Latham's vision of Labor future stresses balance and aspiration

FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham says Labor must counter the rise of the "authoritarian Right".

FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham says Labor must counter the rise of the "authoritarian Right" and adopt a philosophy of "liberal solidarity" to promote a rights agenda balanced with policies for individual responsibility and community building.

In a new Quarterly Essay, Not Dead Yet: Labor's Post-Left Future, Mr Latham laments that, along with Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, he had failed to revitalise the party's agenda in the years since Labor's defeat in 1996.

"Nearly two decades later, this goal remains unfulfilled," he writes in the essay, obtained by The Australian ahead of its release. Mr Latham, leader from 2003 to 2005, regrets making "no lasting progress in the development of new Labor thinking". Labor's task, he argues, is to "deftly reposition itself as a creative centre-left force, meeting the economic aspirations of the new middle class while also addressing underclass poverty".

Mr Latham advocates freedom of speech balanced with new media standards; free education balanced with home learning; women's rights and equality with programs to assist men's health and self-esteem; and free healthcare provided people take responsibility for their own welfare by avoiding smoking and obesity.

He also urged the party to support "economic aspiration", rid itself of union-based factionalism and reject union demands to protect old smokestack industries.

Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association national secretary Joe De Bruyn rejected Mr Latham's arguments.

"Unions represent the whole of the workforce . . . it is important for Labor to tap into that," he said.

ALP national vice-president Jane Garrett dismissed the analysis as simplistic and sensationalised. "It is very easy for Mr Latham to dismiss 'smokestack' unions . . . from the position of his taxpayer-funded pension," she said. "But the Labor Party will always be proud to fight for these workers and will always be proud to have them and their unions as an integral part of our fabric and our future."

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt ridiculed Mr Latham's suggestion that Kevin Rudd should be the next climate change minister.

"Given that Mr Rudd was the co-author of pink batts and green loans and he abandoned his own climate scheme, I assume this is the first April Fool's joke of the season," he said.