2>
<p>An insight into the potential that enfranchising an ideological mass membership has to disrupt the pragmatic aspirations of those who lead the party’s parliamentary wing arose in Victoria earlier this year. Liberal state government minister Mary Wooldridge <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/wooldridge-loses-kew-preselection-in-blow-for-premier-20140302-33tmb.html">sought pre-selection</a> for the seat of Kew after her current seat had been abolished in a redistribution. </p>
<p>With premier Denis Napthine <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/denis-napthine-urges-vote-for-mary-wooldridge-in-kew-battle-20140225-33fb0.html">backing her candidacy</a>, Wooldridge faced the Liberal members of Kew. However, the rank-and-file preferred the social conservative views of an alternative candidate, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-kew-liberal-candidate-tim-smith-always-wanted-to-captain-teams-20140303-340k1.html">Tim Smith</a>.</p>
<p>The result has damaged the Liberal Party. This is partly because of the impact this decision had on <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/liberal-infighting-threatens-napthine-20140314-34qv5.html">Napthine’s standing</a> and partly because the pre-selection battle has precipitated a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mary-wooldridge-may-have-lost-preselection-over-refusal-to-review-abortion-laws-womens-trust-20140303-33vgi.html">debate about abortion law</a>. It’s a debate the Liberal government simply does not want in an election year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46088/original/kgg87drn-1397110015.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Victorian premier Denis Napthine has been damaged over a bungled pre-selection involving party members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/David Crosling</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Labor, on the other hand, has structural barriers through the existence of its factions to mitigate the ability of branch members to dominate pre-selections. This is precisely what party reformers propose to give up in a bid to be seen to be embracing “party democracy”. </p>
<p>What’s more, some Labor reformers – including federal leader Bill Shorten – <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/labor-to-loosen-union-ties/story-fncynjr2-1226876136712">have floated</a> the idea of distancing the party from the trade union movement. This is a proposal that would have serious implications for Labor’s financial well-being. Labor received <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/labor-mates-kicked-in-6-million-before-the-last-federal-election/story-fnii5s3x-1226817087676">around A$700,000</a> in direct donations from trade unions in the 2012-13 financial year.</p>
<h2>Reform just window dressing?</h2>
<p>Advocating internal party reform in the aftermath of an electoral failure has now become part of the election ritual. </p>
<p>At the moment, it is Labor that is failing and so it is Labor that is currently romanticising the idea of the noble branch member as the antidote to factional cronyism and poor policy formulation. If only politics were that simple.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Economou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Nick Economou, Senior Lecturer, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/254272014-04-13T20:33:56Z2014-04-13T20:33:56ZDysfunctional brand at the core of Labor’s current crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46195/original/by4rqv95-1397193333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor is bleeding votes both to the right and to the left. Is this because of its struggle to 'brand' itself in today's political landscape?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Daniel Munoz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>If the disastrous <a href="https://theconversation.com/projected-wa-senate-result-libs-3-alp-1-grn-1-pup-1-25532">results</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-alp-becomes-its-own-worst-enemy-in-wa-senate-shambles-25306">campaign</a> in the Western Australian Senate re-election are anything to go by, the Australian Labor Party seems to be losing the ability to brand itself and its policies as appealing to the public. It is struggling to justify creating broad electoral alliances between diverse social groups.</p>
<p>As a result, Labor is bleeding votes to the right and the left – to the Coalition and the Greens. Real-world economic policy dilemmas, implementation problems, powerful vested business interests, demographic changes, pre-selection debacles and media bias have all contributed to Labor’s dire situation. </p>
<p>However, as the WA Senate election reveals, the willingness of ALP figures to make public statements trashing their own party certainly isn’t helping to restore the Labor brand.</p>
<h2>The WA campaign</h2>
<p>Labor Senate candidate Joe Bullock’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-04/labor-powerbroker-bullock-sorry-over-attack-on-pratt/5367270">attack</a> on his running mate, Louise Pratt, reinforced the Coalition’s branding of the Labor Party as dysfunctional and wracked by internal divisions and disunity. </p>
<p>The fact that Bullock had won Labor’s number one Senate spot as a result of <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/04/12/louise-pratt-shafted-in-wa-labor-senate-battle/">backroom union deal-making</a> also reinforced the Coalitions’ branding of the ALP as the plaything of “faceless men”.</p>
<p>Bullock’s attack on Pratt (and on the ALP membership) reveals how extraordinarily careless many Labor politicians and candidates have become about publicly making damaging comments. It shows just how much the party discipline for which Labor was once renowned <a href="http://theconversation.com/moving-forward-where-does-labor-go-now-12980">has declined</a>. </p>
<p>The Liberal Party has proved to be the most tightly disciplined major party in recent years, which has in no small part contributed to its electoral success.</p>
<p>Bullock’s attack also reveals ongoing ideological tensions in the Labor Party. He <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/audio/2014/apr/04/listen-wa-senator-joe-bullock-speech-in-full-audio">argued</a> that Labor was incapable:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…of being trusted to look after the interests of working people and their families. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Only conservative unionists such as Bullock himself could be trusted to overcome the influence of both Labor’s “mad” members and politicians like Pratt, whom Bullock categorised as “a key spokesperson” for the lesbian “persuasion”. Without people like him, Labor would follow “every weird lefty trend that you can imagine”.</p>
<p>Bullock’s claim that there is a division in the party between ordinary working-class Australians and trendy lefties who espouse progressive causes is not a new argument. Its antecedents can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s. Former Labor leader <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/calwell-arthur-augustus-9667">Arthur Calwell</a> had disputes with <a href="http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/whitlam/%20%20">Gough Whitlam</a> over Whitlam’s electoral courting of the new social movements and educated professionals.</p>
<p>Bullock’s arguments, made at a meeting of the Catholic, socially conservative <a href="http://dawsonsociety.com.au/about/">Dawson Society</a>, also resonates with religious conservatives. In the 1980s, highly influential National Civic Council leader B. A. Santamaria <a href="http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=4018">claimed</a> that Labor’s weakness lay in a split between the “family values” of its conventional working-class base and the promiscuous lifestyles of the middle-class professionals that Labor increasingly courted. </p>
<p>Santamaria urged the Liberals to exploit this potential split, just as Margaret Thatcher had in the case of the British Labour Party and Ronald Reagan had in the case of the Democrats in the US. The Santamaria-influenced Tony Abbott <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/early-elections-20120903-2593o.html">took that lesson to heart</a> when he assisted John Howard in hiving off the socially conservative <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/18/1084783513331.html?from=storylhs">“Howard battlers”</a> from Labor’s working-class base. </p>
<p>Significantly, Abbott was a friend of Bullock’s at the University of Sydney, and Bullock actually praised Abbott in his speech.</p>
<p>The problem for Labor is that whenever Labor figures publicly rehash old arguments such as Bullock’s they are not just undermining their own colleagues: they are also reinforcing how the conservatives frame the Labor Party rather than how Labor wishes to frame itself.</p>
<h2>Progressive issues</h2>
<p>Public recriminations also fundamentally undermine the key argument that Labor has traditionally used to win elections. In <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/voting/elections/1972-federal">1972</a>, in <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/category/elections-aus/1983-federal-election">1983</a> and in <a href="http://australianpolitics.com/voting/elections/2007-federal">2007</a>, Labor won the election by successfully branding itself as the party that could govern on behalf of the vast majority of Australians. </p>
<p>Successful branding necessarily involves patching together electoral alliances between different sections of the population to attract the broadest possible vote. </p>
<p>As a result, one didn’t find Whitlam, Bob Hawke or Paul Keating arguing that socially progressive issues were alien to the working class. On the contrary, they emphasised the links – for example, by arguing that the lowest-paid workers were often women or recently arrived migrants. They also argued that equity and diversity would benefit everyone, including business, by contributing to Australia’s economic success.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46196/original/jdn9wh65-1397194182.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating didn’t argue that socially progressive issues were alien to the working class.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, on same-sex issues, it is to Labor’s advantage to stress links rather than differences. Is Bullock seriously suggesting, for example, that his union – the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) – has no gay or lesbian members? </p>
<p>Is same-sex marriage really a “mad”, “lefty trend”, especially now that it has been supported by conservative prime ministers such as Britain’s <a href="http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2011/10/David_Cameron_Leadership_for_a_better_Britain.aspx">David Cameron</a> and New Zealand’s <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&amp;objectid=10823210">John Key</a>?</p>
<p>Above all, supporting same-sex rights hasn’t prevented Labor from also spending (immeasurably more) time and energy on improving the wages and conditions of working families, some of whom also happen to be gay and lesbian. So, why did Bullock publicly damage Labor’s brand by focusing on differences and divisions?</p>
<h2>The mining tax debacle</h2>
<p>It isn’t just on progressive social issues that Labor has been undermined from within. Labor senator Mark Bishop, whom Bullock will replace in the Senate come July, also publicly criticised his party in the wake of the Senate election. </p>
<p>Bishop, in no coincidence, is also a <a href="http://www.senatormarkbishop.com.au/content/page/about-mark.html">former SDA union official</a>, so he didn’t focus on the contribution that Bullock’s comments had made to Labor’s poor showing. Rather, he <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-07/senator-mark-bishop-slams-labor-performance-wa-senate-election/5371100">said</a> of Labor that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this state we speak a language that is either not understood by voters or, if understood, rejected. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In particular, Bishop argued that Labor should abandon its support for the mining tax, which wasn’t even delivering significant revenue.</p>
<p>Bishop’s comments have some merit. Labor members would no doubt have preferred them to have been made within caucus rather than publicly, though. There are <a href="http://theconversation.com/happy-anniversary-julia-gillard-but-youve-still-got-a-lot-of-work-to-do-1951">ongoing issues</a> about Labor’s long-standing failings in communication, including its failure to sell the mining tax. As a result, Labor made concessions to mining companies that drastically reduced revenue from the tax, at least for the immediate future. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46203/original/hqfm5hwc-1397194994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even in a resource-rich state such as Western Australia, it would not have been an impossible task for Labor to sell the benefits of the mining tax.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even in a resource-rich state such as Western Australia, it would not have been an impossible task for Labor to emphasise the common interests underlying the tax when it was first introduced. The tax was originally designed to redistribute the benefits of mining Australia’s resources to other sections of the economy that were not doing as well, or had actually suffered because of the mining boom.</p>
<p>Even in Western Australia, the mining boom was not a blessing for all sectors of the economy. It contributed to <a href="http://media.murdoch.edu.au/is-the-mining-boom-good-news-for-jobs-in-wa">labour shortages</a>, unrealistic <a href="http://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1421/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=02+The+resources+boom+and+the+two+speed+economy.htm">wages</a> in non-mining sectors and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-22/mining-boom-causing-housing-crisis-in-wa/4644298">higher rents</a>, as well as a higher Australian dollar that damaged some exporters. </p>
<p>Above all, the mining tax had been meant to provide revenue that would help sustain Australian government budgets after the mining boom. It was intended to help the economy transition to a more economically diverse and efficient future. </p>
<p>Not only did Labor fail to sell the mining tax initially, but federal ALP leader Bill Shorten failed to make any argument supporting it in his WA Senate campaign launch <a href="http://billshorten.com.au/labor-wa-senate-campaign-launch">speech</a>, presumably deciding that it was too late to garner support for the tax.</p>
<p>The mining tax debacle is just one more demonstration that Labor seems to have lost the ability to brand itself as the party that will best manage social and economic change, to the benefit of all Australians. And yet, that is central to how Labor wins elections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Johnson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Carol Johnson, Professor of Politics, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/254392014-04-10T20:42:21Z2014-04-10T20:42:21ZWhy ending union ties would change little for Labor<p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In the last two years Labor has witnessed the worst electoral performances in its history. In 2012, Queensland Labor was reduced to a rump of seven seats in the state parliament, a lower representation than what it obtained in its first electoral showing in 1893. </p>
<p>In the recent Tasmanian state election, and in the Western Australian senate election, Labor’s primary vote was the lowest in 100 years. At the last federal election, the percentage of the electorate that voted for a Labor candidate (34%) was less than that secured in the 1932 election (37.7%) when the Scullin government lost power in the depths of the Great Depression. </p>
<p>As calls for party “reform” mount, a variety of Labor leaders argue that the good times will only return for the party if it ends “union control”. The problem with this argument is that Labor today is not a “union controlled” party. Rather, it is a faction-run party, unburdened by any ideals.</p>
<p>In exercising power, the factions use many levers - branch stacks, the union bloc vote and business financial donations that pay the dues of “phantom” members. The loss or diminishment of one lever will cause little inconvenience. If the union vote is lost, the factions will simply pull harder on other levers.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, Labor was certainly a union-dominated party, just as Australia was a union-dominated society. In 1948, when union density reached its peak, 64.9% of the workforce belonged to a union. At this time, two-thirds of the working population was found in manual, blue-collar jobs.</p>
<p>In this world, unions and their leaders were highly respected figures in working-class society. Labor’s association with unionism was its greatest boon. By 1970, however, things had changed. Technology had destroyed traditional jobs. Blue-collar workers had became a minority force. </p>
<p>In 1971, for the first time in decades, non-unionists became a majority of the workforce. Realising that Labor needed to win the support of the growing professional middle-class, Gough Whitlam pursued policies in education and social policy that emphasised individual advancement. In the state Labor branches, most notably Victoria and Queensland, “reform groups” dramatically increased the power of the (increasingly middle-class dominated) local branch membership. </p>
<p>Affiliated unionists lost the automatic right to vote in Labor plebescites. Increasingly, Labor pursued policies such as privitisation, tariff reductions and enterprise bargaining that appealed to business and the middle-class but did the shrinking union movement great harm. </p>
<p>As union power declined, both within Labor and the wider society, a reverse take-over occurred. Unions hired young, university-educated Labor activists as industrial officers. Over time, these people progressed up the union hierarchy, often assuming controlling influence. </p>
<p>Even where unions remained under the control of people who had progressed up from the shop floor, union leaders increasingly became part of a new Labor elite, marrying parliamentary members and accepting positions on corporate boards. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, unions and union members became less influential in the political process. As my recent study of Queensland Labor, published in the November 2013 edition of Labour History shows, by 1998 unions were contributing only 14.1% of the branch’s income. Instead, business donations and investment income bankrolled the party. </p>
<p>Business donations also swelled factional coffers; donations that were used to pay the dues of non-existent members. As the 2001 Queensland investigation into electoral fraud, <a href="http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications/misconduct/the-shepherdson-inquiry-an-investigation-into-electoral-fraud.pdf/download">the Shepherdson inquiry</a> revealed, when party plebescites were held the ballots of these “phantom” members were collected from “safe houses” and cast by trusted operatives.</p>
<p>By the late 1990s the Labor Party had morphed from a union-controlled party into a faction-controlled party. Today, the power base of these factions is everywhere and nowhere. While primarily drawn from the professional middle-class, the factional warlords are a nebulous group whose composition is self-selected. To the extent that this group has ideals, they are increasingly removed from the concerns of society’s “battlers”. </p>
<p>Issues such as global warming, rather than rising electricity prices, stir discussion. Certainly, factional control of the unions is still a key factor in the exercise of power within Labor. But it is only one factor, and by no means a decisive one. </p>
<p>If Labor were today to end its union ties it would, for Labor, change very little. If unions were no longer affiliated, the factions could recruit large numbers of union members, be they paid officers or rank-and-file activists, directly into the party. They could also use money obtained from business benefactors to pay the dues of the non-existent or disinterested member. </p>
<p>Even if, by some miracle, “democratic” membership control was obtained, Labor’s problems would be far from over. What policies would Labor stand for? If it advocated pro-environment policies, as its inner-city membership would no doubt advocate, then pro-development regional and rural voters and members would be alienated. </p>
<p>If it became a more forceful pro-environment party, what differentiates it from the Greens? Alternatively, if it became a more forceful pro-development party, what differentiates it from the Nationals? </p>
<p>Given such conundrums, the only likely beneficiaries of a union-Labor split are trade unionists. Currently, they gain little and - as the Williamson and Thompson sagas showed - often lose much from the current arrangements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley Bowden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Bradley Bowden, Professor, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253262014-04-08T20:06:01Z2014-04-08T20:06:01ZThe Australian Labor Party and the pitfalls of the politics of avoidance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45914/original/f3sf44xd-1397007234.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor Party reform is vital, but this time around it needs to be more substantial and far-reaching than previously to secure the party’s long-term future.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Daniel Munoz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Dealing with an existential crisis is never easy. It requires asking hard questions and a commitment to real change. Each is hard enough but the latter particularly hard. Often we know what needs to be done but keep putting it off to a later day. </p>
<p>This applies to organisations as much as it does to individuals. The current state of the Australian Labor Party is a good case study in this politics of avoidance. Its <a href="http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/3/26/politics/shorten-seeks-double-alp-membership">membership base</a> has all but collapsed, its primary vote is at a <a href="https://theconversation.com/wa-senate-results-labor-crashes-to-below-22-25304">historic low</a> and its <a href="http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/australianlaborparty/pages/121/attachments/original/1365135867/Labor_National_Platform.pdf?1365135867">constitution</a> is corporatist and constraining. </p>
<p>The ALP is, however, still a nationally important organisation with a base in civil society and our political institutions, local, state and federal. This leads many of its leaders and managers – inside and outside parliament – to think that the crisis is part of the normal cycle of politics and good times will return.</p>
<p>The problems the ALP needs to address are twofold. The first are organisational and managerial and the second are ideological and political. The first takes us to its constitution and the second to its platform and policies.</p>
<h2>Organisational reform</h2>
<p>Constitutional reform needs a principle and that has to be democratic. That means a membership system based on one person, one vote and one value. Any compromises to that principle require clearly demonstrated political benefits. </p>
<p>In such a system, branches could be geographic, industrial or issue-based. That is, of course, a good description of how politics more generally is organised today. </p>
<p>The ALP’s corporatist structure puts too much power in the hands of too few people. Good people and advocates of justice they may be – and many are – but centuries of political science, whether conservative, liberal or republican, can’t be wrong. Power can, and too much power certainly will, corrupt those who hold it.</p>
<p>Labor needs to be not just more democratic but also more professional, in particular in policy development and candidate selection. The party relies too heavily on vested interests when developing policy. It needs to draw more heavily on evidence-based research and be more willing to involve the community using proven methods of citizen engagement, such as citizens’ assemblies and juries. </p>
<p>It will not be enough just to incorporate primaries into the pre-selection process, as important as that is. Potential candidates need to be identified and tested for their personal and political capabilities, just as any serious organisation does. </p>
<p>The current system that virtually excludes all but a few union-based factional leaders and their supporters isn’t bad because the people involved are inherently bad – they aren’t – but because it defies democratic and managerial logic.</p>
<h2>Platform reform</h2>
<p>The preferred option regarding platform and policies is where Labor is really struggling. Is it a union-based party or is it a social democratic party? </p>
<p>In the past, the numerically strong labour movement negotiated with the party leadership over policy priorities. But in this mix were plenty of ordinary members who could influence the process. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but the balancing that occurred between leaders, unions and members did allow for new ideas to emerge and did push the ALP in the direction of the common good.</p>
<p>Today, the situation is quite different. Social democracy is struggling to find the air it needs to breathe. </p>
<p>Firstly, there is the role of Labor’s union-based right wing, which exercises what can be described as <a href="http://www.thepowerindex.com.au/union-heavies/joe-de-bruyn">socially and industrially conservative</a> influence on policy. That means party acceptance of a conscience vote not just on issues like abortion and euthanasia but also on stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45828/original/n68mxz7k-1396921105.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The social democratic element within the ALP is struggling to influence the party’s platform through avenues such as the national conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The convictions of the Christian Democrats in the ALP are honestly held but are clearly at the expense of Labor as a political organisation keen to draw support from the wider community. In some ways, they play the same role as the old left did in the 1960s and act as a veto power on Labor renewal. The result is that plenty of votes that should be Labor’s have gone elsewhere.</p>
<p>There is also the question of economic and industrial policy. A veto power again exists when it comes to microeconomic reform. In the Hawke-Keating years, the labour movement and the government entered into a contract that gave support to economic reform so long as there was a social wage built around health, education and training in return. </p>
<p>However, for some in Labor’s industrial ranks, these policies weren’t anything more than a transfer of power from labour to capital. Today they are reluctant to embrace further reform. They weren’t always wrong in this judgement and the get-rich-quick faction within the business class was given too much licence. </p>
<p>Some Labor-affiliated unions see economic – and environmental – reform as a threat to their organisational position in the labour market. The problem is serious reform is still needed and that demands strategic thinking of the sort we saw in the 1980s.</p>
<h2>Lessons from history</h2>
<p>In many ways there is a tragic quality to the situation. A significant number of Labor strategists blame the alliances that have been made with <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greenslabor-alliance-is-over-confusion-reigns-20130219-2epka.html">the Greens</a> and others as the cause of the problem. In fact, they are the result of Labor’s historically weak primary vote. </p>
<p>The assumption seems to be that if only Labor returned to its industrial base and focused on economics above all else, all would be well again. What this so-called strategy actually means is that the Greens and others are left free to plunder votes that would be available to a genuinely social democratic party interested in social and environmental as well as economic issues.</p>
<p>The truth is that the ALP is like any organisation, be it private, community or public sector. It needs external sustenance, which only comes if it is trusted and if it is relevant. Both elements are missing – or at least are missing to the extent needed for the party to flourish. </p>
<p>Harking back to the glory days of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating might make parliamentarians and party members feel good – just as harking back to John Curtin and Ben Chifley made the party feel good in the 1960s. However, feeling good and doing well are two different things. </p>
<p>In fact, in the 1960s, it took a supreme effort by Gough Whitlam and his fellow reformers to confront this complacency and put the party back on a trajectory of success. Hawke and Keating – and their state equivalents – fed off the assets so created by the reformers; some very effectively, some not so effectively and some not at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45817/original/qhctpfq9-1396919025.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harking back to the glory days of Hawke and Keating might make Labor MPs and members feel good, but will it lead to anything?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The need for reform</h2>
<p>All too often it seems Labor is back in the early 1960s again, complacent and self-congratulatory rather than self-aware and hungry. Reform is vital, but this time around it needs to be more substantial and far-reaching. </p>
<p>Unlike in Whitlam’s era, trade unions are really struggling and too reliant on the ALP for sustenance. The links of some unions to Labor aren’t helping them renew, nor are they helping the party. </p>
<p>It’s a post-colonial world in economics as well as politics and culture. That means the “costs of production” can’t be swept under the carpet. Politically, it’s an era of “communicative abundance” and “ideological confusion” rather than a simple battle between left and right. </p>
<p>Add to all of that climate change and the fears and uncertainties it has created and then ask the question: is Labor in a position to offer leadership as it did in the early 20th century (the <a href="http://manningclark.org.au/papers/2014-manning-clark-lecture-geoff-gallop">Great Australian Settlement</a>), the 1940s (the <a href="http://www.ie.ufrj.br/eventos/seminarios/pesquisa/texto_02_12.pdf">Keynesian welfare state</a>) and again in the late 20th century (<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-float-australia-had-to-have-21361">national economic reform</a>)?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Gallop is a member of the ALP.</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Geoff Gallop, Director, Graduate School of Government, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/251322014-04-07T20:09:31Z2014-04-07T20:09:31ZCan Labor recapture the will and capacity to win the big debates?<p><em>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects. In this edited extract of a speech delivered prior to the WA vote, former ALP National President Barry Jones discusses Labor’s aversion to the big policy questions.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The ALP may have lost the capacity to take control of major issues and win debates on them. Its last success was against John Howard over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorkChoices">WorkChoices</a> in 2007.</p>
<p>WorkChoices generated a well-founded fear among voters that Howard had gone too far and that job security and living standards were threatened.</p>
<p>Tony Abbott, not exactly an enthusiast for unions, <a href="http://www.theherald.com.au/story/930684/howards-workplace-law-push-mutes-abbott/">was understood</a> to have strongly opposed Howard’s position in cabinet. Opposition also came from church leaders, Catholic and non-Catholic, and many NGOs.</p>
<p>Since then there has been a long series of failures in advocacy, even when the evidence was overwhelmingly on Labor’s side. The list includes: handling the economy, taxation, climate change and carbon pricing, environment, asylum seekers and refugees, problem gambling, a republic, human rights and the surveillance state.</p>
<h2>Handling the economy</h2>
<p>The International Monetary Fund and Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australia-you-dont-know-how-good-youve-got-it-20130901-2sytb.html">praised</a> the Rudd government as having handled the global financial crisis better than any other developed nation. Australia had lower unemployment than most OECD countries, with low interest rates, a AAA credit rating from all three major agencies, low international debt, high foreign investment and a ranking next to Norway on the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi">Human Development Index</a>.</p>
<p>Labor proved incapable of explaining its success to the electorate – partly because of suicide bombing over leadership. The pink batts fiasco, resulting in four deaths, deplorable and probably preventable, submerged any argument Kevin Rudd might have made that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pink-batts-not-a-scandal-but-not-as-good-as-claimed-10213">home insulation scheme</a> was a 98% success.</p>
<p>Polling indicated that voters thought the Coalition would be better at managing the economy. This at a time when Abbott and Joe Hockey were falsely denouncing the economy as a smoking ruin and the Coalition had not yet revealed its economic policies.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://taxreview.treasury.gov.au/Content/Content.aspx?doc=html/home.htm">2009 taxation review</a> chaired by Ken Henry was very badly handled by Labor. The government cherry-picked a few big-ticket items, such as the Minerals Resources Rent Tax, failed to negotiate with miners, jumped the gun and imposed a tax that generated community opposition but raised <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-mining-and-governing-policy-made-on-the-fly-is-likely-to-flop-12261">very little revenue</a>.</p>
<p>Tax rates were never mentioned in the 2013 election campaign. Australia is the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/tax-revenues-continue-to-rise-across-the-oecd.htm">fifth lowest taxing nation</a> in the OECD: only Mexico, Chile, the US and South Korea have lower rates. Unfortunately the comparison is virtually meaningless to Australian taxpayers because, other than assertion, they have no basis of comparison.</p>
<p>On the ABC’s 7:30 program on March 12, Henry argued <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-12/henry-warns-raising-gst-is-inevitable/5316816">powerfully</a> about the need to raise taxation levels, even if it is politically unpopular, as the only way to fund the <a href="http://www.appa.asn.au/gonski-report.php">Gonski school reforms</a>, the <a href="http://www.ndis.gov.au/">National Disability Insurance Scheme</a> (NDIS) and the increasing costs of an ageing population. Securing bipartisan agreement should be easy. Interestingly, Henry was <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/henrys-tax-proposals-still-wrong/story-e6frg9k6-1226861700697#">subject to some biffo</a> in the Murdoch papers for raising the bleeding obvious.</p>
<h2>Retreating on climate change</h2>
<p>Labor’s handling of the climate change/carbon pricing issue was atrocious. In 2007, Rudd promised a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Browse_by_Topic/ClimateChange/Governance/Domestic/national/cprs">Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme</a> (CPRS), generally referred to as the emissions trading scheme. In 2009 he failed to get support from the Greens and decided not to call a double dissolution after the Senate rejected it. </p>
<p>After Malcolm Turnbull lost the Liberal Party leadership, and Rudd returned deeply disillusioned from the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8424522.stm">Copenhagen Climate Conference</a>, he virtually dropped the issue.</p>
<p>In 2010, Julia Gillard <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillards-carbon-price-promise/story-fn59niix-1225907522983">promised</a> not to introduce carbon pricing, then did so after the election. She could have explained her change in direction convincingly but failed to do so, and after the legislation was carried never argued effectively for its merits or explained its purpose.</p>
<p>The mining industry and the Murdoch papers attacked climate change measures relentlessly. To call the Rudd-Gillard government’s response feeble would be to over-praise it. The scientific case was miserably explained and the problems of risk assessment not advanced at all.</p>
<p>Bernie Fraser had it absolutely right when he <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/12/climate-change-body-chief-bad-guys-won-when-the-good-guys-lay-down">attacked</a> “brazen falsehoods” and “misinformation” about climate change. He concluded that the “bad guys” won after the “good guys” lay down.</p>
<p>The environment used to be high on the political agenda. Now it is rarely talked about in political circles, and the mantra is “Jobs!, Jobs!, Jobs!”. This often means, in practice, a conviction that work in the future will be essentially what it has been in past generations, an extremely unlikely proposition. </p>
<p>Control of the party by factions, which in practice are essentially executive placement agencies, means the ALP may have lost the capacity to deal with major issues.</p>
<h2>Abandoning asylum seekers</h2>
<p>The asylum seeker/refugee tragedy continues. “Boat people” are officially designated as “illegals” even when <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-treat-the-vulnerable-is-a-moral-test-beyond-politics-24412">they have broken no law</a>. We have a bipartisan approach, but it is a negative one, a race to the bottom with alternative cruelties offered for the support of voters. Dissenters include the Greens, the Democratic Labor Party and the Palmer United Party.</p>
<p>The period 1947-96 involved bipartisanship on immigration that was positive. Malcolm Fraser gave permanent residence to more than 50,000 <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/fraser-the-unsung-hero-of-humane-refugee-policy/story-e6frg7ax-1225815259755">Cambodians and Vietnamese</a> after 1977. Bob Hawke did the same with 20,000 <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2589754.htm">Chinese students</a> after Tiananmen Square in 1989. In both cases the then-opposition went along.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-human-rights-record-has-not-improved-since-the-tampa-3058">Tampa incident</a> in 2001 marked a turn in the tide, with a covert racism which the then opposition cravenly supported (it being an election year). Now there is negative bipartisanship based on fear. Abbott and immigration minister Scott Morrison may settle Coalition policy, but they shape Labor policy as well.</p>
<p>In the 2013 election I thought that Labor’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-more-asylum-in-australia-for-those-arriving-by-boat-rudd-16238">Papua New Guinea “solution”</a> was diabolically clever – then I realised that it was just diabolical. And the cost is extraordinary, not just in dollars but in the destruction of values.</p>
<p>Between about 1967 and 2001, racism was not an element in the practice of Australian politics: it was avoided, by consensus. Now racism is a powerful element, both explicit and implicit.</p>
<h2>Failing to tackle problem gambling</h2>
<p>Australians, according to The Economist, rank <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/04/gambling-australians-bet-more-lose-more">#1 in the world as gamblers</a>. But, as the failed attempts to secure federal legislation to curb problem gambling in the 43rd parliament demonstrated, the sheer size and spread of the gambling industry and its powerful influence in politics and the media make it virtually untouchable. </p>
<p>In addition, states and territories become addicted to gambling revenue, and simply can’t break the habit.</p>
<p>Labor’s craven failure to tackle problem gambling is a striking illustration of the power of sectional and regional vested interests. Ducking and weaving, it refused to address one of the great social problems, a major contributor to poverty, marriage breakup and suicide.</p>
<h2>Giving up on a republic</h2>
<p>The republic is a highly symbolic issue – not an economic one. Outwitted and outmanoeuvred by John Howard in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3423918.htm">1999 referendum</a>, when direct-election republicans and die-hard monarchists made common cause, Labor has backed away from an issue that is capable of generating idealism, vision and commitment.</p>
<p>Labor adopted the absurd position that the issue would be shelved until the reign of Queen Elizabeth II ended, by abdication (unlikely), incapacity (possibly) or death (she might well outlive her centenarian mother). That enshrines the proposition that our national priorities should depend on an external factor over which we have no control. It also means that affection and respect for a person outweighs matters of principle.</p>
<p>Prince George photographs well. Perhaps there could be a further moratorium to include him.</p>
<h2>Surrendering our rights</h2>
<p>The United States, during the administration of George W Bush, sanctioned the use of torture, suspension of the rule of law, suppression of information and expansion of the surveillance state. Australia weakly acquiesced. </p>
<p>President Barack Obama has wound back on torture a little, we think, but the surveillance state is still powerful and selective assassinations are increasing sharply. Australia’s weakness in the case of <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-bradley-manning-convicted-what-now-for-julian-assange-16566">Julian Assange</a> has been a matter for shame.</p>
<h2>Where to now?</h2>
<p>Five things are needed: vision, courage, judgement, capacity to argue a case and leadership.</p>
<p>In the Whitlam and post-Whitlam era, people were drawn to political activism because of specific policies that they were desperate to change: abolishing the death penalty, getting out of Vietnam, ending conscription, establishing Australia’s national identity (including constitutional reform and the republic), ending White Australia, entrenching rights for Aborigines and promoting affirmative action, preserving the environment (Great Barrier Reef, Tasmanian wilderness), universal secondary education and more universities.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, Gough Whitlam, Jim Cairns, Lionel Murphy and Don Dunstan were passionate and courageous advocates for policy changes. They were not particularly close, but they agreed on most issues. We all knew what they stood for. The same was true of Hawke and Paul Keating, and we could add names like Tom Uren, Neville Wran and John Cain.</p>
<p>Where are their equivalents – who are their equivalents – today?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract of a speech delivered to an Evatt Foundation fundraiser on March 15.</em></p>
<p><em>Please leave your comments below or email thoughts and suggestions to <a href="mailto:editorial@theconversation.edu.au">editorial@theconversation.edu.au</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Jones is a member of the Australian Labor Party, was Minister for Science in the Hawke Labor government (1983-1990), and was a former National President of the ALP (1992-2000; 2005-06).</span></em></p>In the wake of the ALP’s poor result in the recent Western Australia Senate election, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles looking at the party’s brand, organisation and future prospects…Barry Jones, Honorary (Professorial Fellow), Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253062014-04-07T01:39:00Z2014-04-07T01:39:00ZThe ALP becomes its own worst enemy in WA Senate shambles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45696/original/fyhxyvqy-1396757302.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Factional dealings saw Labor senator Louise Pratt demoted in favour of conservative union heavyweight Joe Bullock in the ALP's WA Senate ticket.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The only surprising factor in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-04/labor-powerbroker-bullock-sorry-over-attack-on-pratt/5367270">stories</a> regarding Joe Bullock, who held the number one position on the ALP Senate ticket at Saturday’s Western Australian Senate byelection, was that they took so long to break into wide circulation.</p>
<p>Bullock, who was <a href="https://theconversation.com/wa-senate-results-labor-crashes-to-below-22-25304">elected</a> to the Senate on Saturday, managed to gain pole position on the ALP ticket around a year ago, in the lead-up to the September 2013 federal election.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/04/12/louise-pratt-shafted-in-wa-labor-senate-battle/">part of a deal</a> which saw left candidate Simone McGurk from Unions WA (the state version of the Australian Council of Trade Unions) <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2013/04/20/seat-of-the-week-hasluck/">gain pre-selection</a> for the state seat of Fremantle, Bullock, from the right-wing Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), was able to leap-frog incumbent senator Louise Pratt, who is backed by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. </p>
<p>Pratt took the number one position in 2007, which resulted in then-senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Webber">Ruth Webber</a> losing her seat. Her fate in the byelection is unclear as counting continues.</p>
<p>As a result of the deal, senator Mark Bishop, a former ally of Bullock’s and the traditional SDA candidate, <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/16748866/unions-gang-up-to-flick-alp-senator/">did not seek pre-selection</a> in 2013, having correctly viewed a third ALP seat as being unwinnable.</p>
<p>Pratt made her disappointment with the demotion known when she released the following post, which remains on Facebook:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45695/original/ht46xns8-1396754814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span>
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<p>While the deal gained notice in February 2012 during the pre-selection process for the 2013 state election – and again in April 2013 when the WA candidates for the federal Senate were finalised – it remained a relatively low-key story. And it would have remained so, if not for the need to hold a new Senate election in Western Australia.</p>
<p>As the weekend’s results show, as long as the ALP allows union heavyweights to dominate the pre-selection process and nominate candidates at odds with the views of the general membership – and in this case, all left-leaning progressives in the electorate – they will continue to alienate voters.</p>
<h2>Senators on the hustings</h2>
<p>Senate positions are often provided to heavyweights in both major parties. They are able to focus on internal party politics and policy rather than the constituency work required by members of the House of Representatives.</p>
<p>Ordinarily, Senate candidates don’t attract much attention in election campaigns, unless they hold a ministry or shadow ministry position. But ALP apparatchiks must have had their hearts in their mouths ever since the possibility of a re-election for six Western Australian Senate position was raised. They knew what an electoral liability Bullock could be.</p>
<p>Pratt, however, has a relatively high profile in many segments of the Western Australian electorate as a result of her time in state parliament. She has a strong personal following due to her support for <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/we-already-exist--stop-pretending-that-we-dont-20120921-26bpa.html">same-sex marriage</a> and her calls for action on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/03/scrap-carbon-tax-bill-defeated-senate">climate change</a>.</p>
<p>While Pratt, who holds her own when dealing with media, was seen out and about on the hustings, The West Australian newspaper had to <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/latest/a/21951505/labor-rivals-put-unity-on-show/">lure out Bullock</a>, who managed to keep a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/14/wa-senate-poll-bill-shorten-plays-down-differences-with-labor-candidate">very low profile</a> during the first weeks of the campaign.</p>
<p>However, the focus shifted to Bullock in the last two weeks of the campaign as details of his conviction for unlawful assault in 1996 were <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/22346340/labor-wa-candidate-has-assault-conviction/">revealed</a>. This was followed by the release of a recording of a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/audio/2014/apr/04/listen-wa-senator-joe-bullock-speech-in-full-audio">Q&A session</a> after a speech to the Dawson Society, a Christian group, in November last year.</p>
<p>The recording highlighted Bullock’s socially conservative views, his general disdain for progressives within the ALP and his sympathies with his <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/tony-abbotts-former-ally-joe-bullock-could-be-his-downfall-in-the-senate/story-fncynjr2-1226874754555">old university friend Tony Abbott</a>, whom he claimed had the potential to be a “very good prime minister”.</p>
<p>Bullock was also forced to front the media to <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/22400366/joe-bullock-rules-out-leaving-the-labor-party-if-he-wins-office/">apologise for comments</a> he made about Pratt’s sexuality (she is openly gay) with Pratt by his side.</p>
<h2>Bullock’s views no surprise to the ALP</h2>
<p>Going into this election, the ALP was unable to offer the electorate anything by way of new policies or funding as the results of the Senate re-election would not lead to their winning government or even gaining the balance of power in the Senate. As a result, the ALP encouraged voters to consider the election as a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/clive-palmer-puts-liberals-third-seat-at-risk-in-wa-senate-vote-20140404-3646t.html">referendum on the Abbott government</a>.</p>
<p>The ALP can’t be held be responsible for <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/flight-mh370">flight MH370</a> dominating the news, the Greens using Scott Ludlam’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqrfiEV8Gs">viral speech in the Senate</a> as a springboard for a strong campaign, or Clive Palmer’s <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/will-clive-palmers-splash-cash-work-in-wa-senate-race-20140404-36456.html">spending spree</a>. But they have no-one to blame but themselves for the Bullock debacle.</p>
<p>On Saturday, the <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/22400366/joe-bullock-rules-out-leaving-the-labor-party-if-he-wins-office/">lack of trust</a> with which Bullock is viewed internally was on display. Suggestions that he couldn’t be relied upon not to jump ship once in the Senate and could turn independent at some point during his six year term were raised.</p>
<p>The counting so far shows the ALP’s primary vote has dipped by 4.8% from its September 2013 result to 21.8%. Pratt did manage to put a bit of pressure back on Bullock when he was forced to wait while <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-05/joe-bullock-waits-for-louise-pratt-to-vote-below-the-line/5370140">she voted below the line</a>, preferencing herself first. </p>
<p>If Pratt does manage to get over the line, it will likely be as a result of her own personal following among ALP voters who voted below the line and the preferences of a number of left-leaning minor parties, who positioned her well above the other ALP and Liberal candidates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45710/original/zzdvqcwv-1396829787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Shorten should use the ALP’s poor results in Western Australia as a starting point for serious reform within the party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tim Clarke</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reform or wither</h2>
<p>Union power over pre-selection can be limited. John Smith was able to instigate reform in the British Labour Party, introducing the <a href="http://labourlist.org/2014/02/5-things-you-need-to-know-party-reform/">One Member One Vote</a> method to determine pre-selection in 1993, thereby reducing the power of the unions.</p>
<p>The ALP threw away the opportunity for reform when they failed to implement in full the 2010 <a href="http://resources.news.com.au/files/2011/02/18/1226008/222073-labor-review-report.pdf">Bracks-Faulkner-Carr Review</a> recommendation of a tiered system of party primaries for the selection of candidates, which would have limited the influence of unions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/paul-howes-free-to-push-for-historic-split-between-labor-and-unions-20140324-35d3u.html">Paul Howes</a>, the high-profile former boss of the Australian Workers’ Union, gifted the ALP an opportunity with his recent comments that the relationship between the ALP and unions should be severed as it was damaging both parties. </p>
<p>Former Labor prime minister <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/rein-in-union-influence-in-alp-says-bob-hawke/story-fn59niix-1226875063626">Bob Hawke</a> lent strength to the idea that the relationship needs to be reviewed on the weekend, as did former Labor senator <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-06/wa-senate-election3a-swing-away-from-major-parties/5370250">Chris Evans</a>, who admitted the Bullock scandal had harmed the Labor vote.</p>
<p>With the federal government <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/royal-commission-on-corruption-will-not-extend-to-building-industry-20140403-361f9.html">releasing</a> the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Union Governance and Corruption, things are only going to get worse for Labor. </p>
<p>Bill Shorten should use the ALP’s poor results in Western Australia as a starting point for <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/22435930/labor-push-to-cut-union-links/">serious reform within the party</a>. It is <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/alp-union-member-rules-crazy-plibersek/story-fn3dxiwe-1226868989043">expected that he will announce</a> that the rule that all members of the ALP must be also be members of a union will be scrapped. </p>
<p>Until the ALP embrace reform, it’s difficult to see how they’ll break this pattern of self-harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Mast represents the University of Western Australia on The Conversation's Editorial Board.</span></em></p>The only surprising factor in the stories regarding Joe Bullock, who held the number one position on the ALP Senate ticket at Saturday’s Western Australian Senate byelection, was that they took so long…Natalie Mast, Associate Director, Research Data & Strategy, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.