Anna Caldwell: NSW Labor must follow Carr’s lead if it wants to get out of Opposition

A decade after losing government, NSW Labor looks further away from the prize than ever. Some words of wisdom from a former leader could help, writes Anna Caldwell.

Next month marks 10 years of Labor in opposition in NSW. And while all eyes are on whether Anthony ­Albanese can hold his leadership on the federal scene, at the state level the Labor caucus is also dealing with deep internal tensions.

With March 26 marking a full decade of languishing in the wilderness, ALP caucus members are privately saying that they feel further away from government now than they were when Kristina ­Keneally lost the kingdom to Barry O’Farrell back in 2011.

“We’re not even in the ballpark. Speaking to caucus members there is a sense we are further behind now than we’ve ever been,” one MP told me this week.

“We have to get into a position where we have a shot. We need a compelling case for Labor to win.”

It has been 10 years since Kristina Keneally lost the NSW state election.

Another described the Opposition as a “disaster” for failing to stick with campaigning on working-class issues relentlessly, day in, day out.

Of course, the pandemic has meant that there is little appetite ­anywhere in Australia for toppling ­incumbents.

But almost uniquely, the NSW government has presented its fair share of crises for the taking: a Premier at ICAC, document shredding, one minister courting controversy with his isolation arrangements and ­another knocking naked on his neighbours’ doors, to name a few.

Yet no one of note has lost their job, leaving the Labor caucus deflated that they can’t seem to land a blow.

Bob Carr’s 1995 victory after seven years of Liberal government still looms legendary in the corridors of parliament and it presents clear lessons Labor could put in play in 2021.

Carr and his chief of staff Bruce Hawker worked with a theory oppositions won elections, as opposed to the lazier wisdom that governments ­simply lose them.

The stories of Carr and Hawker working their guts out to expose government mismanagement and corruption circulate to this day among Labor MPs and staffers as the stuff of legend.

Hawker confirmed to me yesterday one story doing the rounds, which was that in Opposition, Labor staff would sit in hospital emergency wards to document and expose the sorry state of the health system, finding victims to tell their stories.

Hawker’s team worked like investigative reporters, claiming scalps and exposing flaws in health and education along the way.

Bob Carr toiled relentless to win government. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“What we did from the outset was to campaign. The worst thing you could say to me in the Carr opposition was governments lose elections, ­oppositions don’t win them,” Hawker told me.

“I rejected that. We were about winning the election and you do that with a guerrilla operation. You create the stories and make the government respond to you. I never wanted to be the angry last (sentence) in the story.”

There’s no exact science for winning from opposition, but these things help.

As Labor has struggled to gain ­momentum, it is natural that there are murmurs of leadership tensions — loudly at a federal level, and more softly in state parliament.

While there is no urgency for a leadership change in Macquarie Street — and Kevin Rudd’s spill rules which the NSW caucus has adopted make it difficult — there is growing discontent.

If state Labor was to undertake a leadership switch the names in the mix are Chris Minns, whom current leader Jodi McKay defeated at the last poll, as well as Prue Car, Ryan Park and Paul Scully.

There are also some who advocate a return to Michael Daley, arguing his stint at the last election campaign was too short and only failed in the final week.

Minns has stepped up his activity. An analysis by one media monitoring outfit shows his name mentions in broadcast and print media have ­jumped dramatically since October.

In January, Minns recorded 52 mentions, with 71 in December and 69 in November.

In July, August and September those figures were just nine, 37 and 15.

Opposition transport spokesman Chris Minns.

NSW Labor Leader Jodi McKay.

McKay’s opponents believed her failure to lay a proper blow on Berejiklian and see off the Premier after her ICAC scandal paved the way for the beginning of the end for the Opposition Leader, which helps to explain the rise of Minns in the media.

There is also a sense in McKay’s backbench that there is not clear focus on issues that affect working people, with internal tensions emerging over tactics.

Shadow Treasurer Walt Secord vociferously expressed his disagreement to colleagues in one tactics meeting last year, when Labor plotted a question time assault on “prohib­ited” donations to the Nationals from a particular family.

Turned out the opposition hadn’t done its research properly and one of Labor’s own shadow ministers had ­already written a letter to the family apologising for the allegations and withdrawing them.

It was a question time embarrassment and cited to this day as a wasted misstep.

Areas like tolls, cost of living and the struggle of working families in a COVID economy loom large as ­opportunities for Labor.

McKay has personally brainstormed a buy NSW made campaign to drive jobs and investment in the state. This is a strong idea which will work in the electorates the party must win if it can mount the campaign. But there is more to do.

Liberal operatives say they see McKay as a match they want to take on in the election.

Minister David Elliott, who sparked the end of Luke Foley’s leadership by using parliamentary privilege to raise his harassment of a female journalist in parliament, has been personally asked by senior Liberal operatives “not to target” McKay.

A strong Labor opposition and a real election contest come 2023 is in the best interest of everyone.

Carr in his memoirs offers sage ­advice to politicians:

“You have been elected leader of the opposition. To face a confident government with a bulging majority.

“It’s going to be hard. But a party’s got to be led. Make the best of it.

“The motivation is fear of failure. You feel you are living a role cast as a loser. Well, simply resolve to beat fate. For your own self respect. On behalf of your party. The alternative is the abyss.”

The words were published in 2018, before McKay even took the mantle — but it’s almost as if Carr had the current era in mind.

With Berejiklian riding high in opinion polling, Carr is right — Labor must resolve to beat fate and then spend every day working their guts out to do just that.