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The Forum > Article Comments > Captain Wacky or 'The Latham Lessons' > Comments

Captain Wacky or 'The Latham Lessons' : Comments

By Rebecca Huntley, published 6/10/2005

Rebecca Huntley argues 'The Latham Diaries' reveal much about the inner workings of the ALP.

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Thank God Mark Latham will never be the Prime Minister of this country. The most worrying thing though is that the ALP actually selected Latham as the individual with the greatest ability to lead the party at all.

A very understated revelation to come out of the whole saga was actually eluded to by Kevin Rudd. Basically Rudd chastised Latham for biting the hand that had fed him and stated that, "It is doubtful that Mark has ever held a job that was not in some way organised by or related to the ALP." How can a Prime Ministerial candidate in this country not have held a job that is not politically related? It is a disgrace and sad indictment on Australian politics.

It appears Mr Latham that you did your fair share of 'arse licking' too!
Posted by wre, Thursday, 6 October 2005 10:44:23 AM
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Latham has revealed nothing at all about the ALP.

The role of the unions and factions in pre selection is old news - the degree of control they have on Policy is also old news.

People think the ALP is characterised by the likes of Whitlam, Hawke and to a lesser extent Jones and guys like Race Matthews; they were an abberration, a passing blip on the political radar. Latham has merely picked the scab off an old wound we all knew was there. The ALP is as self-possesed as it ever was - out dated and out positioned at most every turn. It might be cliched but the ALP has been apart from two rbief period in Government been a policy free zone.

Lathams assesment is essentially correct but it aint no Eureka moment. What will happen in the wake of his comments is precisely nothing for the very reason Latham spat the dummy;- the party is dominated by career unionists or politicians. Graham Richardson was once a stand out as a careerist - he could have done exactly the same within the Liberal Party as he did with and for Labour - for him it was quest; for most of them it is the quest, the fight - principles are things of convenience in order to secure power. They are like skilled debaters - the topic is secondary - it is the arguement and victory that counts.

The dominance of the "me too" policy initiatives of Labour are reflective of this. The chances of the ALP going down in a blaze of policy initiative glory in 2007 is very remote. They no longer hold to any principles other than that of pursuing populist themes in an attempt to regain power.

Latham climbed the ladder of political opportunity and realizing there was really nothing at the top, just fell over the other side. The ALP cat has just coughed up another fur ball - once the heaving is over it will go back in its own self satisfied way to lick its nuts once again.
Posted by sneekeepete, Thursday, 6 October 2005 2:44:17 PM
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Rebecca

Thank you. I always enjoy your articles.

wre's post sums it up for me. Thanks mate.

Cheers
Kay
Posted by kalweb, Thursday, 6 October 2005 6:34:42 PM
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Of course Latham is right about the ALP. He may have disastrously misjudged the Australian people and their views, but he always had his despised “party machine” in his back pocket.

I mean here’s a rather unimpressive fellow who reverse-adopted Gough Whitlam as his mentor, rose to party leadership right under the nose of the Beazley-backing media, inflicted the most humiliating electoral defeat on Labor in the party’s recent history, vanished completely after the weather warmed up in November, silently watched the tsunami play across everyone’s TV screen and HAD TO RESIGN TO GET OUT!

That’s right, folks. The most unsuccessful leftist political leader this country has seen in ages had to resign to extricate himself from the terrible demands of politics. His demoralised colleagues could not muster the influence to oust him even though 1) he wanted to go and 2) he was an utter failure.

Latham should be given the permanent chair of ALP studies at Melbourne, Sydney and the Australian National Universities. He knows Labor. In fact, that’s about all he knows
Posted by BotanyWhig, Thursday, 6 October 2005 10:11:58 PM
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I don't claim to be prescient but I knew this was coming. Philip Adams has used his column to keep us informed about the doings in the ALP. He hinted that the result of rejecting the enormous talents of PJ Keating would see Australia enter a condign anomie.

Our 'reward' was Mr Latham, a B grade leader of the ALP. All those days of sitting on Gough Whitlam's knee listening to the garrulous master talk about his favourite subject - himself. At last it was Mr Latham's turn. And it seems like only yesterday that Mr Latham, with young Oliver and Gough in tow, stood before the incestuous Canberra media circus and told us all how mighty the ALP was and how proud he was to be its leader. At that press conference Mr Latham had managed to subdue those atavisms which had gained him a bit of notoriety. He said the ALP under his stewardship would possess a certain cachet lacking in the other political parties. Nothing or no one prepared him for a pratfall.

Now he wants to break the ALP 'omerta' and talk about an ALP front bench that resembles a police line-up. He wants us to know that politics is full of perfidious schemers. The sad part is that he has wasted about 10 - 12 years finding this out. Had he phoned me I could have told him that Australian politicians are vile, inept, dysfunctional types who spend most of their time planning raids on the public purse.

I don't feel sorry for Mr Latham or the spivs, the conmen, the inept, the greedy, perfidious types who are loosely described as politicians.
Posted by Sage, Thursday, 6 October 2005 11:11:32 PM
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sage,what a depressing picture.They all can't be that bad.What about John Button.Now he was a good bloke.Can we ask for nominations for fine upstanding current pollies?

They say politicans just reflect our society's values and perhaps we all should do some introspection.
Posted by Arjay, Friday, 7 October 2005 12:39:07 AM
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