Opinion
Why Australian Labor has lost its ‘dependables’
Labor could once rely on its industrial base including in regional seats. But the working class has changed and so has it’s political loyalties.
Pru GowardColumnistIt is too easy to say that the Upper Hunter result confirms the ALP base is split over climate-change and coal. The Liberal Nationals base is just as split, but they profited, not lost, from it. This time a year ago the NSW Nationals Leader and deputy premier, John Barilaro, was wrestling with similar tensions between traditional rural resources workers and the tree-change now living in NSW country electorates.
One of the differences is that Barilaro knew he had a problem; Labor, with the exception of the local federal member, Joel Fitzgibbon, and his branches, appears oblivious to it.
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