Sam Dastyari Interviews Steve Bracks
Elected to the Victorian Parliament after one of Labor’s worst defeats, Steve Bracks won an election when Labor had been written off. Sam Dastyari talks to Steve Bracks about his eight years as Premier and his recent work protecting automotive manufacturing. Sam began by asking Steve about taking power.
- By Sam Dastyari
Read moreBob's Back
Election night 1995: In the Opposition Leader’s poky office in Macquarie Street. Bob Carr sat alone amid stacks of media releases, wondering if seven years of relentless campaigning had been for nought. It was a revealing contrast to his jaunty, defiant public claim to the nerves of a u-boat commander. The truth was only a few busloads of votes stood between Bob Carr and political oblivion as a washed up, two-time loser in the relative backwater of NSW politics while his friends Keating, Brereton and Richardson had enjoyed stellar Federal parliamentary careers. However, thanks to an astute marginal seat campaign, and Labor’s brilliant recapture of its heartland electorates in 1991, Bob’s fears were needless. His 10-year reign as the longest continuously serving Premier of NSW had begun.
- By Carl Green
Read moreAnd So It Goes... Thoughts On NSW Labor Post-2011
The atmosphere in the Legislative Council – red, crumbly yellow, brown leather chairs, the spacious jocularity of a London club – contrasts, as always, with the Lower House, whose vomit-green carpet, closefought combat and claustrophobic bare-knuckle vulgarity give off a reek of past disgust, unabated since an Honourable Member deposited a bucket of human faeces on the wig of the Speaker in 1899. “You will soon find a year in Opposition is a long, long time!” shouts Barry O’Farrell at the bunched, defiant, shrunken Labor Party.
By Bob Ellis
Read more6 New Big Policy Ideas For Labor
We must encourage bold and innovative ideas if we are to rebuild our great Party. Robust and meaningful policy conversations need to be encouraged, not muted, at all levels of the Party if we are to move forward with a vision for NSW and Australia. The big, new and bold articles that follow are designed to stimulate discussion amongst Party members and beyond.
Read more"I'm With The NSW Right"
That bold, and sometimes provocative, statement used to be a badge of honour in the national political environment. It might not have had the same historical resonance as “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”, or “Civis Romanus Sum” but it did sum up well the tribal pride associated with being a part of the strongest and most successful arm of the Australian Labor Party.
- By Chris Brown
Read moreLabor & Medicare
If the Australian Labor Party were a company, its board of directors would be seriously looking at themselves and their strategic plan. The glory days of 2007, when the ALP formed every national, state and territorial Australian government, are long gone. Its market share has collapsed, its sales force is confused and demoralised, and its new product offerings at best misunderstood or underappreciated by its once-faithful customers. All polling indicates that the ALP core vote has now shrunk to something less than 30 percent on average, and in some key demographics and regions to much less than that.
- By Bill Bowtell
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