The Labor Party’s future depends on its ability to steer its vision for a more progressive Australia through the twin obstacles of public suspicion and the still-powerful party oligarchies.
California has realised that investing in renewables is smart economic policy.
Tony Webster/Wikimedia Commons
Ramping up investment in renewable energy would put Australia on a footing with competitors such as China, Germany and California, which are set to reap the economic benefits of this emerging sector.
The ALP national conference has become a highly choreographed, stage-managed affair in recent times.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The ALP national conference has lost its policymaking significance of the past. Instead it has become a reflection of the leader’s standing within the party.
Not all of the bold initiatives for internal party reform that Bill Shorten laid down in 2014 appear on the ALP’s national conference draft agenda.
AAP/Julian Smith
As a decision-making forum, the Labor Party’s national conference is not naturally suited to deep, system-wide organisational reform.
Under the Coalition government, there has been little regard for asylum seekers’ humanity, and no concern for establishing durable solutions to their plight.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
Shadow Immigration Minister Richard Marles has said that the world is now going through its greatest period of humanitarian need since WWII. Is that right?
Bill Shorten’s support – and that of his party – is almost entirely a function of public perceptions of Tony Abbott’s performance.
AAP/Nikki Short
Bill Shorten has neither built the profile nor provided the performance that renders him prime minister-in-waiting rather than fragile whinger-in-chief.
Kevin Rudd was portrayed as interfering, micro-managing and bullying in his first stint as prime minister – but some painted a different picture.
AAP/ABC
Whose “truth” best explains the implosion of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments? Multiple “truths” are presented in the ABC’s The Killing Season as we continue to pick over that era’s debris.
New ALP president Mark Butler has put internal reform high on the agenda ahead of the party’s national conference.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The career of late former Victorian premier Joan Kirner illustrated the story of the Australian Left from the Whitlam era to the present day.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten, Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen and Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh have said their multinational tax package will make big firms pay their fair share.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
The tax package recently announced by the Federal Labor party is clearly well intentioned but it misses the point about multinationals paying their fair share.
Labor has long had leaders, such as former prime minister Paul Keating, capable of speaking the language of Anzac.
AAP/Alan Porritt
While serving in the RAAF, future prime minister Gough Whitlam led his first political campaign, agitating among his own squadron in support of the 1944 referendum.
Since its 2010-13 ‘partnership’ with the Greens, any failure by Labor to mark its independence has been punished by the electorate.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Latham Diaries remains a seminal piece – not only having revealed the ALP’s inner workings, but having highlighted policy issues and structural problems which continue to be of concern.
Labor leader Bill Shorten is set to confront several tricky issues at Labor’s national conference, later this year.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Bill Shorten has labelled this the year of ideas but obviously Labor would rather have the overwhelming attention on the Coalition for as long as possible.
Martin Ferguson criticised New South Wales Labor’s campaign against privatisation of the poles and wires.
AAP/Paul Miller
Bill Shorten should resist the witch-hunt against former ALP minister Martin Ferguson over his attacks on NSW Labor’s anti-privatisation campaign. The idea that the Labor Party should expel Ferguson…
A still from a NSW election ad, run on television and online, which says “selling the electricity network is wrong; selling it to another country is just not on”.
CFMEU Mining/YouTube
Labor and the unions have decided to play the China card in the NSW election. Such scare campaigns ignore the facts, including that Australia has invested almost as much in China as China has here.
The Reverend Fred Nile is a veteran of the NSW Parliament – and many predict that if the Baird government is re-elected, his vote could decide whether power privatisation goes ahead or not.
Dean Lewins/AAP
A re-elected Liberal National government needs to win 10 upper house seats in this year’s NSW election to hold a clear majority. But any fewer than 10, and it may need a Plan B on privatisation.