Although almost everyone in the Canberra media establishment hates to acknowledge it, the most incisive political commentary in Australia invariably doesn’t come from one of their own — it is penned by their enemy No.1.
Here’s a bit of what he had to say on the op-ed page of today’s Australian Financial Review:
“In theory, the work of a union official should be a humbling task, representing the interests of employees who are powerless to represent themselves. In practice, however, union chiefs are arrogant types, perceiving themselves as above the laws of the industrial system.
“This conceitedness is a product of their dual role within the labour movement. Not only do they run union offices, they also control factional numbers inside the ALP.
“This is an intoxicating power, determining the selection of Labor candidates and even the nation’s leadership.
“The tragedy for progressive politics is that there are scores of Craig Thomsons across the labour movement. He is the cultural norm, not an isolated peccadillo. In truth, Labor’s leadership has known about this problem since the 1990s but done nothing about it, deferring party reform as too difficult internally and too disruptive electorally.”
The scandals within the Health Services Union are a nightmare for the Gillard government, the Labor Party and the union movement — but like three wise monkeys they have chosen to simply ignore “the systemic corruption of the factional system and its trade union affiliates”, in the words of a columnist who would know.
As usual, Mark Latham gets it right. And as usual, his history means that although he offers a uniquely candid insider’s understanding of Australian politics, his insights will be denigrated by the Labor Party and the press gallery.
Which is a shame. For all his many and ugly flaws, he’s the only one from the Labor camp talking about the sort of reform the party needs to survive.
Mark can be amazingly insightful and it’s a shame he lets his passion make him overly aggressive at times, he’d have been a good leader if he could have kept that trait in check.
Yes indeed. Unfortunately the behavior of these self serving unscrupulous thugs has almost destroyed an iconic Australian political party.
I guess it’s nothing new – power corrupts – absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The regeneration of the political labor movement in Australia is likely to be a long hard road.
It might be a timely piece by Latham, but it’s hardly a lone voice from the membership. There have been a number of sealed reports to the ALP at National and State level (Robert Ray, Peter Dowding) all saying the same thing. Some have mounted internal party reform movements – such as that led in WA by MacTiernan and Whitley – and they’ve been crushed. So much so that the group in the WA Caucus ended up calling themselves ‘the resistance’. Anyway, Latham et al are simply identifying the task for Labor when it is forced to reform by the looming 20 years in the wilderness.
Latham was often able to see the big picture when Opposition Leader. He still displays flashes of wisdom which appears to be missing in the government ranks.
Had he been PM, there is no way Latham would’ve allowed Darwin to be infiltrated by US marines nor would there have been talk of US drones based on Australian territory.
I wonder what the union people have on Dillard, it must be a lot, anyone can see that this Thompson, thing stinks to high heaven, just shows the morality in the political system.