The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has been buoyed recently by two massive victories in state parliamentary elections. It managed swings of nine and eleven percent in the Western Australian and Queensland elections. Labor now controls five out of the six states of the federation.
The Western Australian result will have been particularly well received in the UK as Labor’s new Premier, Geoff Gallop, is a close personal friend of Tony Blair, as is the federal Labor Leader, Kim Beazley.
Geoff Gallop is a strong supporter of the approach championed by Tony Blair. In this he is not alone. The Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks, who won a stunning victory in late 1999, also consciously aligns himself with Blair’s broad policy direction. For those like me who have been involved in Labor politics in Australia and the UK, the style and campaigning impact of New Labor has been obvious in all states.
With a federal election due later this year, Labor is travelling well. There are a number of reasons for this. During its years in opposition, Labor has avoided the trap of turning in on itself. Beazley has been able to keep all sections of the ALP working together harmoniously.
Perhaps the key reason is that the times are beginning to suit Labor. The recent state victories represent, in part, a massive protest vote against the incumbent federal Liberal-National Coalition led by Prime Minister John Howard and his Treasurer, Peter Costello.
Howard and Costello received their political education in the 1970s and 1980s under the influence of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. While the times have changed, the harsh deregulatory and ‘economic rationalist’ approach of these two has not. Particularly in regional Australia, voters have seen their public services bled through ideologically motivated cuts, their public schools and hospitals decline at the expense of private provision, and their quality of life attacked through the Government’s attempts to steadily erode the bargaining power of trade unions. They are seeing themselves as the victims of ‘globalisation’, which is being exploited by the right-wing populism of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party, which polled well in the Queensland and Western Australian elections.
Undoubtedly the most unpopular policy introduced by the Howard Government since the last election has been the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is a ten percent VAT. Eight months into its operation, ordinary people are realising what a massive and unfair tax impost it is and are getting angry.
Despite the growing unpopularity of the Government, Beazley is determined to fight the next federal election with a positive agenda around the twin themes of ‘fairness’ and ‘the future’. Like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, Kim Beazley’s message is the need to use government to help people make the transition to the 21st century economy.
Central to this has been Labor’s pledge to make Australia a ‘Knowledge Nation’ – a high wage, high skill economy in which everyone has the opportunity to succeed through the public provision of quality education and training services.
Another policy thrust is Labor’s intention of easing the pressures building on families as a result of the changing economy, by introducing industrial relations policies designed to create ‘family friendly’ workplaces.
Labor has also stated its intention to defend and improve Australia’s national health system, ‘Medicare’, with a commitment to boost national investment in the popular scheme.
The Australian and British Labour parties have always enjoyed close contacts. We look forward – fingers crossed – to working together as fraternal Labour governments by the end of 2001.