australian labor party

Nationally, I am endorsing the removal of the Liberal/National government of Malcolm Turnbull. I am supporting a government led by the Australian Labor Party with Bill Shorten as Prime Minister.

I also support a significant presence of competent minor parties in the Senate, particularly the Greens, to act as a robust House of Review and to give strong guidance to the government in policy direction.

My views on the Gillard Government hang on three basic beliefs:

It feels like it has been such a long time coming, but we're now one week away from the end of a four-year fixed term marking the general election for the New South Wales parliament. The obvious, the necessary, will happen - the Australian Labor Party will be hurled out of office, and for the most part obliterated. This is good. By virtue of this, the Liberal and National Parties will be elevated to government with many fresh faces and a whacking big majority. This is not necessarily so good.

Nine days in, and the 2010 election campaign is as dismal as any I've witnessed in the past four decades. Tony Abbott defies serious appraisal, while Julia Gillard's entire first month as Prime Minister has been a massive disappointment.

The knifing of Rudd by his Labor Party confreres was totally unnecessary and an act of panic in the face of opinion poll figures that were not as overwhelmingly supportive as before.

Only fifty-six weeks till the New South Wales state election on March 26, 2011 and the inevitable removal of a rancid Labor government for whom acting in accordance with the wishes of its voters is far less important than scheming its own self-preservation.

The latest (and hopefully last for a while) product of the Sussex Street Sausage Machine to be thrown to the lions as State premier is Kristina Kerscher Keneally. (Please do not dwell on those initials - that's actually her maiden name in the middle.)

"The Hon. TONY KELLY (Minister for Police, Minister for Lands, and Minister for Rural Affairs) [12.36 a.m.]: I move:

That the House at its rising this day do adjourn until Tuesday 1 September 2009 at 2.30 p.m.

The Hon. DON HARWIN [12.36 a.m.]: Mr President, I move:

That the question be amended by deleting the words—

The PRESIDENT: Order! In accordance with precedent, as there is no Minister or Parliamentary Secretary in the House, I will now leave the chair until the ringing of the long bell.

Friday was arguably the most tumultuous day in New South Wales politics since Jack Lang was sacked on May 13, 1932. Firstly Michael Costa was axed as State Treasurer by Premier Morris Iemma, then Iemma himself resigned after his attempt to reshuffle cabinet was nixed by his caucus.

And all this happened two days after deputy premier John Watkins resigned from parliament to become CEO of Alzheimers Australia.

"Labor believes that supporting executions – even by a nation state – gives justification to all kinds of fanatical lunatics to take the lives of others in pursuit of their own warped ideologies. That is why, at the highest levels Australia’s public comments about the death penalty must be consistent with policy. This is especially the case if we are going to tactfully and successfully drive a regional abolitionist movement."

- Robert McClelland, Wentworth Human Rights Forum, 8.10.07

1978: Wran's Our Man
1988: Barrie Unsworth - He's Good Value
2007: More to do but heading in the right direction

One of these won in a landslide, one lost in a landslide, one is expected to win for the simple reason that his opponent is worse.