So now what is the Labor Party strategy? Reward middle-income families and penalise low income, welfare supported families. Mark Latham will have far more tax losers in his own electorate than perhaps any other electorate in Australia. This is not because there is some new welfare to work strategy, it is simply an electoral calculation. How terrible that the Labor Party has fallen to such a low ebb.
So, what is to be done? Funding is one issue. Norman Thompson and Lee Rhiannon's research into corporate donations to political parties shows why parties no longer need members. Politics Inc - the bureaucracies and administrations of the major parties - receive the bulk of their parties' financial support from two sources: corporate donations and public electoral funding. The major parties don't really need members any more. With their streams of cash they can buy in advisors, public relations teams and even letter boxing professionals.
In this context of professionalisation and corporate financing, to allow ordinary members a more engaged and participative role in party conferences, policy and choice of leaders would be completely against the interests of most party officers and insiders. They will not yield easily.
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For all their problems, the Australian Democrats have the most open and democratic party in the country, and probably one of the most open in the world. They provide a model of the way for electing leaders, developing policy and generally consulting with ordinary members.
Greg Barnes shows us the consequences of a party with no diversity of ideology anymore. The neo-conservative positions of John Howard and other Ministers are worrying in themselves. That they are not questioned them from within the Liberal Party is of even more concern. Barns’ recent article, and his book, What is Wrong with the Liberal Party, supplements the work of Kingston and others.
In the middle of this election campaign, it is time to ponder just exactly what it is we need from our politicians, and how we can get it. Some of us are giving it more than thought.
This is an edited and adapted extract from Peter Botsman's editorial in the current edition of Australian Prospect.
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