Labor’s left wing has ‘died’, it could lose election, says Bill Kelty

Bill Kelty says the left wing of the Labor Party ‘died a long time ago’, warning the party could be defeated at the next election.

Rhiannon Down

@rhi_down

3 min read

3 hours ago

Bill Kelty at the memorial service for Bob Hawke at the Sydney Opera House in 2019. Picture: Richard Dobson

Former union stalwart Bill Kelty says the left wing of the Labor Party “died a long time ago”, warning there is a “real chance” the party is heading to defeat at the next election.

As former Labor minister Kim Carr reopens old Labor wars with the publication of his memoir, Mr Kelty said major shifts in the economy, structural changes to the workforce and a decline in manufacturing jobs had diminished the ALP’s voter base.

Mr Kelty said concern about the environment, the treatment of asylum-seekers and the fall of unionisation had also contributed to an increase in support for the Greens and the independents, especially among young people.

The long-serving Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary said the Albanese government had made some positive changes but needed to put forward an “inspirational set of policies” that are “better explained”.

After the voice referendum was resoundingly defeated, Mr Kelty has also pushed for a treaty as the next step towards recognition of Indigenous Australians, criticising the Labor Party for not providing clarity on its position.

“I don’t think there’s a left wing in the Labor Party,” Mr Kelty told The Weekend Australian. “I think the left wing disappeared. I think the left wing died.

“What is the left-wing position on AUKUS in the party? They support AUKUS, apparently.

“Is there a left-wing position on the treaty? I think many of the Labor Party members probably do have a strong view on supporting a treaty. I don’t know.

“Is there a left-wing view on the modern workplace? I don’t know.”

While stressing that he had not read Mr Carr’s memoir, Mr Kelty said the former Labor senator’s criticism that Labor had lost touch with blue-colour, low-income workers was “partly true”, arguing the trend was more extreme in the US than Australia.

“What is happening is that the primary vote has fallen significantly,” he said. “Part of the primary vote fall has been the big structural changes in the economy in which there are less manufacturing blue-collar workers.

“And as a result of that there are relatively more tradespeople, and they’ve had a tendency in the past to vote Liberal Party more than manufacturing workers, and that trend has continued. So I do think there’s a structural change in the employment market, structural change in the demography which has affected it.”

Mr Kelty said there was a chance Anthony Albanese could be defeated at the next election.

“There is a chance they could get defeated at the next election, a real chance,” he said.

“Just look at the polls. Last time it got 33, they’re recording 28 to 32 so that represents a swing against the Labor Party, and they don’t have a buffer.

“So there’s a chance. The question is, can the Liberal National Party get in front of the Labor Party? That’s not so hard to achieve. So there is a chance.”

Mr Kelty said the Prime Minister’s attempt to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the Constitution was a “noble effort” but ultimately the concept was a “very hard thing” to sell to voters.

Pointing to a treaty as the path forward, Mr Kelty argued Mr Albanese had “started at the wrong end” by attempting to pass the voice rather than building from the bottom.

He also argued the case for Labor to implement a “manifesto for young people”, to combat voter disillusionment because of soaring house prices, the high cost of living, stagnant wages and stubborn student debts.

Labor-aligned political strategist Kos Samaras said the polling reflected a decline in support among the party’s traditional base and an increase in the perception that the ALP doesn’t “represent them”.

“When you get in government, and you leave government and people are poorer than they were when you first got into government – that’s your KPI. That’s what you get votes on,” he said.

“So whether it was the Rudd-Gillard years, whether it’s now the Albanese government, if at the end of the this first term people are poorer … then you failed in your objective to represent low-income workers. That’s why they’re moving away.”