Parliamentary diversity

In other words, 79 per cent of Labor’s new members were professional union/party workers. On the other side, only 25 per cent had been professional party workers.

The pattern is repeated this year. Four of the nine new ALP members were union officials or political staffers. Two others were university staff members and two were lawyers.

This influx of union and party apparatchiks adds to the already narrow occupational backgrounds of existing Labor members. Where are the farmers, the businesspeople, and the various professionals, let alone the tradesmen and women that once constituted the soul of the Labor Party?

Now in alliance with the inner-city, ultra-left Greens, the Labor Party has moved further from its traditional heartland. As John Black summarised the recent election trends, the skilled blue collar tradesmen are less a part of the ALP profile than ever before. Even the academics that were part of the ALP voter profile in the 70s are now deserting Labor for the Greens.