‘Political oblivion’: Albanese cops AWU boss’s policy warning
The Opposition Leader has been told it is time for Labor to overhaul its out-of-touch policies in a bid to win back the voters who abandoned it at the last election
NSW
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Anthony Albanese needs to face the “unpleasant fact” Labor must change its out-of-touch policies or risk falling into “political oblivion” with no chance of future election wins, a top union boss has warned.
Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) national secretary Daniel Walton has declared Labor may need to abandon policies “near and dear” to its heart in order to win back the voters who abandoned the party at the last federal election.
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Speaking at the launch of Getting the Blues, a new book by former Bill Shorten staffer Nick Dyrenfurth in Sydney on Monday Mr Walton will argue the party must address decades-old “structural and cultural” problems that have alienated voters.
“We need to face up to the fact that, federally, we are not seen as within the political mainstream, or as a party of national government, by a majority of Australians a majority of the time,” he said.
“Labor has won a national majority just once in the last 26 years … and has lost seven of the last nine federal elections.
“We don’t need to simply change leaders or slogans or the shade of red on our banner … it is us who need to change.”
Mr Walton will implore Mr Albanese to listen to voters who turned their backs on Labor and its then-leader Bill Shorten at the May federal election.
“(Voters) in the bottom 40 per cent of incomes swung hardest away from Labor,” he said.
“These are our people – and yet they don’t feel at home in their own party.
“We need to start listening to our people and their concerns – instead of dismissing them as out of touch.”
Mr Walton will also take aim at the extreme ends of the climate change debate, including the anti-Adani convoy headed by former Greens leader Bob Brown earlier this year.
“Presenting this important debate in zero sum terms – where you either hug a piece of coal in parliament in some weird fossil fuel fetish or lead a convoy of inner-city clowns to protest one particular mine site in Queensland – frankly sounds and looks like total bulls …,” he said.
“Working women and men in this country … want to know that in this big economic shift — one that they’re willing to make — that they will be looked after.
“That their kids will be looked after, that their communities won’t be on the scrapheap (and) their concerns matter and that they’re part of the solution.”
It comes after Mr Albanese last week pledged to tackle skills shortages and industrial relations reform in the first of a series of “vision statements” aimed at resetting Labor’s policy agenda.
A wide-ranging review of Labor’s failed 2019 election campaign and key policies is expected to be released on Thursday.