Does the ALP have a future?

There is one current policy to which the ALP is totally committed, that no union official should ever live in poverty. But with union private sector membership now around 10% that will not be enough, even though the number of officials has gone up as the membership has gone down.

More spending programs will not do the trick either. Resource prices have crashed and George Soros announced last week at Davos that, essentially, he has shorted Australia, so its time to get serious or get out of the game.

Meanwhile The Greens will be eating away at left votes as the new leadership moves steadily towards the centre. The announcement by Richard Di Natale that he had no problem with genetically modified food was very significant. It has caused some of the more extreme members of his party to resign, assisting the change process, particularly in pre-selections.

The Liberals are also taking steps to get rid of old hacks and oddballs, even though the media predictably reacted with horror at the possibility of democratic action occurring within a political party.

But the ALP is concentrating on keeping all the dead wood in place. After all, most of them are ex-union officials. Highly talented aspirants are given boring tasks that eventually break their spirits. Even the dullest of timeservers are now highly skilled at excluding talented people who have failed to devote their entire lives to living off union members and taxpayers. Political journalists and party tacticians think this is a great idea. (I almost wrote 'strategists', but that would be silly.)

In short, the ALP was a dismal future because it has failed to outline a future for the nation. And there is no sign that they are even going beyond raising points that encapsulate a plan for an approach that can drive an agenda, as former Deputy Prime Minister Albanese puts it.

Bill Shorten looks more like Bill Shortterm every day. And why has the Shadow Treasurer grown a beard? Is he after the western Sydney hipster vote, or trying to hide his embarrassment, or cleverly excluding himself from a leadership draft?

Maybe they will come up with something we can all take seriously, but, as one of my colleagues used to say, I wouldn't suspend respiration while waiting.