NSW Labor needs a generational reset

Party elders need to step in now to turn a bunch of losers into a bunch of winners, writes Anna Caldwell.

The next NSW Labor premier may not even be elected to parliament yet. In weeks like this one, even the party’s greatest backers wonder if the NSW branch is on track to turn 10 years in opposition into 16.

The NSW Labor mess, put on full display in the ugly aftermath of a drubbing in the Upper Hunter by-election, has seen the party spend a week talking about leadership and its own personalities but not yet not taking a single step to turn the ship around.

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has had a tough week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Former Labor Deputy Premier John Watkins and Queensland state secretary turned Senator ­Anthony Chisholm penned a 27-page report a full decade ago, probing the 2011 state election failure and the end of 16 years of Labor government.

A cursory glance at their post mortem shows that many of the recommendations still haven’t been achieved. And it feels like the party is even further from victory than it was then.

Recommendation 8 particularly stands out this week: “That the state parliamentary Labor Party leadership takes steps to develop more collegiate caucus relationships.”

Long-term Labor strategist Bruce Hawker, who was chief of staff to Bob Carr when he returned the party from the depths of Opposition, made the astute remark on Sky News on Tuesday that “someone needs to go in there and turn a bunch of losers into a bunch of winners”. It hurts. But he couldn’t be more right.

The party is in dire need of a new injection of energy.

There is far too quick a willingness in caucus to simply shrug and say “it’s a good time to be an incumbent” or “oppositions just aren’t winning at the moment”.

Statistically they are right but the lack of drive would make a good Labor voter turn in their grave.

NSW Labor is a party beset by brawling over failed leadership and a dearth of talent to fill the void. Art: Terry Pontikos

The answer to this problem will not be as simple as either changing ­leaders or ending the destabilisation.

There needs to be a full-scale shift in thinking from the top of the party to every inch of the backbench.

So who will step in, step up or reach out a hand to create a bunch of winners?

While the solution is not as ­simple as a leadership switch on Macquarie Street, broader leadership and guidance from party elders would assist.

There are, in fact, many great Labor minds in NSW who don’t have a seat in parliament and could offer counsel to rejuvenate and ­inject hope.

They include Labor greats who have won hard-fought elections in the past and would have an idea of how to do it again — Paul Keating, Bob Carr and Morris Iemma.

Former Queensland Labor premiers Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh both won elections against the odds and are now entirely immersed in second careers that have seen them build strong relationships in NSW corporate circles.

Hawker has endless experience working for Carr, Rudd and then Michael Daley at the last election when Labor had a strategy that seemed to put it in striking distance before falling at the final hurdle ­because of missteps by the leader.

Many of these Labor luminaries will tell you their time in politics is done. None of them hold all of the answers.

But if the current crop in NSW want to turn the ship around, the level heads and perspective from outside the parliament to ­inspire MPs could assist.

Veteran Labor strategist Bruce Hawker.

They certainly aren’t getting help in a way that’s working from the boss of Labor HQ.

Up until this week, general secretary Bob Nanva has been praised for bringing a corporate, businesslike approach to Sussex Street.

He was nothing like his predecessor Kaila Murnain who spent far too much time involving herself in the happenings of state parliament, inventing rumours and targeting political enemies.

But as a result of general secretaries past, there is something of a learned helplessness among NSW Labor parliamentarians.

Now, blocs of MPs are just waiting mindlessly for Bob Nanva to tell them who to support for leader.

Some say they are frustrated that Nanva hasn’t stepped in, which is fair enough given the place is ­resembling a zoo, but there is clearly a broader cultural problem here of MPs quite simply bereft of a vision for the future.

McKay’s big plays this week have been defending her leadership and talking about herself.

The massive strategy bungle of a staffer to the Deputy Labor Leader strolling around parliament handing out paper copies of a dirt file with no new information on a fellow frontbencher and leadership aspirant Chris Minns almost says all you need to know about shadow cabinet in one anecdote.

McKay’s chief of staff has denied repeatedly that McKay or anyone in his office had knowledge of the dirt sheet.

But whatever way you dice it, ­immature and strategy-lacking politics went right to the heart of the leadership team.

The real losers of all of this are of course not the parliamentarians. They are the people of NSW.

The losers are the rank and file of the party, the true believers of the Labor Party and the humble worker it is meant to represent.

The party needs a generational reset that goes far beyond the repeated question of leadership.

But people need to roll up their sleeves and start turning losers into winners for the benefit of everyone.