Left’s love lost for Labor

Of course, Labor didn’t lose the election simply because it pandered to religious conservatives. But, placating fundamentalists is symptomatic of a mindset that is willing to sell out the left in order to poach votes from the right. It’s the same mindset that led to massive asset sales and the destruction of small communities in the Mary Valley in the poorly thought-out, poorly managed Traveston Dam debacle. When Labor tries to emulate a Liberal government, everyone ends up miserable.

Where is the Labor Party that once stood up for the rights of the little bloke? Where is the party that supported advanced ideas; that stood in ‘the vanguard of progressive thought and action’? Where is the party that stood for secular, enlightenment values; for the separation of church and state? Where is the party that took the side of the worker against the excesses of big business? Where is the Labor Party that once proudly challenged the status quo, eschewed religious ideology as a basis for policy, and refused to pander to religious conservatives and wowsers? It certainly wasn’t standing for election in Queensland on Saturday!

Queensland Labor now has an opportunity to regroup and reflect. They have two choices. They can continue to stand for nothing and blend seamlessly with the arch-conservative theocrats of the LNP or they can listen to the progressive voices in Young Labor and in the branches that have been pleading for change. 

What if the Labor Party stands at the next state election as a party for progressive values; a party which fearlessly stands for that which is right, not that which is politically pragmatic? What if the voters at the next election are given the choice of a new, re-energised, rejuvenated, progressive and forward thinking Labor Party; a party headed by educated, critical thinkers whose policies are based on unbiased research, credible evidence and universal human values – not pork-barrelling and factional or religious ideologies? What if the Labor party stopped trying to be clever, and just honestly represented the interests of its core constituency to the best of its ability?

What if Labor ‘seizes the day’ and works to win back the disenfranchised left? There are thousands of us who would enthusiastically make the leap to support a strong, fearless, energetic, progressive party committed to social welfare, human rights, equality and the separation of church and state. Sadly, that is not the Labor Party that stood for election on Saturday.