
Issue No 119		16 November 2001

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Letters to the Editor

Election Post Mortems

Poor fellow my party Australia will lament this sad day.

Once the ALP left could be clearly coloured red , now sadly its green .

And as they quietly marched away from the working class I doubt they sang even sotto voice solidarity forever.

It was not the first time the left let down the working class the shameful ,gutless self interest in the backdown to mr 4% Bob Carr stood out as a chance to make a working class stand .

As I stood in the rain outside the north coast sugar mill with locked out workers at Broad water we all waited the chance to vote that day for change I was just a tourist showing the flag

They? The victims of Howard's vindictive industrial relations policy's

As we grew more hopeful few would know we would be beaten so badly , and betrayed so badly again by some from the left.

What good is the left to the working class if they only betray them?,how can we except the party that once had an all time low primary vote of 43%after the overthrow of Witlam except yesterdays bottom?, is it the bottom?.

Those locked out workers are in for a dreadful time prime minister in waiting Costello will see to that country unionists in tiger country do not need left wing words they need to know working class politics stay solid , committed to them and the ALP .

We can salvage some of our platform if we understand and except we too must change Australians will never ever except open door migration .

They will give till it hurts to bring an end to suffering in other countries ,you could run a telethon every month and we would give freely.

I grew up on Sydney construction sites with people from most of the world and loved it ,but my brother at work had a knife put to his throat , just because he carried a tray of pies down a factory floor , with a woman not of our faith.

Is it wrong to hate racism so badly that I even hate it when its from the minority?.

Education must include my rights to my culture , no racism is execptable ever.

AUSTRALIANS overlooked old folks bathed in kero ,GST relief, education, hospitals,.

They overlooked the best prime minister we never had.

Can the left or indeed the right believe they do not demand the ALP learn from this? We will never again fill the government chairs unless we change.

But even I doubt I can vote for Carr rape should never be at the hands of a family member

Belly

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At last, One Nation has been defeated. Their vote has been halved. They have gone from being the third largest party, in terms of votes, to the sixth largest. It seems they will win no Senate seats at this election. Hanson will be consigned again to the electoral dust bin. John Howard promised to stand up to Pauline Hanson. Her words, he said, were inaccurate, dishonest and verging on the deranged. They were appealing to irresponsible racist sentiment in the Australian community. Now, like the Borg in Star Trek, the Prime Minister has defeated One Nation by assimilating them.

Now we also have established a new political consensus on asylum seeker. It is important Australia sends a clear message. We will be compassionate to genuine refugees, but will not tolerate being seen as a haven for intending migrants that wish to jump the queue. When a known refugee situation arises in a foreign land we will offer help to the refugees in their land. We cannot have an open door policy that sees boat people arriving on our beaches on a daily or weekly basis. Australia is not responsible for people who pay for passage to Australia bypassing other points of refuge. Most of these people are not refugees but migrants jumping the queue. Are these the words of the Liberal Party? Or the ALP? Or of One Nation?

What a different Australia it is now, to that which we had in the lead up to 1980, when a Coalition Government dealt with the refugee problem with humanity and leadership. What a different meaning the word "leadership" has now.

Yet in other ways there are similarities to 1980. In the lead-up to that year's election, Labor had held a commanding lead in the polls for three months (and indeed through most of 1979). But Labor sought to minimise the difference between itself and the Government, focusing on a small range of issues, and paying little attention to the key issue of unemployment. It made itself vulnerable to a scare campaign which inevitably came - on the issue of capital gains tax - and which saw its lead collapse.

In 1980, the scare campaign began well after the election campaign started. In 2001 it began immediately before the election campaign. Despite the difference in issues, it was no less calculated in 2001 than in 1980. And with Labor having filled with muddy water the ravine that might have separated itself from the Government, the small target became a sitting duck. By the time Labor in 2001 started to articulate its vision and policies - yet still trying to minimise the distance between itself and the Government - it had lost.

At least Malcolm Fraser had the moral integrity not to whip up xenophobic hysteria for electoral gain. At least he did not manufacture stories about the boat people of the time. But I suspect that if he had, even the Labor of 1980 would have stood up to him.

David Peetz

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As a former Labor voter I would just like to comment on the election outcome.

This morning I have been listening to radio and party members analysing "What went wrong?". I believe the reasons put forward have failed to address the fact that the average man in the street agrees with Border Protection and they want an orderly refugee program not an invasion of "Boat People".

An honourable man of high intellect has resigned as party leader. Now the fear of Simon Crean and his cohorts, Marten Fergusen, Jenny George and Cameron getting control of the party will gaurantee that Labor will be in the wilderness for a long time to come. Whoever takes over as leader must accept that the days of, "Them and Us" has long gone. We don't want desparate promises given for the sole purpose of getting the top job. Forget the GST and come to grips with the real community concerns....the militant approach will no longer work.

THE LABOR PARTY MUST CHANGE DIRECTION

Anthony Dwyer

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Dear Sir,

As a concerned ALP member , "True Believer" and Labor voter in the seat of Lindsay, I am deeply troubled about the large swing to the Liberal candidate Jackie Kelly. Is it possible, that her retention of this once safe, then notional Labor seat, and now a safe liberal seat will affect the achievement of our Labor candidate Councilor David Bradbury, in having Penrith replace Richmond on the national weather?

One of the highlights in my long days of forced retirement is the smiling weatherman telling me- in what climate, I enjoyed this leisure time.

We as a family will miss you David, and as a family of Western Sydney "True Believers", we will continue to support you in reciprocation as to the support you and your Comrade- Councilor Greg Davies have given us in our hour of need, in fact we hope you both stay in local politics to enable us to give you - a serve of value added reciprocation.

We were also saddened to see that your stable mate David Borger the ex Mayor of Parramatta lost with an even larger swing against him, and as an ex-employee of Parramatta, who now rely on clothes from St. Vinnies , food from the Sallies and welfare from the State, we can express much empathy with his loss , and we as a family will certainly seek out some manner to repay the kindness show by David .

It is just unfortunate that unlike our family, these other moronic voters in Western Sydney will just not acknowledge who are their betters, and that the party machine, and its hierarchy the "Chardonnay and Caf� Latte "elite know what is best for them.

Perhaps if you had taken the sound advice that you gave to me, when I humiliated my self with a request for assistance, and contacted the "Union", you might have had a seat (federal) rather that a three year wait and a sore arse!

Tom Collins

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Issue 119 contents

Interview: Out of the Rubble
Michael Costa argues that Saturday's election result could have been much, much worse.

Unions: Sixty-Forty Are Good Odds!
John Robertson argues that while there may be many problems with the ALP, union power is not one of them.

Politics: Wrong Way, Go Back
Labor's failure in the federal election is the result of more than bad luck. It is the result of a shift to populism that has left the Party bereft of core principles.

Campaign Diary: Week Five: All Washed Up
If you can stand it, relive the fatefull final week of a most remarkable election campaign.

International: Trade Piracy Unmasked
As the trade barons met in Qatar to chart out their agenda, George Monbiot looks at the machinations behind the scenes.

Factions: The Party's Over
Chris Christodoulou renews his call for a breakdown of the factional system to bring new life into the ALP

History: The Fall-Out
Neale Towart looks back to Labor's reaction to its loss in the 1954 'Petrov election' and finds warnings for today's post mortem.

Media: Elite Defeat
Rowan Cahill looks at the intellectual paucity in the PM's ongoing attacks on 'elite opinion'.

Satire: Crean 'Listens To Australian People': Will Sink Refugee Boats
Simon Crean, the most likely candidate to replace Kim Beazley as Labor's leader, says he will take heed of the message sent to the ALP by Australian voters at the Federal Election.

» Unions Call for Border Review

» Compo Fire Reignites as Bill Hits Deck

» Workers Unite Over Corporate Power

» Day Three: Telstra Privatisation Begins

» Primus Deal Marks New Era in Telcos

» Qantas Staff Cuts Condemned

» Bank Workers Seek Proxies for AGMs

» Blokes Stand Up For The Ladies

» Landmark Community Services Win

» Anger at Sartor's Power Grab

» Consumer Boycott Call for Sugar Co-op

» Apprentices Win Parity with Uni Students

» Competition for Nurses Hots Up

» CFMEU Launches Bunny Club

» ICFTU Reveals 250 Companies in Burma

» Activists Notebook

» STOP PRESS: No Democracy at Telstra AGM