http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/old-ideas-key-to-labors-future-20120811-2414m.html
I liked the posted link, it seems solid and honest, I share its views.
But is it over?
The joy and glee of Kevin 07 crumbled long ago.
Turning to I do not like/trust Julia.
And why would such as me, a life time unionist, lover of my union, support getting unions out of controlling the party we started.
On the birth of a child we love and Cherish, teach it point it in what we think is the right direction.
But there comes a time, we must let it live it sown life.
How extraordinary it is when we see a middle aged child still under mum and dads control.
I have seen it, who of us knew, heard saw Rudd's controlling nature before his knifing.
The truth is the ALP did not tell us, we heard of his bad temper on RAAF flights and not much more.
Yet they dumped him, over night.
And told us his polling was too bad.
Those who knifed him? my beloved unions!
Representing 22% of workers!
Now on the edge of what?
We went in to the 2007 election scared by the thought we could not manage the economy.
And face the thought next time we can manage nothing.
We talk/know of a defeat to come so harsh it is 1975 /NSW/QLD rolled together.
As we fall our members fall, maybe forever.
Yet tomorrow, if we ignore the power brokers, install a new power broker, the only one we need, our followers?
Against Tony Abbott, against fear lies and the word NO, we can win.
The first poll post Gillard post power brokers saying the party is theirs, we would be 6 points up!

I don’t get it Belly.

Why is no one thinking about this in the same way that I am?

My often-expressed very strong suggestions of how Labor can recover have just gained no traction at all.

There’s not a hint of them in the article to which you refer us, nor was there in Barry Jones’ speech as mentioned in the article.

No one on OLO really agrees or disagrees…. there’s just disinterest!

What on earth gives?

A Carr-Thomson Labor party, focussing on a sustainable future, in which they very carefully sort out the types of growth we need and the types that are dragging us down, is the essential basic framework.

It’s a damn pity that Barry Jones can’t see this, and is concentrating on the structure of the party and its unions-ahead-of-voters priority.

focussing on a sustainable future,
Ludwig,
How on Earth can we hope Labor, sorry ALP, expect to manage sustainability when they can't even manage with growth ?
Until such time that the ALP reverts to being Labor by getting rid of the deadwood academics in its ranks it will not recover. The Law of averages sees to that.

<< How on Earth can we hope Labor, sorry ALP, expect to manage sustainability when they can't even manage with growth ? >>

Indi, we can’t!

The key to achieving a sustainable future IS the management of growth. Of course Labor can’t manage with the growth we currently have, because it is so utterly the wrong sort of growth. I refer primarily to the absurdity of extremely high immigration.

It shouldn’t be hard for them to realise this. Now, if Barry Jones would just come out and say as much, it would certainly help Labor get it through their collective thick heads that this really is the key point to the development of a new future direction, and to the winning back of the hearts and minds of the Australian populace.

<< …getting rid of the deadwood academics in its ranks… >>

Really? I didn’t think they had a single person in their ranks smart enough to be called an academic!! Oh, except Bob Carr and Kelvin Thomson of course!

To whom do you refer as ‘deadwood academics’?

Barry Jones??

The problems Australia and the world face are hardly likley to addressed by either the ALP or coalition, at least based on recent trends. The brief time of history (since early 1980s) our problems were masked by a greater reliance on debt are over, although the govts of the world appear intent on more printing money madness for a while.

As for the ALP, they had their turn, but they are proving not up to it. There is considerable pain now, even in these supposed boom times.

It is the Coalition's turn. I live in hope but I am hardly optimistic about the future

Belly in all the dirt I have flung at this Rudd/Gillard government I am sure you have noted that I have never union bashed. I have pilloried the bastards of the HSU, but that is about it.

I have however mentioned the number of LAWYERS in the Labor party in comparison to a generation ago. This from last year’s press:

>> Julia Gillard has appointed Bernard Murphy as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. When the $1 million fraud and theft of the AWU hit the fan in 1995 Ms Gillard and Mr Murphy both left Slater and Gordon lawyers around the same time as Ms Gillard’s boyfriend Bruce Wilson left the AWU for his part in the fraud and theft.
Before we get started, in all fairness to Julia Gillard, she is not the first Prime Minister to corrupt the judiciary by appointing her mates as judicial officers. But to my knowledge none have ever appointed their former boss and mentor as a judge.<<

Gillard is a Lawyer first an International Fabian second and an Australian Laborite third. Gillard’s comment in regard to NOT giving the pensioners a pay rise “because they do not vote for us” encapsulates the vast chasm in ideological dogma between old Labor and new Labor. One built their platforms on positive social reforms for the defenseless and the other focuses ENTIRELY on self preservation, and the only social agenda they carry is the adoption of UN global social engineering protocols