Whenever the ALP does anything for the workers, the media accuses them of being pressured by the unions. I would dearly love to hear even one parliamentarian tell the press that they stood up for the workers, because they actually care about the workers and not whatever is trendy this month.

The ALP has shown that it is prepared to do or take any position to get elected. They have put this nation in debt like never before and yet claimed to be fiscal conservatives before the election, they jumped on the gw band wagon knowing they have no chance of implementing their promises,they promised to be for the worker and yet I doubt anyone is better off, they continue to war in Afghanistan proving their policies are no different than the previous Government. The national broadcasters blamed deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan on Howard and Bush but now blame them on suicide bombers. Quite pathetic really. The sad part is that Mr Turnbull is just as much about spin as Mr Rudd is. Mr Howard and Bush were men of conviction while Obama and Rudd are men of spin. The ALP at State level makes Sir Joh look like a saint. Space would not allow me to publish scandals from rape to corruption to child abuse. The ALP is bereft of morals as is sections of the Liberal part.

Apart from Runner's silly comment, straight from the Murdoch/Turnbull tabloid neo-lib non-issue hand book, concerning neo-Keynesian "physical" stimulus emotivated as "debt", can find little to fault in the analyis or the following blog comments.
A hollowed-out shell, full of rightist Judases.
In fact worse than Judases, because at least Judas had the decency and shame to go hang him himself after his particular act of betrayal.

"The ALP needs a movement for democracy dedicated to in placing not only the preselection of candidates but also the framing of policy to its genuine members."

Like the Greens.

"A democratic revolution can only come from a grassroots movement."

Like the Greens.

"dissidence, picketing, direct action".

Like the Greens.

I disagree vehemently with Marko’s analysis, while agreeing that branch-stacking is abhorrent, arrogant and profoundly anti-democratic.

Marko seems oblivious to demographic change. The "working class" is now about 20% of the electorate, while aspirationism - materialism that swamps other values – gets many Kath and Kim votes out there. I supported Whitlam, but today's public mindset has moved on.

"Socialism" is a distraction, a concern about means rather than ends. The centrally planned economies were a zero-sum-game disaster. What Marko calls sellout by Rudd, Hawke and Keating is not that at all. It's a recognition that while social justice requires concern about how the economic cake is divided, it’s far more effectively pursued by ALSO creating conditions in which the cake can grow.

The electorate today doesn’t want a re-run of Whitlam's grand program of the 1970s. It wants competent economic management at least as much as social agendas. I despair at the neoliberal, one-dimensional economic view of life, and want our country to re-emphasize community. That requires not just political leadership, but a turnaround in some of the values of Australian society, which has become distressingly receptive to atomistic individualism.

Bikesusenofuel suggests the answer is The Greens. Absolutely NOT! They have got into bed with the Socialist Alliance, a bunch of totalitarian-left political scum!

Rudd attracts me for 1. his intelligence and competence, 2. his Christian-based ethical approach to economic and also social problems, 3. his concern for long-term economic and environmental issues.

Marko's prescription of a radical swerve to the Left amounts to self-immolation. Wrong way. I want this government to stay in power. Change is not sustainable unless pursued gradually. Howard's hubris in foisting Work Choices on the electorate was his destruction.

For the benefit of Runner, I quote Isaiah 10:
"1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”

What no one understands is that there is an accord between the left and the right, where the right controls economic policy and the left controls social policy and social justice issues.
The Left's abdication on economic policy and ideology means the abandonment of the goal of decommodifying our society.
Left activists are recruited to the party on environmental, health,education women's issues and generally reactive economic issues.
There is no attempt to build a left alternative to economic rationalism as a consequence any left criticism of economic rationalism meets the response of what would you do revert to central planning.
The left must build an economic policy that achieves the following:
-reshaping monetary policy to enable quantitative measures to be used and not totally rely on interest rate movements
-democraticising corporate Australia
-implementing social democratic policies to influence the investment cycle
We need to find a way to encourage the next generation to not only be interested in environmental issues but to build interest in economic policy.