The centre-left in an identity crisis

The problem is though that this strategy appeals to no one. Policies that draw support in internal Labor Party conferences are adrift from everyday Australians. Meanwhile as Hillary Clinton and Bill Shorten overplay their left-wing credentials, the hard left can spot the phoniness.

That is why the Left still support Anthony Albanese over Shorten, even though Shorten made far-reaching pitches to the Left by talking about quotas for indigenous and gay members of parliament, a policy so outrageously tokenistic that even the Newtown Left could only laugh.

The weakness of the right-faction in these left-wing parties has meant that all cultural and economic policy is being controlled by the left. Rather than argue complex economic matters, Labor harps on about fairness and how the rich need to pay their 'fair share'.

Years of political fixing and deal-making between Labor's left and right factions has robbed Labor of its soul. The new-breed of supposedly 'Labor right' politicians- Sam Dastayari and Tim Watts are indistinguishable from the Greens. Dastyari has made his name picking fights with multi-national corporations and unscrupulous financial planners, while Tim Watts talks about the patriarchal culture that has spawned domestic violence, and his big pitches in his book 'Two Futures' include abolishing both negative gearing and the parliamentary prayer.

Labor's new generation have come of age in a post-Keating era and know only an era of quick-fixes, focus-group driven policy and genuflection to a social media that is fuelled by emotion not reason. If the mainstream Left can't distinguish itself from the fringe then it will confine itself there.