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The Forum > General Discussion > Where does Labor go from here?

Where does Labor go from here?

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Today's leadership ballot result was very strong for Julia Gillard, but where does Labor go from here?

It's possible that Rudd will go to the backbench and make himself as conspicuous as possible so that the stories of a fresh challenge just circulate without him actually doing anything until the situation just comes around again.

It's equally possible that this is the making of Julia Gillard. She gave some good speeches during the challenge, and perhaps over time the messages about Rudd will sink in with the electorate and his popularity will drop.

There is certainly an aspect of this challenge that was to do with unfinished business to do with the way Rudd was deposed in June 2010. A sense that Rudd was unfairly dealt with then might be part of the reason for his high public support.

Another possibility is that Gillard survives but doesn't improve and a third person takes on the leadership.

If Gillard is to survive she needs a coherent narrative, as Paul Keating pointed out. I wonder what that might be.
Posted by GrahamY, Monday, 27 February 2012 8:26:42 PM
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Dear GrahamY,

You said "A sense that Rudd was unfairly dealt with then might be part of the reason for his high public support."

That is why I love this country.
Posted by csteele, Monday, 27 February 2012 9:48:53 PM
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Graham I have it great authority that Arbib was booted for bullying his colleagues to vote for Gillard.

But Graham if Gillard can't get all her supposed friends to vote for her she might really as well have none.

And Laura Tingle made it plain in her respond to Media Watch that Rudd was not doing anything, back grounding anyone, talking to anyone or doing anything to upset the party.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Monday, 27 February 2012 10:14:27 PM
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Julia Gillard has clearly demonstrated her ability
to lead in the way she has handled this latest
challenge - and she has shown that she has learned
from the mistakes of the past. Kevin
Rudd has also made it quite clear that he will support
the PM and there shall be no further challenges from
him. From all appearances it seems that the party
will come out of this stronger than it ever was.
Their main aim now appears to be - to get on with
governing the country and with achieving positive
outcomes for the Asutralian people. If this does happen,
things will look good for them at the next election.
Perhaps the Coalition needs to take a closer look
at its current leadership. I wonder if Mr Abbott would
achieve the numbers if there was a leadership spill in
his party. Last time he only won by one vote. Would he
be so lucky this time around.
Posted by Lexi, Monday, 27 February 2012 11:34:32 PM
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I wounder how many who contribute here have met and known Mark.
In answering Grahams question I have and do know him.
Once, maybe the very reason factions control Labor/any party, the left extremes had to be contained.
Without that containment my party would be forever in the wilderness.
Mark did the right thing, at very long last, by leaving.
He has to be blamed for much of both NSW and Federal Labors problems.
His tactics resemble Dictatorship.
He leaves a living acting shadow, acting much the same.
Lexi looks for Fields of flowers, I see slag heaps and trouble.
I live for my party, it is not me, not Lexi the ALP must win over.
It is those Australians who will not trust the new Gillard.
Not fall for the well scripted hair styled Julie.
And it is not true believes we need to trust us.
It is, as always, those Rudd bought with him in 07.
Those who do not and never will want Gillard.
Labor voters want the policy's we set out and achieve.
But Julie looks unable to sell them, still.
She may as well be selling rotting raw fish, outside the yellow arches at lunch time, she lets Abbott control debate.
Bill Shorten, he will in time be the one, but will the Gillard faction, that is what she is, continue past practice.
Passing leadership between them like a beach ball.
Failures at play Latham Crean Gillard,will the ball fall to Cretin Crean or Pyne impersonator Fitzgibbon?
Labor will learn , will after much pain heal and reform.
But much faster than expected.
Like the Kevin Rudd time [unlikely he gets another chance] Abbott's team is not ready to govern and will find trouble soon after taking office.
Posted by Belly, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 3:50:31 AM
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My thoughts come from love for my party and the wish it continues to change.
Weary of both the everything is wonderful view and the no need for change I think we should change.
From this achieving government we find the certainty we are bound for defeat.
We hear and see nothing of achievements.
Only our own negatives even promoting them.
It will take much effort, we shed voters to out true Nemesis, Greens this last week.
Is the ALP a party of change still, then who controls it, power brokers?
How can we sell our selves to those who do not want power brokers.
Gillard, who never even seemed important enough till now, to be told why we replaced our leader.
Are voters the judge or not?
Labor, not long ago, let 60% of votes on the floor of conference,go to unions.
Soon with out the change we are to get post Gillard, you can hold those meetings in a phone box.
In the end, even considering voters will forget this week, the stabbings, is an insult to those voters ability to think.
REFORM NOW ALP.
Posted by Belly, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 4:06:29 AM
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Where does Labor go from here?
Hopefully somewhere where someone can offer them some sense.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 6:48:24 AM
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REFORM NOW ALP.
Belly,
If you mean start being Labor & acquire some sense & decency then yes, go for it but it'll be hard to turn around 4 decades of corruption & mismanagement & the near destruction of this great Nation.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 6:54:49 AM
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Arbib, the Judas character, has gone. A great gain for democratic processes, a blot on the ALP vanquished, and we all know he will be reinvented with some cushy mates job in no time at all, running an industry superfund or similar.

As for Gillard, it might help if she tried to sound credible for a change, drop her infant school maam approach to us, her constant head nodding to emphasise how bad we've all been, and to tries to cultivate an ideology that fits into these much touted 'Labor values' (frankly, just as abhorent as Howard's Australian Values)that we hear so much about but can barely see the difference between theirs and the Coalition.

Are they 'neo-Labor values' maybe?

To be honest, Crean sounds more leaderish than Gillard ever does.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 7:59:45 AM
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Belly, We talked about this 12 months ago at the state level. Don't you realise Labor is dead, its just no one has bothered to bury the corpse. That is why its so on the nose. The best thing that can happen is an ALP split, a bit of deja vu so to speak. The ALP right can toddle off and form themselves into the Crazy Catholic Party or some such beast or maybe join up with Pauline Hanson, I don't care what they do. The left can find solitude with us Greens. Like the Israelites they may have to spend 40 years in the political wilderness, but it will be worth it in the end.
So stop the talk about the party reforming itself, turning over a new leaf, getting in new blood etc, it wont happen. If you are a 'true believer' and I feel you are, quit the ALP and join The Greens. p/s Green membership is on the rise whilst ALP membership is down, down, down, does not that alone tell you something?
Posted by Paul1405, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 8:22:00 AM
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Creen?

Hahhaha.

He's the invisible man. He has a face but he lives in the basement. Even when he was leader I don't even remember ever seeing him in public. He strikes me as a Pyne that's been neutered. Extra snivelling little man with a quieter bark.

Gillard made a mistake when she became leader. That 'Real Julia' thing was the biggest mistake I have ever seen in politics. It has forever damaged her. If she took the job and vanquished Rudd to the back bench, and continued on talking straight and to the point like she had when he was galavanting around the world talking gibberish as usual, she'd be much more popular.

This school mistress slow talking cliche machine I don't think is even her, and she admitted as much with the real Julia guff, but she's still been pretending ever since. She has an identity crisis.

Shorten is wordy but he actually explains policy really well, and concedes and disarms the cynical observer's retort in every explanation which saves time with a wounded puppy look that looks really really honest. It's like when a dog wants a biscuit.

They're gone though really because that NSW disease was identified as soon as Rudd was knifed and even though they didn't have another leader change this is just enough of a reminder of how the party operates that should last till the election. All the slanging off of a leader they picked in the first place, not so long after Latham and NSW Labor and people really have a good picture of what a zany bunch of kids the ALP are. Hanging around Bob too much isn't helping either.

What they need is to keep Julia and lose and then install Shorten. They're going to lose anyway, but if they have Shorten as a new start rather than an example of the 3 leaders in a term NSW Labor they have a better chance of being in a position to take over when Jolly Joker Joe and Crazy Tony stuff things up.
Posted by Houellebecq, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 8:38:50 AM
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The most significant takeaway for me from this rather sad episode in Australian political history, is that Labor doesn't actually stand for anything any more. It is just another bunch of chancers and hangers-on, who lack a coherent reason for actually being a bunch in the first place.

This spill was all about image, not policy. About presentation rather than substance. And personality, instead of values. As such, it laid bare the fact that our political leaders are collectively without a substantial reason for being there in the first place.

They just... are.

I suspect it may be that we have run out of reasons to have political parties at all, any longer. I suggest this, because there is a similar vacuum on the Liberal side, who are currently only unified over one thing - pouring scorn on the government at every opportunity. While they've had a few of those, to be sure, they have had a holiday from actually having to articulate what they stand for, that is different.

In this post-democratic phase that we are going through, where your vote and my vote count for absolutely nothing in terms of actually supporting policies that are both clear, and acted upon, it might be best if we start to spawn a whole host of smaller groups - let's call them political parties, out of nostalgia - and agree that what they promise us, they will do.

Suggestion for Mr Rudd: form another party, starting with the 31 mates who voted for you. The best outcome would be not to win outright, that would be overkill, but to elect a handful of souls who sit on the cross-benches. Then sell yourselves (not literally) to the highest bidder.

Because that's where the true political power is today, is it not.
Posted by Pericles, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 9:34:02 AM
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FORMER NSW premier Kristina Keneally and indigenous leader Warren Mundine have emerged as leading contenders to take Mark Arbib's Senate spot after his shock resignation as assistant treasurer, and from parliament, The Australian yesterday.
If Keneally was to land the job to replace Agrub it will show how far the ALP has reformed. A ditsy right wing catholic the party does not need. Anyway, its my understanding she is the leading contender to replace Pete Garrett in Kingsford Smith at the next poll. Pete if he was to run again would give the Liberals a big chance of winning the seat for the first time ever, got a 6% margin, he is unlikely to get Green preferences and the Libs should run a strong candidate if the same bloke who ran last time stands again. At the last NSW poll Keneally suffered a 16% swing in Heffron after her 'million dollar' campaign and the Libs ran a weak 'out of towner' candidate. What Keneally doing these days, an opposition back bencher in the NSW parliament with a new hair do.
Surly the ALP would go for Warren Mundine over Keneally.
Posted by Paul1405, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 9:54:07 AM
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Houellebecq, true, but please don't misinterpret my intent on Crean.

I am not suggesting him as the mystical 'third man' to come out of the bog and lead the ALP to wisdom and power, I just think he sounds a little more leaderish than Gillard does, or any of her lackies.

Frankly, there is nothing quite so odious as Pyne either, although I do agree that Crean has an unfortunate nasal whine that makes him sound as if he is constantly whingeing.

Perciles, I am inclinded to agree with your analysis of the political scene.

However, I rather foolishly went to a candidates meeting this week, and had to suffer the Katter Krackpot Kandidate, perhaps not an example of what you were thinking of but a fact today, the small party of dedictaed loonies who fixate on tiny aspects of government.

A worse mob than the One Notion crowd I suspect. Then we already have the Guntoters and the 4WDs, the Sex Party, The various God Squads, what next?

The Tools Party for tradies? The Black Car Black Window Party for gormless self-important drivers? The HGV Lorry Party for long distance drivers? With their factional breakaway groups, the Rigids, the Semis, the B Doubles and the Road Trainers?

Sadly, we still seem to need broadly based political parties but these parties need members who will turn up and drive them on policy issues, which is what most of us do not do.

The ALP membership barely extends beyond union staff, ALP staff, chancers who want to sit on red or green leather, and the immediate families of all the above.

There are no 'real people' in the branches anymore and those who are there are old and still fighting the Whitlam era stoushes, waiting for Gough to rise again, just after a steam powered Chif' comes back out of the tunnel with his Davey Safety Lamp, to shine the way ahead, like the Prince of Darkness, Joe Lucas.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:07:50 AM
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Paul 1405, love it, "A ditsy right wing catholic the party does not need" but that could be said about so many of the ditsy right wing catholics in the ALP too.

The really sad and pathetic thing about KK is that she has no idea she is a rightwing catholic. She thinks she's a 'progressive' with her daring stance against Pell Doctrine and her 'thoughtful' lurv of 'social justice'.

I do hope the SMH is going to bring us the next debacle within the NSW ALP, as they all scramble for the drippings of power from the Judas retirement- oh what joy to be in the vicinity of Sussex Street today!

Personally, I think we on OLO should write to the NSW ALP and nominate our own candidate, Belly, who seems to have the requisite dedication to the dead doormat that is demanded and also demonstrates a far better understanding of what he values than any currently sitting in any parliament on the ALP side today.

He may not be a blonde with hair pieces, he may not be Indigenous, he may not be 'in favour' but he's honest, he's as articulate as a Katter or a Heffernan and he understands the meaning of 'allegiance'.

He's my man for the NSW Senate spot.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:19:16 AM
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Graham, there are many Australian’s who are in a state of political shock. Not so much because of the leadership spill but what has been said and done in the quest for power and the “in your face” naked ambition.

No genuine Australian can feel proud of recent events. When I say recent I mean from the day K Rudd was removed. There has been a political dialogue and policy making environment that manifests more like sixth form adolescence with a touch of student politics. From any perspective it remains an unresolved embarrassment.

No one really believes that the “healing can begin” because we all now know that the modern ALP is a consortium of opposing ideology and power brokers. It is no longer a major “political party” just an infected carcass of its former self. To watch this once great movement along with its social justice and equity values disintegrate is a tragedy for all Australians.

What is even sadder is the fact that the onset of this decay is not new. The rot has been ongoing by stealth and papered over by successive political leaders, rusted on support from the good old days, the progressive media, ideologues and academia. All this time these people have been preventing the stench and extent of the rot from getting to the electorates.

All this is now fully exposed for all Australians to see and yet, god bless them, many in the media are back to work with all the old “all is good” rubbish. We should all despair equally at the demise of the inquiring, independent and professional journalists, the absence of whom is part of the problem and self evidently, not part of the solution.

Not only will the ALP fail to recover, we will see the “departure” of the good the bad and the future potential for the ALP. Preferences will not flow as in previous federal elections and this will add to the destruction of the ALP as we know it.

I despair at the ALP supporters; they still defend what “is” rather than fixing it.
Posted by spindoc, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 11:13:46 AM
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A westminster system at work. Sounds like a golly good rant to me. Not one libber can see what they do not want to.
A political party in denial, of everything, even the system we have.
The opposing party are very thoughtful of labor changes., but do not contribute at all to the AU economy, or any thing at all that matters to this nation.
Posted by 579, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 11:27:07 AM
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THB I don't know about Belly, I think he is a member of the KKK, that is the Kristina Kerscher Keneally fan club, was at the last NSW election.
I think the best man for the job would be if the ALP could find some disgruntled Liberal member from the house of reps who could defect to the Senate as an ALP. All they would have to do is agree to let him dress up like King George III when he's in the chamber. That wont work they already agreed to let Pete Slipper dress up as George III, but then again the new bloke might like to dress up as Napoleon or Julius Caesar, nothing too outlandish.
Posted by Paul1405, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 11:28:52 AM
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Aha, the King-Emperor Turnballs eh? But then he'd have to move to the lower house to run the widebrownland, but maybe Craig's seat when it becomes vacant in a week or two can be filled with the new King Emperor?

I'd rather like to see Faulkner drop a level and run the ALP.

KKK eh? how unfortunate to own that set of initials and sound like a southerener trying not to.

I've posted a thread suggestion to elevate Belly as the OLO choice although I am sure GY will censor it.

I see Gillard is not dropping the head nodding at all but one day it might just fall off if she's not careful.

It's a real sign of insecurity, like when people say 'hmm, yeah' after making a statement, a visible form of rising inflection, hmm yeah.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 11:48:00 AM
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Come on Blue.

Faulkner, the Hindmarsh island man. The bloke who wanted a sealed envelop of lies submitted as evidence in a trial. I'm surprised he is not in jail, rather than the senate.

The most suitable leader for them is Turnbull, as you obviously believed, & I'll even spring for a limousine to move him to a new office. He is far from what I would call honest, but probable more so than Faulkner, & probably as close to honest as Labour could stand, without total collapse.

Talking about collapse, did you see the figures for voting intentions in the Yahoo 7 poll. Labor are only one percentage point above independents & others combined at 15%. The Greens are equal to independents, & falling.

Of course some of this may be reflecting the Queensland election. Having finally got past the Beattie grin, Queenslanders are developing a real ability to see through bull sh1t. It is going to be tough for Labor up here for some timer, & who knows, we might just teach a few southerners the skill.
Posted by Hasbeen, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 1:18:05 PM
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Hoully, of every post after mine yours is the one and only that I like, could have written it myself.
March last year NSW Labor finally fell.
Do many understand we, yes me to, did not flee to the greens.
We did not vote Labor, many for the first time in their life, did not man the booths.
Labor, rightly so, was shamed.
Yet it did not die, it will rise, it has along path, one of learning and yes regret, but it will be back.
LOVE! Greens boots on Labors back Paul TBC are you know dreamers.
Greens they gleefully say, but refuse to take on board 88% of voters disagree.
Our policy's, reforms, achievements will stand forever.
I get a grin, truly, out of Gillards much better performance yesterday and today.
Past middle age she has the job to say yesterday she changed!
Labor is not dead watch the failures of conservatives drive us back in to office.
And watch our dead and dieing branches die, yes die, if Sussex street and power brokers do not return my party to its membership.
Posted by Belly, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 2:58:16 PM
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Not quite, The Blue Cross.

>>we already have the Guntoters and the 4WDs, the Sex Party, The various God Squads, what next? The Tools Party for tradies? The Black Car Black Window Party...<<

I was thinking more along the lines of genuine political parties with national agendas. Germany has half a dozen Parties represented in the Bundestag: CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, Linke and Grüne, which forces them to form genuine coalitions in order to govern - not the temporary alliance of a handful of fringe-dwelling rent-seekers that we have here at the moment.

>>Sadly, we still seem to need broadly based political parties but these parties need members who will turn up and drive them on policy issues, which is what most of us do not do.<<

That's not what party members do. They are there merely to make up the numbers for this or that faction. It would be difficult to become more disillusioned than the electorate appears to be right now, but the tacky realities of Party membership would be the final straw. Even if they were permitted to contribute to policy formation, there is absolutely no guarantee that those policies would be enacted, once the Party gained power.

It just does not happen.
Posted by Pericles, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 3:24:47 PM
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Pericles, I'd be happy with your German style parties, and the need for a coalition, so long as it was quite different from the time serving one the Nats engage in with the Liberals (imagine the shame of actually owning Sen. Barnaby Rubble, never mind saying 'he's on my side'!).

You are too hasty with condemning brnach structures as mere tools of factions. Even during my era in the ALP branches did create policy items, which filtered through to Conference, and became policy.

True, not all party policy becomes government policy, after all, the ALP still pretend they have a policy of socialising the nation, even though they have never made a move that way.

Belly, I thought you'd be happy to have been nominated for the NSW Senate spot by OLO threadsters.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 4:29:12 PM
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The next party should be a Libertarian one so power can go back to the people.

Pericle's is right.Labor stand for nothing.Their next leader down the track will probably be Kristina Keneally based on her media presentation rather than intelligence and vision for all Australians.
Posted by Arjay, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 5:34:43 PM
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I fear you are spot on Arjay. Totally rooted are the ALP.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 6:04:02 PM
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I really can't understand this obsession with political populism over policy. It's just become style over substance.

All a popular PM has to do is basically do nothing and he/she will stay in power because nobody would have anything to complain about. Menzies managed it a while ago.

I wouldn't care if the PM was an ugly eskimo transsexual with Tourette's syndrome as long as he/she delivered proper and effective legislation for the benefit of the community.

All the ruckus about factions and powerbrokers is not unique to the ALP. Only the truly naive would believe that the Libs don't have their own extremist groups and political hatchet men working behind the scenes.

Maybe we should just take the inevitable step and award the top job to whoever won the Gold Logie for the previous year and be done with it.
Posted by wobbles, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 7:04:15 PM
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Wobbles,

I assume you're alluding to groups like the NSW Uglies who were responsible for the dumping of Turnbull and are the power base behind Howard, Bishop, Ruddock and Abbott? The same group that was founded by an alleged Nazi propagandist and anti-Semite and now run by a member of Opus Dei? The same bunch that also controls the Young Liberals and the NSW Womens Association (among others) and controls at least 30% of the Federal Party?

Labor may have it's Union Boss legacy but the Liberals are especially under the influence of right-wing extremists who culled the party of moderates over the last decade and left us with the reactionary rubbish we see now.

Fun times ahead for us all!
Posted by rache, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 7:12:41 PM
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wobbles, do you allude to Rudd there, with the Tourette's reference?

Do you know if he is a trannie, for sure?

I was looking at JUlie Biship on Q&A the other week and she suddenley looked like a full on trannie, with her smirk, teeth and hair. Very odd feeling I had.

Look, let's just have TNT run the show on a three year contract, and close parliament down for a while, just to see how well things go.

Sad to say, we might find we need even the goons we have once big business has cleaned out the drawers.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 7:14:55 PM
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Obama is the classic polly of image over substance.Everything he promised has not come to fruition.End the wars,withdraw the troops and more freedom for the people.

Obama did the exact opposite.He expanded the wars brought in Preventative Dentention,legalised assassination of suspected terrorists and brought in the National Defence Authorisation Act.

The USA is now virtually a police state and we will follow.
Posted by Arjay, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 7:41:54 PM
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Arjay,

It's not just Australia but I think the whole world is inevitably heading toward becoming a Police State.

With 7 billion (plus) people squabbling over rapidly diminishing resources, a free-market capitalist system that depends on scarcity to operate just won't work when it comes to controlling masses of increasingly discontented and hungry people.

Whether it will be a militarily controlled one or another run by mega-corporations for profit remains to be seen.
Posted by wobbles, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 8:01:24 PM
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Wobbles, I must agree, we are a de facto police state now and always have been, from the days of the caveman. If as you say "people squabbling over rapidly diminishing resources" and the distribution of those resources. You will see how long our so called democracy lasts. Those in control will quickly evoke the police state as a necessity to maintain law and order. their law, their order, for the greater good of course. The democratic process is only tolerated whilst it doesn't interfere with real control.
Posted by Paul1405, Thursday, 1 March 2012 9:00:28 AM
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Paul
'The democratic process is only tolerated whilst it doesn't interfere with real control.'

And the democratic processes doesn't interfere with real control. Western democracy is tied up primarily to a trip down to the local school to vote every three years. A small part of a well functioning democracy.

The real influence comes from those with the strongest power base usually tied up in the corporate interests and the military industrial complex (MIC). Even Eisenhower warned of the rise of the MIC and the evolution of war for profit.

Distribution of resources will be the big factor as others have posited but it is nothing new. Political and back-room interference affecting the interests of people (particularly of poorer nations) over self-interest of the few is a feature of not just modern times. It is often only in the historical context that past wrongs or situations are revealed but not soon enough to ensure it never happens again.

A framework that greatly assists in improving government transparency and accountability would help in some way to reduce this phenomenon.
Posted by pelican, Saturday, 3 March 2012 11:30:39 AM
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"If Gillard is to survive she needs a coherent narrative, as Paul Keating pointed out. I wonder what that might be."

• Yes indeed, what will be Gillard's coherent narrative? Or is it possible to launch a coherent narrative within the 24/7 cycle of political media coverage?

• In Keating's day and in the last years of the Howard government such narratives were easier to make through the carriage of the well understood polarities and overarching paradigms of the culture and history wars.

• These days, through social media, people are more connected to each other and to issues and do not rely on the narrow casting of political views that Keating and Howard enjoyed throughout their public lives. That modality of narrow casting ‘one idea’ for public debated has been decimated.

• Place this technological chaos a cycle of 3 year terms of government and you end up with a dyslexic muddle of campaigning and policy making that leaves most punters agog, and then fatigued with the complexity of it all.

• Somewhere inside this 'governance' and 'government' happens and it’s no wonder Gillard is focusing on a narrative of telling us that her government is busy "getting the job done'.

• The light on the hill went out long ago and I don't anyone in the Labor party knows how to repair it, or that they care about it at all.

• I believe the break through moment for Gillard (or Abbott) will come from happenstance, rather than a deliberate act of statesmanship or decision making. Some believe this occurred for Gillard this week with Rudd’s excommunication from the Labor party. I disagree.

• In my opinion Gillard and Abbott just don't have the political intuition that Keating, Howard, Hawke and many others had in spades. They could read the political tea leafs, knew the mood of the nation, not through polling, although this was important information, but rather by delivering unto the public themselves as very adept public intellectuals
Posted by Rainier, Saturday, 3 March 2012 5:33:51 PM
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