Unity, leadership, power to deliver: it’s a winning combination for Labor

THERE was universal acceptance yesterday that Labor and Daniel Andrews ran an extraordinary election campaign. But some of his colleagues are arguing that And­rews’s greatest achievement was his ­ability to keep the party united during the four years after Labor lost the 2010 election.

While there were periods when the factional war threatened to break out, the Labor leader kept the party in check. Andrews can take credit for this, but so too can the Labor caucus.

This campaign will be examined closely by conservative governments across Australia and by Tony Abbott in particular, showing as it did the value of unity and long-term planning.

As one senior Liberal noted yesterday, the party of Robert Menzies cannot activate the volunteer base that the Victorian ALP managed over the campaign and the months leading up to it. It doesn’t have the union movement to call in to battle.

Under Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd — 2007 aside — the unions did not throw their full weight behind either prime minister.

But the Victorian election result had much to do with the support of the unions and the party’s ability to attract an even broader campaign team, numbering in the thousands.

The election result is clear evidence of the residual power that the unions have in Victoria, notwithstanding their declining membership base and relevance in the modern economy.

It won’t trouble Andrews that the Prime Minister has already picked a fight on the future of the first stage of the East West Link road and tunnel project. In fact, he will probably relish it.

But ­Andrews needs to be very careful how he approaches this issue, because it could rapidly unravel. The cross-city road and tunnel project, several polls have shown, is actually quite popular among voters and he won’t want it to ­become a defining issue.

The popularity of the East West Link emerged in private Liberal Party polling and is probably a key reason why Abbott seems happy to keep the fight going, regardless of the fact that so many Victorians voted for Labor.

Andrews, meanwhile, will need to be seen to be rapidly implementing his broader agenda so he is viewed as a builder, rather than a wrecker.

The one clear message from the Victorian election is that the voters want unity, outcomes and leadership, something the Napthine government failed to deliver.

It is these three ingredients that Labor promised.