Labor’s left faction refuses to accept policy disaster

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and former leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Picture Kym Smith

The old left can be relied upon to fall back on failed policies of the past when seeking to set a path for the future. On the front page of Tuesday’s edition of this newspaper, there was a photo of that old left warrior, Senator Kim Carr, pushing his view that the policy settings at the last election were fine but it was the messaging which was all wrong.

I have a problem with that analysis because in my view taking two new taxes to that election was political suicide. No soothing words could have smothered the vision people have of a government bringing down more taxes upon what they see as their already overburdened shoulders.

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Factionalism in the Labor Party is alive and well, but it is not fought with the venom of previous generations.

As a young party activist, I was fighting hardened lefties who also were members of the Communist Party of Australia. At the first meeting of the Barton FEC I attended, I was stunned when several delegates were prepared to defend the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

‘Trying to be a poor man’s Tony Blair is not going to be the answer for the Labor Party’ … Labor senator Kim Carr at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

It did provide me with a grounding in combative debating. It also motivated me to encourage some of my friends to join the party. Just 20 or so mates joining up made a hell of a difference in a sleepy electorate like Kogarah. It didn’t do my career any harm, either, when it came to the notice of John Ducker, the tough, dour and brilliant migrant from Hull.

This division was highly organised as well. The main left group was called the Steering Committee, which had its own office bearers and executive.

The NSW Right took on a new name at the behest of Paul Keating. So came the birth of Centre Unity. In one form or another this group has ruled the NSW Branch since the 1930s.

The General Secretary back then was Bill Colbourne, who was well into his 80s when I took over. I made the pilgrimage to his home in Lilyfield, in Sydney’s inner-west, and the advice he gave me was obviously borne from his experience. He told me that I didn’t have much power but everyone thought I did. Just act like you have and the party will believe it.

The NSW Conference of the Party is where the big set-piece clashes occur.

John Faulkner and myself, as champions of the left and right respectively, did battle on the floor of the Sydney Town Hall. Faulkner is a passionate mob orator, and those debates emptied the tea and coffee area and the nearby pubs. I miss those contests to this day.

The Liberal Party does things very differently. They are at pains to make sure division is not highlighted and it is easy to understand why. The downside of this approach is that there is no real debate.

It is ridiculous to assert that everyone agrees every time, so this show of unity rings of organised falsehood. Then again, it is politics.