
Issue No 57		09 June 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Interview

Cocky Labor

Interview with Peter Lewis

On the eve of State Conference, Country Labor convenor Tony Kelly outlines how Labor is stealing the ground from under the National Party's feet.

Could you first outline the concept behind Country Labor?

Country Labor was announced at last year's State Conference but it is a process that has been around for quite some time. The ALP's Rural Policy Committee for a long time has been working towards that sort or a situation and a number of those members have been working very hard to try and get a high focus within the Party of country issues. In addition to that, at the last State election Harry Woods ran a series of ads throughout country NSW that ran under the banner of the Country Labor theme and they were very, very successful. The National Party obviously objected to them quite substantially and to be able to continue to run those, we needed to be sure that we could use the name electorally. So, for that reason it needed to be formalised under the Electoral Act so that we could continue to run under that banner in country areas.

So to some degree it is a new idea, but to some extent it is also a very old idea. The Labor Party was formed in country NSW and country Queensland with the union movements. The very first election that was ever contested in NSW by the Labor Party won just over 30 seats anyway and 19 of those were in non-metropolitan areas - they were in country areas. So the majority of the seats that the Labor Party won at its very first election were actually in country areas. At the last State election, despite the protestations of the National Party that they are the country party - at the last State election country members of the Labor Party won a significant number of seats - and they are now the representatives of seats that cover 38.24% of the geographical area of country NSW. The National Party only cover 32%.

Is it just a branding exercise? Do you have any sense of autonomy within the Party Room - the Caucus Room?

Not within the Caucus Room. What we do do, is we meet on a regular basis as the the Party group of Country Labor. The old Rural Policy Committee is now called the Country Labor Policy Committee and they do what they have always done - develop policy for rural and regional issues. We have got to make sure that we do not fall into the trap of thinking that outside of Sydney/Newcastle/Wollongong that there is only farmers. There is only 42,000 farmers in the State. The rest of the million or so people outside of that area live in urban situations and they have specific problems.

So, we meet on a regular basis - on a weekly basis - and discuss particular issues. For example, high on the agenda now is the issue of dairy deregulation and we have obviously a very close relationship with the Minister for Agriculture - and he takes a lot of notice of what we do.

Probably one of the more significant benefits of Country Labor is the way the public service think of country issues these days. In the past they seemed to be only interested in what a particular Minister would say or they would give a cursory glance as to what the Opposition might say. The feedback that I'm getting is that they now look to what Country Labor says as well. So what we have been able to do is raise the profile of country issues, not just within the Party but within the public service and within the media, and I think that is a great thing for country people.

Have you got specific issues that you are taking to the State Conference this weekend?

Well, the Country Labor Policy Committee will be taking specific issues which they do every year and that flows through deom the Country Labor Conference, which is the old Rural Conference, so that is the same as it has always been. What we have also been able to do as a parliamentary group is to get a number of specific initiatives through the Government in the last year and through Budget process, that have significantly changed the situation for country people - or stopped proposed changes that would have affected their areas.

For example, we are at the lead of making sure that compulsory competitive tendering for local government - for RTA works for local government - didn't come in. Now whilst the National Party might have jumped up on trucks out the front of Parliament and had no show of changing anything, we worked with Bob Carr and the Minister with the eventual result that we were able to get the Minister to change his mind and the Government to change its mind - and that was acknowledged by the unions at the time because they knew what we were doing behind the scenes.

In addition to that, there is significant funding that the Government has given for West 2000, for Peter Black's area - Western Division. Significant increases in expenditure opening new railway lines in country areas which is completely the opposite to what the Coalition Government, the National Party Government, did back in their time. They were closing down railway lines. This government has opened them up. The increase in the Health Budget has been significant. Again, acknowledged by the Minister is the support of the Country Labor group. Farm safety issues were also given priority in this current State budget. So there are quite a number of things that we have been able to achieve in the last 12 months, and we are obviously working on quite a lot of other matters.

What actually happens now is that a lot of these lobby groups or interest groups come direct to us rather than to the Opposition when they have a problem, because they see the Opposition as irrelevant.

If it is such a good idea why has the Victorian Government and the Federal Government baulked at it?

Well, I was actually out with Kim Beazley at Hillston and Narrandera and Leeton and Griffith a couple of weeks ago when Kim Beazley announced that he was going to embrace the idea and he did, and we have done and now the Party has been registered federally - or lodged for registration federally - a couple of weeks ago, subsequent to Kim Beazley's announcement.

But each State is a bit different. For example, I have had discussions with the Tasmanian branch of the Party and other States as well, and Queensland, for example, their politics is more regional. Northern Queenslanders think of themselves quite significantly different perhaps the country people in the southern areas of Queensland. So the appropriate thing up there might be more of a regional grouping. To some degree they are more like the Murray, the Hunter and the Illawarra and Western Sydney. They are groupings of Members of Parliament and Party Members that have been around for a long time.

So, it is different in each State.

But Steve Bracks has knocked it back hasn't he?

I'm not aware that he has knocked it back. He just hasn't embraced it yet. But again, in Victoria their population and geographical locations are different to NSW. They are a more compact State and larger concentrations of people in places like Geelong and Bendigo and places like that, rather than in smaller country towns. They probably don't appreciate the gains that we have made for rural NSW, but I know they still keep a good eye on it.

Also I suppose one of the other major achievements is the fact that the National Party is completely on the run over Country Labor. They attack us now in every speech. Every time they open their mouth, every newsletter they put out on their Website, if you visit their Website, they attack us. They attack Country Labor, obviously for only one reason. It is because think we are being successful in taking some of their ground. I am aware that at their Conference there are going to be moves again to try to split the National Party or to re-name it to try to counter the strength of that Country Labor grouping in NSW.

What about the relationship with the union movement? There's several unions active within the regions. Is that something that Country Labor is looking to develop as well?

Well, we have always had a strong relationship with the union movement. One of the great things I think about Country Labor grouping so far, is there doesn't seem to be factionalisation that appears to be in the city. Our Parliamentary group has members from all factions and non-aligned people, and consequently our union involvement is the same. There doesn't seem to be a "them" and "us". We are working together on issues with left and right unions and our group all seem to work together for a common issue. I suppose that is the way country people work. They don't get involved too much in factional groupings. They just want to get the result.

But certainly - I don't want to name unions - but particularly the CFMEU and AWU and MEU are ones that are sort of really close linked with us. And those unions are actually providing resources for us in the country areas. They have actually got offices and so forth that we work out of.

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of policy. Where do the fault lines between Country Labor and the National Party lie?

Well, I suppose what has happened is that the National Party is not the old Country Party. The old Country Party used to be to a large degree closely aligned to the Labor Party, in that it had agrarian socialist policies. And the National Party has moved towards the Liberal Party in their national competition policy at any cost. Let the market solve the problem. And that's evident with dairy deregulation. The National Party aren't coming out there trying to re-regulate or trying to have some regulation. They are happy to see the dairy industry deregulated and they are trying to deflect onto the State Government some of the blame for that because they are not game to embrace the issue that their old Country Party would have years ago.

And I suppose that is probably a significant difference. I would see that the Country Labor group is the Labor Party and therefore we have heart. We still have social issues as our main thrust - you know, all those Labor Party issues, whereas the National Party, or the majority of the National Party, seems to be a bit of a split these days. The majority of the National Party and their Executive and their leadership seem to be very free market oriented at present and by doing that their support is crumbling away.

So we are starting to get a lot of support - it quite surprises us the votes that are actually coming across to the Labor Party. Small rural areas where you have just a tin corrugated iron hall. There's nothing around it except farms. The Labor Party is getting 22 votes out of 70 and 80 now, and they can only be farmers.

Just on the economics though, you seem to be talking about opposing globalisation, or whatever globalisation is. Are you about running almost a One Nation anti-change agenda?

No, there is a significant difference between us and One Nation. Obviously One Nation have tried to appeal to country people, but their policies are probably market driven as well. And their social attitudes are hard line right wing - where we would be much more middle of the road.

On the economic issues, obviously they are particularly against national competition policy. I don't think there would be any person that would be in the Country Labor grouping - whether they would be in the parliamentary group or one of the five or six thousand members that we have in country areas of the ALP - I don't think any of them would support national competition policies because there is just not the number of people in the bush to benefit from it. Competition policy might work within some areas where there is a big concentration of people and there is a great market. But in rural areas there needs to be cost subsidisation.

Had national competition policy been around when Captain Cook arrived in Australia there would be no power lines the other side of the Blue Mountains. There would be no roads in country areas. There would be no rail lines in country areas. And that is the significant difference between us and the Nats and the Libs.

By the same token, is there discussion within your groupings about how to harness the benefits of the opening of the Australian economy for regional and rural areas

There is certainly a lot of that discussion going on. For example we've been talking to some people who live up the North Coast and are heavily involved in the movie industry. They are investigating ways they can work from home rather than move back to Sydney each time they want to get involved writing scripts. Certainly that is going to help rural areas and that needs to be developed, but really the globalisation issue has hurt country people a lot more than it has helped them.

And maybe, and I'm not an economist - but I'd argue the fact that there really doesn't seem to be any great benefits coming from this free trade agenda. As example is the treatment of cheap apples, it's allowed supermarkets and groups to get a monopoly. Now 70% of our produce is now sold through supermarkets - two or three supermarkets - and they seem to be able to dictate the price they pay for apples and for oranges and so forth. So if it's not them then the globalisation argument comes in and you've got citrus coming in from Brazil.

But what can a State Government do about that?

They are all Federal issues. We have to constantly argue that the Federal Government should do something about it. Because of our Constitution and free trade across borders, a lot of those issues have got to be addressed by the Federal Government.

So, you would be pushing for a winding back of free trade if Labor came into power federally?

Well, we'd certainly be trying to address the problems that are brought about by free trade. For example, the dumping of citrus in Australia. The way for example, the supermarkets are paying the growers 30 cents a kilo for their apples when the cost of production is a dollar. The way the milk processors are now offering 27 cents a litre for milk where they were paying 54 cents only a few weeks ago. Those sorts of things need to be seriously addressed.

On the other side is social policy - and the country people have always had a stereotype of being more conservative than the urban elites. How do you bridge that gap in what it means to be a Labor person?

I think that is perhaps a concept that people have. I don't think it's ever been real. I think to a large degree country people are perhaps Green - they are conservationists. I think they are very socialistic in their attitudes to a large degree. It is just that the National Party for a number of years were allowed to take the agenda and make country people look like rednecks.

If you look at Labor country councils for example, in the Labor Party one country council I know down the MIA the Labor Party followers had seven of the nine councillors. Most very strong Labor council groupings in the metropolitan area of Sydney would love to have that sort of number. So it's quite surprising. There are a lot of country areas that still vote a majority, first preference for the Labor Party - very strongly so. And you see when there is a change - particularly if a National Party member might stand- quite often there can be dramatic changes in the voting patterns.

Cowra, for example at the last State election went from 30% Labor vote to in excess of 50% of the Labor vote, just in one election, purely because that town was redistributed out of where their long standing member used to represent them, even though there was a National Party member in both seats.

Finally, the history of Coalition in Australia has been one of the city Conservatives and the country Conservatives, or the Country Party joining up to form government. Can you see a time in the future where there may be different sorts of coalitions forming and that Country Labor people are actually deciding which government is in power?

No. Because the Country Labor group of the Australian Labor Party is, and will always be, part of the Australian Labor Party. It can't be anything else. It can't be another DLP, it can't swap its votes around, and none of us would want that anyway because our strength comes from the most powerful political party in Australia and being the oldest political party and I think the most successful political party in the world is without doubt the Australian Labor Party, and to that extent the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party. So, for anybody to even consider leaving that and thinking they can get more say somewhere else would have to be living in fairyland. Our strength will always be the fact that we can go into Caucus and we can debate our issues there right where all the decisions are made, and if we have got a good enough argument they will come with us and they will all walk in and support us when we go into parliament.

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Issue 57 contents

Interview: Cocky Labor
On the eve of State Conference, Country Labor convenor Tony Kelly outlines how Labor is stealing the ground from under the National Party's feet.

Economics: Millenium Work Ethics - A New Social Partnership?
The future of work in the twenty-first century will be both provocative and challenging, according to Professor Russell Lansbury.

Politics: Extracting the Digit
Labor's federal communications spokesman Stehpen Smith outlines the Party's position on the controversial datacasting legislation currently before Parliament.

History: Hot Off the Press
Check out what's in the latest issue of Labour History - A Journal of Labour and Social History,

International: The East Timor of Africa
Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta will this week tell a Sydney audience of the parallels between East Timor and the nation described as the last colony in Africa - the Western Sahara.

Environment: MUA Snail Men Honoured
Brisbane wharfies Lehi Munday and Mal Monro look an unlikely Watson and Sherlock double, but their keen detective work has helped win the Southern Queensland MUA Branch two national environment awards.

Satire: Howard Says 'Sorry'
In a startling apology to the Aboriginal community, Prime Minister John Howard said last night he was deeply sorry that he turned up to the Corroboree 2000 celebrations.

Review: Front Stage and Pulp Fiction
The Waterfront War has made the transition from industrial showdown to cultural icon. Now it's inspiring artists.

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