Peter Gleeson: The real reason why the Labor party is in disarray

Anthony Albanese’s trainwreck of a first week highlights a very real and deeper problem inside the Labor party – its very structure promotes mediocrity, writes Peter Gleeson.

THE fundamental problem with the Labor Party in this country is that it promotes and encourages mediocrity because of the way it is structured.

The factions have delivered up Anthony Albanese as the alternative Prime Minister, when there are at least a dozen better options.

Labor’s Left faction – more interested in climate change than jobs – is killing what was once a great political movement for the working class man.

Favours are called in, unions demand promotions, factional tit-for-tats create division and the next thing you know the best talent is sidelined.

A great example is Queensland, where the Right faction’s Cameron Dick, the Treasurer, is easily Labor’s best performer, albeit he has drunk the Koolaid on the dark art of political deception and spin.

Yet the deputy premier, Steven Miles, of the Left, will be Annastacia Palaszczuk’s successor because his faction clearly has the numbers. The result is that Queensland gets second best. Hopefully, the voters will sort out that anomaly.

The same applies at the federal level. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is from the all-powerful Left faction, a nasty cult who “love taking on the Tories’’.

Albo is all smiles as he meets with front line health workers, but there’s no hiding he had a terrible week. Picture: Toby Zerna

Yet Albanese is a plodder. He’s got little dash, a product of Labor’s assembly line of colourless, highly disciplined, win at all costs politicians, who cut their teeth in the hurly burly of factional brawls and rigged pre-selections.

He doesn’t even have the courage to call out a cohort of women in his party that have proven themselves to be the antithesis of what Labor touts for its females – empowered, ambitious and bold.

The real tragedy of this modern-day Labor obsession with mediocrity is being played out right now during the federal election campaign.

Albo – nice guy that he is – is being exposed as a bumbling fool. The rigour and blowtorch environment of a warts and all campaign is a stark reminder of what it takes to be the Prime Minister.

Failing basic tests around the unemployment rate and the cash interest rate is a sad reflection of how the Labor Party is its own worst enemy.

What makes it even worse for Labor is that two of its young guns – Jim Chalmers and Jason Clare – are super impressive. Both are from Labor’s Right faction, which like in Queensland, does not have the numbers in caucus.

Labor’s Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers. Picture Lachie Millard

Chalmers, the Treasury spokesman, is deftly throwing people off the scent about exactly what Labor will do with tax and their pay packets.

It is clear that they will come in with a sledgehammer, especially for those earning big coin, and tax them to within an inch of their lives.

Then there’s Jason Clare, who has been put up as Labor’s campaign spokesman. Clare is articulate and across every facet of his brief.

His mop up job on Anthony Albanese’s first day stumble was a masterclass, dismissing it as Albo simply being human, when in fact it was a trainwreck.

But he was believable and stuck to message. The text I got after his ABC 7.30pm performance from a good judge was – why isn’t this bloke running for Prime Minister?

Labor doesn’t have the intellectual capacity or courage to embrace Chalmers and Clare, the next generation, because, well, ahem, it’s Albo’s turn.

He’s done the hard yards, he deserves a shot. The problem for Labor is that if PM Scott Morrison outguns him during the campaign – which looks increasingly likely – they may face another three years in Opposition.

Until Labor rids itself of the archaic factional structure that determines who gets the spoils, the electorate will continue to be served up second rate fare.