Why I walked away from the ALP's front bench

The policy on asylum seekers adopted by the federal Labor Party caucus on 5 December was a trigger for my decision to resign from the shadow cabinet and shadow ministry, but it is not the only reason.

The truth is that I have found myself increasingly out of step with the majority of my shadow cabinet colleagues. That may be me and not them. I don't find my own views and values reflected in a lot of decisions that are made by that shadow cabinet.

Now I have reached the point where I don't believe I can continue to support and defend a range of policies, as well as the general disposition and direction of that shadow cabinet.

I am talking about the current position on asylum seekers, the lack of clarity, in my view, on the position on Iraq, or previous decisions such as the complete agreement initially with the private health insurance rebate - although I still have some hopes in that direction - funding for wealthy schools and so on.

My first experience on returning to the shadow cabinet more than a year ago, nearly two years ago now, was that it had become incredibly conservative, timid even, and I hoped that after the election that would change.

I am prepared to concede that maybe I am the one that is out of step. But I am not able to continue to support and defend policies that in my view are devised with one eye on the polls and another on media impact.

Moreover, it is not fair on my shadow-cabinet colleagues to seek to be an exception to the rule that you don't speak out and that you don't dissent. I have simply found that tension too great as I have, on some cases, spoken out. I can no longer do that.

I have spoken strongly against us supporting a war on Iraq, against attacking Iraq, because that is really what is at issue.

I don't believe we are speaking sufficiently clearly against the possibility that we would sign up with George Bush in some form of unilateral action against Iraq.

In my experience in recent times, it is not uncommon in the shadow cabinet for issues to be discussed first of all with an eye on what the public reaction is likely to be rather than whether it is inherently good policy.

I believe we need to be telling Australians a story about the sort of country we want this to be, what we hope for them, how their lives can be improved.

Certainly, we have to listen to the community and be aware of their needs and interests, but we cannot continually be responding to what is the short-term view of the section of the community who are most audible.

To develop good policies that are consistent with our claims to be progressive, we have to start with a set of values and, yes, even ideals, to which we aspire as political activists. Otherwise, why bother?

The first mistake we made on the issue of asylum seekers was to play on John Howard's turf. We're allowing him to define the territory and the argument.

I do not share the view that Howard is some kind of political genius. He's not. The times suit him, but he's vulnerable.

We played along before the last election with the moral panic surrounding the boat people instead of getting out there and persuading Australians of a different point of view.

I hated our acquiescence on the Tampa, but in a sense it was inevitable after so much compromise, month after month.

Each small step in a way was barely noticeable, but the end result was that we were pushed well beyond a position that even our own members of the ALP could endorse.

This policy was an opportunity to get it right, to rule a line under the past, as we did with East Timor. There are improvements, I concede. But we are in opposition. This is the time to craft the best policy that we can, to signal that we really want to head in a new direction underpinned by the principle of the equal worth of all human beings.

It was an opportunity lost. This policy clearly treats some asylum seekers as more worthy than others.

I want to move to the back bench so that I can work assiduously as a member of the Labor Party, a party I joined a great many years ago. I'm not giving up on trying to change direction on some of these issues. I hope I can act with colleagues, of whom there are many, to take back the heart and soul of the Labor Party from those people for whom it is good enough to get up in the morning and think we are going to be the slightly better manager on that day.

Mine is not a decision to abandon the Labor Party. It is a decision to move into a different phase of my life, to work with activists, to encourage young people to join up to our great party and to try to recapture the values that underpin that party.