Unlike this piece, may I suggest what will help policy makers from both sides make sure that Australia both prospers and shares the spoils in a fair way?

Well, research of course that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of policy trends, with truths from good research hardly likely to be ignored in the face of adequate public scrutiny. I, for one, still have faith n Aust's media; just look at the way they jumped over travel expenses of coalition.

This crap about media, false perceptions about Labor's economic performance, and Labor and trade unions being the good guys we should all turn to is, well, simply bs.

My humble opinion, complex issues have strengths and weaknesses from the point of view from all sides of the political spectrum.

Lets have the real debates, rather than bs blaming neoliberalism, and lets see which party is left standing in terms of who delivers and who does not.

Hi Marko,

I still have some difficulty accepting the premise that there is both an ALP and Trade Unions.

Much analysis has been based upon the assumption that there are two entities. Further, the focus upon Trade Unions has been directed at reform related to the behavior of Trade Union officials. Whilst the issues of ALP reform have been directed at policy development, alignment with their support base, internal structure, their ability to self manage and thus better able to implement policy.

Cultural and Corporate change management disciplines paint a quite different picture.

Enterprise Mapping, Entity Relationship Analysis and Business Engineering Processes paint a clear picture that there are indeed two entities however, they are not what we are expected to accept.

The two entities are the unions fee paying membership and the Party. The Party comprises the trade union leaders, officials and staffers of every description from the ALP, the Unions and caucus, they are the Party and they are now inseparable.

They provide the power base, the financial base, the electoral base, the decision making base, the management base, the career path base, the political/ideological base and a permanent source of internal conflict.

This forms an entity of self interest, it is internally focused, permanently in conflict with itself, incapable of seeing any externalization and totally dependent upon factional dispensation of favors.

As a direct consequence this political mélange is not capable of even seeing a need for regeneration let along achieving it.

Today’s “ALP/Union Leadership” hybrid contains the seeds of its own destruction. We look for logic and common sense, search for signs that it will connect with its roots, we ask what it stands for and we ask if it understands why it lost the last election yet continues firmly stuck in reverse gear.

When examined as a corporate/political/cultural entity the first thing you see is there is nothing to see, no structure, no glue, no directional mechanism and no control over itself.

It simply does not exist, it is a figment of its own imagination and doomed.

Killarney
I couldn't have expanded better.

As a formerly active Labor supporter, I simply could not vote for the ALP in 2013. After the best part of 10 years enduring the impacts of insecure employment while raising a family. My attitude was extremely hopeful in 2007, I actively campaigned for Your Rights @ Work and Labor. By 2010, I was dubious that insecure employment was being taken seriously and disappointed by the "You can't unscramble an egg" approach to Howard's IR changes but still hopeful that they would re-invent the egg or produce a new egg that reversed the growing trend of short term and casual employment. By 2013 the agenda had obviously not improved and the problem is almost mainstream at 50% of the workforce, Labor had no chance of securing my vote.

When the Ford factory in Geelong announced that it was having difficulties and would likely close in 2016 - it seemed perverse to me that Julia Gillard could describe the hurt and pain in affected workers eyes. At the same time my family had a guaranteed 6 weeks of income- my husband was in another short term job - Oh to be a Ford worker with the luxury 3 years future job security.

The neo-liberal agenda is being largely ignored by media - few journalists had the balls to report or seek explanation for the Workfare scandal in Britain which involved Kevin Rudd's wife and could not be further away from Labor values and principle. Labor lost by failing to deliver sound IR policy and secure jobs. Trusting someone as wormy as Rudd who is seemingly proud or oblivious that his family fortune came off the back of the woes of the world's unemployed was a step too far. I could not propagate or