Why the ALP is not working for me
 | Posted by J, The on Tuesday 5 December 2006, 2:09 pm Categories: Australia Decides '07 Tags: Tags: ClimateChange, Democrats, factions, JohnHoward, JuliaGillard, KevinRudd, Labor, NationBuilding, TheGreens |
Here’s the thing. I will probably vote for the ALP my whole life. So anyone out there who is volunteering in a local ALP member’s office and is responsible for keeping a finger on the pulse of the blogging community, you don’t have to read past here. Your vote is safe with me.
Or I should say - your preference vote. I have taken to giving my primary vote for the Greens or Democrats in the last few elections and preferencing ALP as my version of a protest within the ranks.
Here are some of the things that piss me right off about the Federal ALP and which I do not expect to change:
1. The factions.
It is unbelievable but appears true that the ALP factions would rather lose election after election than sort their shit out.
2. The dominance of beery and outspoken older blokes.
Where are your bright and feisty women in party leadership positions? Hurray for Julia Gillard but surely there are others? If New Zealand has had a female PM for almost ten years than we must be about another ten years off, I guess.
3. The snail pace of realising that climate change might be used as a real vote winner
You could really hit those middle Australians for all their worth - get them in the fear joint, hit them with the risk to their future livelihood, the jobs of their children - whatever it takes, but use it.
4. Kevin Rudd.
He just makes my skin crawl. I can’t explain it, but I know I am not alone.
The absence of actual policy
Whilst my skin was crawling, I heard Rudd say something about providing ‘a real alternative government,’ not just shadowing Howard. I hope he does what he says. I have to say though, the moment he was quoted as being in the business of ‘nation-building’ my automatic nervous system switched off my attention gland.
It’s for the reasons above that I am not a member of the ALP and never will be. I have card carrying members for friends who I wish would run for seats but I know they value their quality of life too much for that (damn you for your lack of total self-sacrifice - and you know who you are).
The take home message from this is not new - these same things piss off thousands of my dissatisfied, left-leaning compatriots. I am not going to suggest anything for the ALP to change because the ALP refuses to change any of these things in any active way. Instead I will enjoy observing the ALP as it is inexorably forced to change, as the Greens grow into a real left wing threat and my and others’ currently empty primary vote starts to mean something more than protest.
GrodsThink Ep.29 (26/8/08)
