Labor has 'forgotten about the people who actually matter'
23/05/2021|9min
NSW Nationals Leader John Barilaro says Labor needs to start "fixing its policies" because as long as the party is led by the left it will never win.
The National Party looks set to retain the New South Wales seat of Upper Hunter after a six-week campaign.
Labor has not yet conceded defeat but the future of leader Jodi McKay has been thrown further into doubt.
Mr Barilaro told Sky News, Labor has spent “all their time, for the last 10 years, opposing every piece of legislation".
“They’ve got to start fixing their policies, it doesn’t matter who leads the Labor Party, while they are led by the left and the policy settings of the left, they will never win,” he said.
“They’ve got the winning formula, just look at WA and McGowan, he beat us and beat us well.
“They just can’t find their way back because they have forgotten about the people who actually matter.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... yNewscomau
23/05/2021|14min
Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles has played down the Coalition's major win in the Upper Hunter by-election, saying the result will not have implications federally.
New South Wales Labor has not conceded defeat in the Upper Hunter yet but the National Party looks set to retain the seat.
Mr Marles told Sky News linking the result to Federal Labor would be an over-reaction.
The Deputy Labor Leader also denied internal splits over the new Kuri Kuri gas plant played a role in his party's defeat and said divisions over coal and gas are not a concern for Labor going forward.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... 20%20share
23/05/2021|2min
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has slammed former colleague Malcolm Turnbull describing the former prime minister as “the most bitter ghost of the lot”.
The former prime minister and his wife each donated $3,000 to independent candidate Kirsty O'Connell who ran in this weekend’s by-election.
“You’re actually out there Malcolm campaigning against the people who made you the prime minister of Australia. Can’t you see there’s something not quite right about that,” he said.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... 20%20share
I have noticed a move in several countries where the political party which "traditionally" supported the workers have been moving away from policies which directly affect the majority of their "traditional" voters into niche areas\causes, which may not neccesarily align with the beliefs\desires\wishes of those "traditional" supporters (or, in fact, may run counter to them).
Whether this is due to the politicans in those parties now coming (for the most part) from a "professional" class rather than "from the factory floor" (and so lack the personal understanding of those "traditional" voters), or simply trying to seek out new areas of support through pushing these causes (risking intentionally or inadvertently alienating their existing support base) is an interesting area to consider.
The problem they face is that by branching too far from their "traditional" role, they risk losing more support from those traditional supporters than they would gain from the new areas they are promoting, as traditional supporters may start to feel that their support is being taken for granted, and so start looking elsewhere for a party who better represents their needs.
An indication that this movement may already be taking place in the USA was visible in the donations for last years presidential election, where many (but not all) of the types of people who would previously have been associated with the "traditional" workers party (Builders, laborers, electricians, plumbers, manufacturing workers, drivers, machinsits, carpenters, welders) instead contributed towards another party, indicating that they did not believe that their "traditional" party still represented their values\needs.
See https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-election-trump-biden-donors/
They are catering to too many 'wokers' and not enough workers, these days.
There was a time when the representatives of that party were former tradies\from the factory floor, but of late they seem to be "head office"\union officials or the like, indicating a move from "blue collar" background\experience to "white collar". The result of this is that they would be looking at issues\having priorities which are different to, if not at odds with, the people they claim to be representing.
Regarding the federal branch of the party, as far as I can tell you need to go back to Bill Hayden (leader from 1977-1983) to find a leader who worked in a blue-collar role (police officer for 8 years) before entering politics (as opposed to the "union researchers"\"union officials"\"lawyers"\clerks, etc. which subsequent leaders have used as pathways into their political roles). Gone are the days when people like Ben Chifley, who started in the railways and worked his way up to become Prime Minister as leader of the ALP, have had much say in\control of the direction of the party.
24/05/2021|10min
Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon says the party brand is in trouble and heading in the wrong direction.
This comes as the Nationals Party in New South Wales defeated Labor to win the seat of Upper Hunter.
“If we don’t heed the warning, we will go the way of the Kodak brand. We are facing something that looks like an existential threat here but it’s not too late,” Mr Fitzgibbon told Sky News.
He conceded his own federal seat of Hunter is vulnerable like many other electorates.
“It’s heading in the wrong direction, our brand is in trouble.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... newsletter
24/05/2021|8min
Liberal MP Julian Simmonds says Australian voters feel as though the Labor Party is “losing touch” with significant issues that keep costs down and people in jobs.
“What Australians know from this government, from the Morrison government, is that we support their jobs, we support keeping costs down for families, and that’s what they voted for,” he told Sky News.
“They feel like Labor’s losing touch with that and I don’t blame them.”
He pointed to comments made earlier by Joel Fitzgibbon, saying the Labor MP was also on same page.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... n%20voters
24/05/2021|12min
The Labor Party brand is in trouble and could disappear if it fails to respond to its customer base, says Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon.
"Certainly the Labor brand is in trouble and if we're not careful it will go the same way as the Kodak brand - that is disappear - for failure to move with the times and respond to its customer base," he told Sky News host Alan Jones.
"And our customer base is of course those people who we were formed to represent and they obviously believe we have let them down."
"Whether they are right or wrong we need to respond to that and we haven't responded - and we paid the price again."
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_625 ... mer%20base
See https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-election-trump-biden-donors/
This isn't new at all. The establishment branch of Democratic party hasn't represented labor in a LONG time. Talking about the Democrats as a "party" is quite pointless when in reality they are extremely divided within, only united in opposing the GOP. Of course there is more enthusiasm for the Trumpist cult than for a lackluster neoliberal Democrat with a very anti-worker voting record. Bernie got tons of working class donations. The right has this game they play where they saturate the discourse with divisive culture-war nonsense... and the establishment media left has no response except "orange man bad" because they are controlled by billionaires who don't want to talk about bread and pocketbook issues for obvious reasons. If you don't talk to real people you get a false impression of what people care about.
Political parties evolve with the times. It's hardly shocking that Labor (or the democrats) are led by professionals with a background in academia, law or business. The changing demographic shift in the party reflects the growing aspirations and affluence of traditional labor voters,
I'm sure the grandkids of labor voters from Ben Chifley's time prospered and are no long stuck in factory jobs. If not for Labor you would have some authoritarian Menzies type nutjob (like what John Howard and Tony Abbott aspired to be) keeping the mass of working class poor working a 7 day week.
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