the labor party
Oust Iemma
The Australian reports that the NSW Labor Party hard heads are preparing to oust Iemma.
Mr Iemma is standing firm in the belief his party has no alternative to him. But senior ALP figures were adamant: “We will find one.”
In my view, Iemma is seriously compromised and will not be able to win the next election.
Can comrades in NSW comment on how it looks north of the border?
In which I enjoy the Daily Telegraph's rampant moralising.
It is time for the ALP to tell the pair this will be their last term, and to find polite, civilised, well-adjusted people to fill Mr Della Bosca’s Legislative Council vacancy and Ms Neal’s Central Coast seat at the next state and federal polls.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaahahahaha!
Haaah! Haaaaaaa! Hah.
Labor and the Status of Women
One of the things I was specifically watching for in this Ministry Shuffle was the Ministry for the Status of Women. Where would Rudd put this? How would it relate to other portfolios?
Status of Women has been marginalised and diminished throughout the Howard decade-or-so. Whereas during the Hawke-Keating era, Status of Women was a very important base for the women’s lobby (the “femocrats”)and had an important cross-portfolio coordinating role, Howard lost little time in closing off its avenues of influence, merging the important policy units and piddling away decades of expertise, removing its hardcore focus on economic as well as social issues, and appointing the monstrously inept Pru Goward to a variety of influential feministo positions. Somewhere along the line the portfolio lost its “status” and gained some “issues” (perhaps mirroring life or whatever, insert joke here).
Predictably and welcomely, Tanya Plibersek has landed the portfolio after serving it strongly in her Shadow capacity. Her “primary” responsibility is Housing, and one assumes that she will be working closely on that portfolio with Jenny Macklin, who is taking up the cabinet position of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. This places Status of Women strongly within social and community services portfolio, as opposed to being within a more economically oriented portfolio.
It is a bad omen that this position, which should have a considerable presence across portfolios, statistical analysis and ensuring policy impact statements and moving key initiatives, is allocated outside of the central team. Importantly, Plibersek is not a Cabinet minister. Women is not a Cabinet position. Labor’s women’s budget statement indicated that Status of Women would be a central role in the new Government, so I’m wondering how this will be achieved outside of cabinet.
And how, ghettoised in social services and outside of cabinet, is the Status of Women portfolio going to have alot of input into, say, industrial relations? After all, with high casualisation in low-paid feminised industries, an increasing gap between mens’ and womens’ full-time take home pay, and issues like childcare and maternity pay at the forefront of national debate, IR is a women’s issue and and economic issue.
Anyone who thinks this isn’t a significant portfolio has been fooled by a lack of statistical and policy analysis into thinking Status of Women is not an issue anymore.
policy platform finally online.
Just to note that the ALP’s National Policy Platform is now finally online, months and months after the new version was passed by conference.
Better late than never, but it’s been causing some uncertainty. A friend told me that they have been calling the canberra office every week asking when it was coming through. Apart from being a bit obsessive, said friend works in the community sector and their constituents had been calling to ask if it was true that Labor was finally going to do something about ______ and what that could mean for their own financial and legal situations in the eventuality.
Tired, out of ideas and playing to the base
Many people will have already seen the latest attack ad from the Liberals - reminiscent of the Robert Doyle attack ads a few years back in the Victorian State Election.
All these ads really do is speak to the Liberal’s base. The Lib’s support is so low that they are really desperate to still show the neo-cons and ultra conservatives that they can still bash unions and the ALP without addressing policy issues.
For most people however, these ads don’t mean anything. People with a positive union experience will ignore the ad, and for most people with a neutral union experience, the ads won’t make sense (why is it bad for Labor to have lots of union officials in Parliament?).
And in other news, there is a poll at the SMH. The voting so far shows a great deal of support for Labor.
11 Years, Still Asleep
Are these kinds of attack ads effective?