Bob Carr on why Labor lost
March 29th, 2011 at 10:00 am by David FarrarBob Carr was Premier of NSW from 1995 to 2005, winning three consecutive elections. He writes on Labor’s loss:
IT has taken political talent bordering on genius. The creativity of a master such as Disraeli or F. D. Roosevelt to deliver NSW Labor a defeat of this scale.
And I don’t mean Barry O’Farrell, although his political tactics are wholly vindicated and his occasional Liberal critics silenced. The genius was that of the Labor Party, in turning what could have been a swing-of-the-pendulum defeat into something far worse.
At last count Labor dropped from 50 seats to 21.
In 2007 Iemma held seats thanks to a capital works budget bigger than all the other states combined, bigger than New York’s or California’s.
Then he made the silly mistake of wanting to make that huge infrastructure spend even bigger by selling the state’s electricity assets.
In 2007 this was surely not too big a request of a Labor Party which had seen the benefits to living standards of the reforms of the Hawke-Keating years.
A reasonable response of a union-based party might have been, “Yeah, mate, well, can’t really hold out against this one. Let’s allow a Labor government a great chunk of capital so it can push even harder with public sector expansion. Nurses and teachers will be the winners. And we’ll get guarantees for our members in the electricity sector.”
There were precedents – and, happily, they also point to policy success during Labor’s rule – the privatisation of Freightcorp in 2002 and of state-owned coal mines in 2001. Both benefited the budget and taxpayer. Both were supported by the unions because the private capital modernised the enterprises and shored up jobs.
Yet in a display of wilfulness and obstinacy, the opponents of electricity privatisation staged a public brawl at the 2008 ALP conference. It presented a hideous visage to the electorate. It was a symbolic repudiation of the McKell model, the style of NSW Labor since William McKell (premier 1941-47). McKell’s moderate ethos was based on middle course policies which gave the party support in the bush as well as the city. It was possible because the machine supported the parliamentary leadership, the premier of the day. This pattern prevailed under Joe Cahill, Neville Wran and me.
On this occasion, the party tore up the script that had given Labor these years of ascendancy and ritually humiliated Iemma and then replaced him, the first time in NSW Labor history a premier had been executed. Contemplating this turbulence, the electorate started deserting the party.
This moderate leadership meant Labor were in power from 1941 to 1965, 1976 to 1988 and 1995 to 2011. That was 52 out of 70 years.
What is interesting is one of the contenders for the NSW leadership is John Robertson – the former trade union leader who played a prominent role in causing the civil war in the party. I’m pretty sure new Premier Barry O’Farrell will be hoping they select him.
Related posts:
- NSW Labor Leader John Robertson
- Labor re-elected in NSW
- The NSW election
- Australian Young Labor – teaching hate!
March 29th, 2011 at 10:12 am
On a lighter note, it appears that Pauline Hansen will win a seat in the upper house
Vote:http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/paulin-hanson-close-to-shock-win-in-new-south-wales-upper-house/story-e6freoof-1226029640843
March 29th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Good riddance to Bob Carr and Labor in NSW. Their years of unending spin and serial incompetence finally caught up with them.
What got eventually Labor was not collective genius but a sense of wonderment in the belief that NSW was an eternal fiefdom . This sense of wonderment is Carr’s creation and his legacy to Labor in NSW.
Such genius cannot handle political reconstruction and should remain dead and buried by last Saturday’s election. I hope that they do elect John Robertson as their leader, it will be the same as appointing Dracula to run a blood bank and will have the same effect. Robertson has already caused about $30 billion of damage to the NSW economy and Labor government through his opposition to privatisation of electricity. His appointment will confirm that Labor has learned nothing and a committed to long-term opposition and congenital stupidity.
The election was a stunning victory for Barry O’Farrell and the Liberals. The Liberals achieved swings of up to 36% in some of Labor’s heartland. The average swing across NSW was about 18% – stunning stuff. I hope that they consolidate and settle down to govern effectively for all of us here in NSW.
Vote:March 29th, 2011 at 10:48 am
I lived in Sydney during the Carr years and I must say I was impressed with his Premiership. He was a bright guy with a classical education trying to run NSW in a sort of “enlightened dictatorship” style and for a long time it worked. But it required his personal involvement to succeed – the moment Carr retired, the knives came out and the factional Labor bloodbath began. It hasn’t stopped since.
Note – I’m not saying that they way Carr ran the state was right, or democratic – I’m saying that it worked.
Vote:March 29th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
After 18 years a monkey on a string could have won NSW for the LNP. O’Farrell was almost anonymous throughout the campaign until the last couple of days when he did a Tony (‘I can go 60 hours without sleep’) Abbott.
Vote:March 29th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Pauline Hanson, the ‘serial candidate’ – great phrase!
Vote:March 29th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Sour grape Maggie? I saw in the Australian yesterday that 70% of Australians now have a Liberal State premier. If Queensland falls as well, that’d be a fair bit higher.
Vote: