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LABOR VOICE IS PUBLISHED BY CENTRE UNITY NSW LABOR.
ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO:CENTRE UNITY, PO BOX 254, HAYMARKET NSW 1240
OR EMAIL [email protected]
DESIGN BY: CAMPAIGN CITY
COVER: GOUGH WHITLAM & VINCENT LINGIARI AT THE GUIRINDJI
HANDOVER AT WATTIE CREEK, NORTHERN TERRITORY.
POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY MERVYN BISHOP (1975)
CONTRIBUTORS
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LABOR VOICE
BRER ADAMS, former advisor to SouthAustralian Labor, is a private sector specialist in
renewable energy.
JOHN DELLA BOSCA, former NSWParty Secretary, was a Minister in the NSW
Government for 11 years. He now works for the
National Disability and Carers Alliance.
BILL BOWTELL, an adviser in the Wran,Hawke and Keating Governments, was Chief of
Stato Health Minister Neal Blewett between
1983 and 1987.
CHRIS BROWN has led the Tourism &Transport Forum since 1992, was founder of
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and is
Adjunct Professor at the UTS Business School.
NICHOLAS CAR, a former CSIRO waterresearch engineer, works in the irrigationindustry.
BOB ELLIS has written 17 books, numerousfilms and TV miniseries including The True
Believers, and speeches for Labor leaders
including Kim Beazley and Bob Carr.
GRAHAM FREUDENBERG wasspeechwriter for Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran,
Barrie Unsworth and Bob Carr. He has written
several books includingA Certain Grandeur Gough Whitlam in Politics.
PAUL HOWES is the National Secretaryof the Australian Workers Union and author of
Confessions of a Faceless Man.
MICHELLE ROWLAND, former seniorlawyer, is the Federal MP for Greenway in
Western Sydney.
CASS WILKINSON, author ofDont Panic Nearly Everything is Better Than You Think,senior advisor in the former NSW Government,
President and co-founder of FBi Radio, now
works in social finance.
Articles published in Voice are the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of Centre Unity or NSW Labor.
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Centre Unity has a responsibility to stimulatedebate and challenge our party. We mustencourage bold and innovative ideas that will set
the policy foundations for Labor governments.
Since the party was formed, under the Tree of
Knowledge at Barcaldine (or Balmain depending
on your source), we have always been the party of
reform and since its inception in the 1970s, Centre
Unity has led the way in challenging the Party to liveup to our history.
Voice is the first publication of its kind, designed
to once again stimulate ideas and debate within
the Labor Party to ensure we become a more open,
relevant movement focused on the community and
not itself.
The premise behind the creation of Voice is
simple, robust and meaningful policy conversations
need to be encouraged, not muted, at all levels of
the party if we are to move forward with a vision for
NSW and Australia.
Through authors like Graham Freudenberg, BobEllis and Bill Bowtel, Voice seeks to invoke our sense
of purpose as a political party and remind us of the
great accomplishments of our past.
Contributions from members including Paul
Howes, Nicolas Car, Brer Adams, Cass Wilkinson,
Chris Brown and John Della Bosca show that Labor
needs to be the party of reform, not only for our
own survival, but for those most in need in our
community.
We welcome your views, ideas and feedback
on the first edition of Voice, and look forward to
working with you as we create an open party focused
on the people who need Labor Governments most.
Sam Dastyari
General Secretary
NSW Labor
Welcome to Labor VoiceBY SAM DASTYARI
After a big defeat, comes a responsibility to rebuild but we must be
bold and innovative if we are to rebuild the Australian Labor Party for
the future.
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For two decades before he became leader of theFederal Parliamentary Labor Party, he learntand applied political skills and knowledge acquired
as a NSW branch member, delegate, candidate and
MP. For all his brilliance and originality, he roseto the top because he won and held the support of
the Labor branches at a time when the branches
were the heart of the Party, and because he laid
claim to be the authentic voice of the NSW branch
membership. In his struggles for party and policy
reform, as Rodney Cavalier points out, The NSW
Right backed Whitlam. They made him their
favourite son though, in truth, Whitlam was not one
of them.
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BY GRAHAM FREUDENBERG
Gough Whitlam was a product
of NSW Labor, every bit as
much as Ben Chifley or Neville
Wran, Paul Keating or Bob
Carr. The history, characterand structures of NSW Labor
influenced his whole career.
GOUGHWHITLAM
NSWLABOR&
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I might have been Lord Mayor of Sydney, or
Premier of New South Wales or even President ofthe Sutherland Shire, Whitlam was to reflect. Alas,
the fates were against me. He was referring to his
nomination for the Fitzroy Ward in the aborted
election for Sydney City Council in 1947, and his
failures to win the seat of Sutherland in the State
election of June 1950 and the Cronulla ward in
Sutherland Shire in November 1950.
The fates smiled at last in 1952. Soon after the
1951 double dissolution, Bert Lazzarini announced
that he would not stand again for Werriwa; he had
held this great sprawling electorate since 1922,
except for 1931-1935 when he lost it for Lang Labor.
This gave Whitlam a full year to campaign for pre-
selection, which he did with characteristic zest
and attention to detail, developing skills which he
applied to crucial by-elections when he became
Party leader. He won the pre-selection in June 1952
and, after Lazzarini died suddenly, the Werriwa seat
in November.
Whitlam arrived in Canberra at a time when NSW
Labor was strong and buoyant. State and Federal
prospects were bright. The memories and lessons of
the splits of the 1930s were still very much alive, notleast in Werriwa. So were the unifying influences of
the McKell revival and NSW Labors contribution to
the strength of the Curtin and Chifley Governments.
Joe Cahill had succeeded the failing McGirr as
Premier of New South Wales just as Whitlam won
his pre-selection. Evatt still basked in the glow of
his great personal victory over Menzies in defeating
the Communist party dissolution Referendum in
1951. The Menzies Government floundered in the
wake of the economic consequences of the Korean
War. In Victoria, John Cain formed Victorias first
majority Labor government a week after Whitlam
won the by-election. Thus Whitlam entered the
Federal Caucus with every confidence of a Labor
victory in 1954, as a member from its dominant
State. Nobody could contemplate that it would take
another 20 years for victory to come.
The way he came in was just as significant for
Whitlams confidence and self-assurance. He came
through the branches. He made the deliberate
choice to take his young family to Cronulla and later
Cabramatta to Sutherland and then Werriwa; but,as a career move, it would have come to nothing
without the strong support he won and retained
from the Werriwa branches. He never took them for
granted; and even as Labor Leader he was assiduous
in attendance and detailed attention to the aairs
of his FEC. The stanegligence which led to Evatts
failure to renew his ticket at the height of the Split
crisis would have been unthinkable for Whitlam.
He was not altogether accurate in complaining that
the closest my sta ever gets to my electorate is
when they fly over it on the way to Canberra, but
the jibe served to remind them where their meal-
ticket and his own ultimately came from.
If Werriwa had not existed, Whitlam would have
had to invent it and, in a sense, he did. Werriwa as
the microcosm of the new urban Australia was an
act of political imagination on Whitlams part. His
catalogue of disadvantage that Werriwa had the
most migrants, the highest birth rates, the worst
housing shortage, the most distant hospitals, the
neediest public health, the fewest schools, the
most inadequate public transport, the poorest
public amenities, the least sewerage formed theframework of the Whitlam Program, to be fleshed
out under the formula: schools, hospitals, cities.
The fact that, because of its preponderance of
migrants and children, Werriwa had the worst
disproportion between population and voters
drove his longest running campaign for equal
electorates and one vote, one value. Equality
became Whitlams watchword because Werriwa
encapsulated Australias most glaring inequalities.
Most of Werriwas problems lay in areas then
deemed to be State responsibilities. The trend of
his thinking was clear from the start. In his maiden
speech in March 1953, he said:
Education is absorbing an increasingly large part
of the Budget of each of the States. I have no doubt
that the Commonwealth will gradually be obliged to
take over that function from the States.
Whitlam made his maiden speech just after
Cahill had won a resounding victory in New South
Wales, with over 55 percent, a win comparable with
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McKells in 1941 and 1944, and the Wranslides of
1978 and 1981. Cahills victory in 1953 was absolutelycrucial in containing the Great Split, and in shaping
the character of NSW Labor for the rest of the
century. The will to preserve the NSW Government
prevailed. Cut down to its essentials, the Split was
contained in New South Wales because there was
the will to prevent it; and the main source of that
will was a determination to save the NSW Labor
Government. In Victoria, not only was this will
absent but there were significant figures actually
working for a split as the necessary prelude to an
ideological takeover. Some writers have made much
of the curious notion that, unlike the Victorians who
formed the DLP, the NSW Right made a decision to
stay in and fight (presumably against Evatt, the
Federal Executive, the Left and even occasionally
the communists). But why on earth should NSW
Catholics leave a party where they already enjoyed
an ascendancy in Cabinet, Caucus and the NSW
Executive? Why break from a party with its historic
cordial relations with the Catholic hierarchy? This
was after all the party which owed much more to
Cardinal Moran than to Karl Marx. Santamarias
fantasies about converting the ALP into a ChristianDemocratic Party never had traction or attraction in
NSW. These dierences are sucient in themselves
to explain why the Split devastated Victoria and was
contained in New South Wales. But the overriding
factor was the basic commitment to saving the NSW
Labor Government, confirmed so strongly in the
1953 elections.
Although the Federal intervention of 1956 left
the NSW Right in control of the State Executive
and the Trades and Labor Council the Split
greatly increased the authority of the Federal
Executive which asserted its role as the guardian
of the Platform and interpreter of policy between
Conferences, with a rigid dogmatism reflecting the
approach of its dominant figure, Joe Chamberlain,
the Western Australian Secretary who doubled as
Federal Secretary.
The most spectacular assertion of Federal
authority over policy was the Special Conference
on the North West Cape Base proposal in March
1963. It was graphically indeed photographically
portrayed as the work of the 36 faceless men. It shouldbe noted, however, that the Special Conference took
place only because the Parliamentary Party failed
to decide the issue for itself, as it could and should
have done. And in fact the Conference formula
conditional acceptance of the US base was more
or less what Calwell and Whitlam wanted.
The most blatant diktat from the Federal
Executive came later that year, and it was directed
against the Heron Labor Government of New
South Wales. The issue was so-called State Aid,
specifically government
funding for Catholic
schools. It must be hard
today for anyone under
60 to comprehend the
divisiveness of State Aid
in these years.
In October 1963, the Federal Executive
instructed the Heron Government to re-cast the
State Budget on the grounds that its provision for
grants to science laboratories in non-government
schools contravened the Federal Platform. Menzies
immediately picked up the proscribed proposal, andtriumphed at the November Federal election. The
intervention had set the seal of defeat on the NSW
Labor Government by the narrowest of margins on
1 May 1965, two days after Menzies had announced
in Parliament Australias combat commitment to
Vietnam, on a night when Calwell and Whitlam were
in Sydney for the last campaign rally.
In February 1966, soon after Menzies retirement,
Chamberlain procured from the Federal Executive
a resolution instructing the Constitutional and
Legal Committee, on which Whitlam represented
the Parliamentary Party, to draw up a High Court
challenge to the legality of the many forms of State
Aid already existing in the States. Some of the
measures applied to the ACT and the Northern
Territory and the Parliamentary Party had voted
for them. As Chamberlain and Calwell probably
expected, Whitlam refused to cooperate or serve on
such a committee. They did not, however, anticipate
the violence of his reaction.
The Split was containin New South Wales
because there was the
will to prevent it.
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PHOTO: Gough and Margaret Whitlam with
Lionel and Claire Bowen.
Whitlam wrote a letter to Caucus members:
The decisions of the Federal Executive
placed the Parliamentary Party in an impossible
position. We were directed to oppose matters inParliament which we had earlier supported and
Conference had already endorsed.
The long term future as well as the
immediate electoral prospects of the ALP are
now at stake. Continuance of present trends
will reduce the greatest political party this
country has known into a sectional rump. No
party, however proud its traditions and great
its performance, is immune from destruction.
No party can aord to be controlled by people
who want to use it for their own prejudices and
vengeance. The issue is not between the right and
the left. It is between those who want a broadly
based socialist and radical party and petty men
who want to use it as their personal plaything
This extremist group breaches the partys
policy; it humiliates the partys parliamentarians;
it ignores the partys rank and file. It is neither
representative nor responsible. It will and must
be repudiated.
Whitlam often used the device of open letters
like this to keep the argument inside the organs of
the party but he went well beyond those bounds in
a television interview with Peter Westerway (later
Bill Colbournes successor as NSW general secretary
in the first years of John Duckers presidency):
I can only say that we have just got rid of the
stigma of the 36 faceless men to have it replaced
by the 12 witless men.
But whatever the chosen forum, the real target
audience was always the party rank and file the
branch membership. Whitlams reliance on support
from the branches was shown by the contingency
plan he devised, somewhat hypothetically, in the
event of Chamberlains motion for his expulsion
succeeding: rather than break the solidarity pledge
by sitting, much less standing, as an independent, he
would resign from Parliament; Werriwa branches
would then select Margaret Whitlam who would
keep the seat warm until (it was assumed) wiser
counsels prevailed and he was re-admitted. Nobody
seems to have told Margaret about this interesting
scenario. In the event, Whitlam was saved by the
vote from Queensland, where Whitlams stocks were
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sky-high following his work in winning for Labors
Rex Patterson the great sugar seat of Dawson,against all the odds. When he got wind of what
was about to happen in Canberra, the Queensland
secretary, Tom Burns, told the two Queensland
delegates on the Federal Executive: If Whitlam
goes, you neednt bother coming back to Brisbane.
Tom Burns, who was as gutsy as they come, was not
prepared to face the wrath of the branch members
of Mackay and the other Dawson branches, basking
in a victory they largely ascribed to Whitlam.
Eleven months after his near-expulsion, Whitlam
was elected Leader of the Parliamentary LaborParty on 8 February 1967. In the wake of the 1966
electoral catastrophe, fears that the Party would not
survive were real and deep. These fears gave immense
urgency to Whitlams drive for party reform.
Because the most successful of his eorts
achieved full representation of the parliamentary
leadership at Executive and Conference, and
because the most quotable expressions were
directed against the Victorian Central Executive
(certainly the impotent are pure), the wider aims
of his reform proposals are now almost forgotten.
His main aim was direct representation of thebranch membership at Federal Conference.
In the Introduction to the pamphlet containing
his three speeches to the Victorian, South Australian
and New South Wales Conferences on the Queens
Birthday weekend in June 1967, Whitlam wrote:
The greatest advantage of having direct
representation of electorates and unions on
the Federal Conference is that the rank and file
would know and feel that they had a share in the
great decisions of the Party Our conferences
must be important. They are the means, or should
be the means, by which the representatives of the
membership play a significant role. The National
Conference should be a dynamic source of energy
and enthusiasm. A voice and a vote in a viable
organisation are the best means to ensure that
rank and file members will enthusiastically and
energetically wage a campaign over three years
between elections and not just three weeks before
an election. They are the best means to ensure
that we have more members to do that work.
More members mean more money. An eectiveorganisation is the most eective campaign for
policy, for funds, for success.
Ironical as it may sound today, Whitlams
template for a reformed Federal Conference was
the NSW Conference. He wrote:
In most States, the Partys State Conference
consists of delegates elected by members of
the Party resident in State electorates and
by aliated unions. This is an appropriate
organisation to formulate State policies andorganise State campaigns and arrange the
selection of State candidates. Why should we
not have a Federal Conference consisting of
delegates elected by Party members resident in
Federal electorates and by aliated unions?
As a first step, Whitlam proposed that a Special
Commission should be set up to inquire into the
desirability and practicability of having a Federal
Conference directly elected by and representative
of Federal electorates and of unions. After his
address on 10 June 1967, the NSW Conferenceoverwhelmingly endorsed his proposal. He also
secured the support of Tasmania and, in a remarkable
rebuto Chamberlain, its State Secretary, Western
Australia.
It seemed likely that at least some South
Australian delegates could be won over. Don
Dunstan, now Premier, was very supportive. So
Whitlam approached the Federal Conference
in Adelaide in July 1967 with high hopes. These
seemed justified by the outcome in the early stages.
Conference accepted his proposal that the FederalParliamentary Leader and the Deputy Leader be
ex ocio delegates to the Federal Executive and
Federal Conference, and the State parliamentary
leaders delegates to Federal Conference. In an
adroit manoeuvre, Clyde Cameron, the most skilful
operator the Left ever had, included the leader
and deputy leader in the Senate as the Caucus
representatives on the Federal Executive. Cameron
intended that the votes of Senator Lionel Murphy
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and his deputy Senator Sam Cohen, would cancel out
the votes of Whitlam and his deputy, Lance Barnard.Nevertheless, the presence of the parliamentary
leadership was to transform the Federal Conference,
as the highly successful Melbourne Conference in
July 1969 was to show. There was, however, a price
to pay. The proposal for a Special Commission on
direct representation of electorates and unions was
shelved. As Clyde Cameron put it, the Party can
only take so much reform.
The trade-o at Adelaide suited Whitlams
purposes well enough. He now gave priority to
reshaping the Platform. With the parliamentary
leadership ascendant, the 1969 and 1971 Federal
Conferences re-wrote two-thirds of it. Whitlam
might almost have adapted Churchill on the verdict of
history and have said: I have every confidence in the
Platform, particularly as I wrote most of it myself.
It is important to note that all these policies
the Whitlam Program for schools, hospitals, cities
as the shorthand had it were being developed
when Labor had lost oce in most of the States.
For instance, in 1969 Labor ran only the Brisbane
City Council, a position
exactly reversed in2007-08. This simplified
matters. The Federal
case could be advanced
without undue sensitivity
about State claims, and
State inadequacies laid at the door of incompetent
Liberal and Country Party governments. In South
Australia, where Labor prospered, Whitlam
and Dunstan enjoyed a long and productive
complementarity.
The NSW Premier to whom Whitlam owed most
turned out to be Sir George Reid (1895-1899). When
New South Wales had failed to produce enough Yes
votes in the 1898 referendum on Federation, Reid
secured the insertion of Section 96 into the draft
Constitution, providing for Federal grants to the
States on terms and conditions as the Parliament
sees fit. Section 96 became the keystone of the
Whitlam Program.
Labors lack of success in the States had a
marked psychological eect, especially in NewSouth Wales. NSW Labor, for the first time since
the Curtin-Chifley days, began to think nationally.
A government in Canberra became its first goal. In
the trilogy of Conference speeches on the Queens
Birthday weekend of 1967, Whitlam called on
NSW Labor to take the lead in party reform and
revival. Thus began the alliance with the emerging
strongman of the NSW Right, John Ducker.
Ducker saw that Whitlams success could provide
an alternative to the self-protective isolationism
which characterised NSW Labor in the aftermath
of the Split and the Lefts domination of the Federal
organisation. In particular, he was prepared to
abandon what Whitlam called the knock-for-
knock agreement between the NSW and Victorian
regimes: that NSW would be left alone as long as it
opposed Federal intervention in Victoria. Duckers
strategic acceptance of intervention in NSW
was the key to intervention and reconstruction
in Victoria in 1970. Clyde Cameron would never
have accepted the role of prosecutor against the
Victorian Central Executive if Ducker had not
accepted simultaneous intervention in NSW.Both men acted under the influence of Whitlams
great success in the 1969 Federal election and the
promise it held for victory in 1972.
Both those elections demonstrated that
Whitlams strength lay in New South Wales. In
1969, six of 16 gains came from NSW, with three
from Victoria. In 1972, the net gain was eight, with
six more gains in NSW, four in Victoria, osetting
unexpected losses in Victoria, South Australia and
Tasmania. The actual result partly disguised the
very great gains achieved in Melbourne where a
few score more votes would have given three more
seats. Reconstruction had borne its fruit and
even more clearly in 1974, when two more gains in
Melbourne and the solid vote in western Sydney
staved othe four losses in regional Australia. The
Whitlam Government increased its strength in the
Senate by three to 29. By the barest margin, it failed
to win a sixth place in New South Wales and a fifth
in Queensland. The failure in New South Wales
NSW Labor, for the firsttime since the Curtin-
Chifley days, began to
think nationally.
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was entirely due to the huge number of informal
votes more than 10 percent because of the largenumber of candidates on the ballot paper. Even so,
Labor overall secured 296,000 more votes than the
coalition and 6,000 more than the coalition and the
DLP combined. So close and yet so far.
The 1974 win now almost forgotten between
the glamour of 1972 and the cataclysm of 1975 was
a remarkable result. Its historic importance is that
the joint sitting which followed in July passed into
law Medibank (now Medicare) and the legislation
for equal electorates one vote, one value the
foundation for all Labor victories, State and Federal,
ever since.
Perhaps the Whitlam Governments greatest
service to NSW Labor was to facilitate Neville Wrans
entry into the NSW Legislative Assembly. Whitlam
gives this account in The Whitlam Government
(p. 651):
My government and the NSW ALP Executive
came to realise that it was necessary to transfer
Neville Wran QC to the Legislative Assembly from
the Legislative Council where he had become a
member in March 1970, deputy leader of the ALP
in 1971 and leader in 1972. There was a catch in the
fact that at that time vacancies occurring in the
Council on any particular day were still filled by
proportional voting by the members of the Council
and the Assembly. The Liberal and Country
Parties had a majority in both Houses and would
therefore fill any single vacancy in the Council and
thus increase their majority in the Council and
overall. If, however, two vacancies occurred on the
same day, the conservative parties would fill one
only and the ALP the other. The opportunity arose
to have two simultaneous vacancies in the Councilwhen the Askin Government announced an early
election. The State Parliament was to be dissolved
on 19 October 1973. Nominations for the Assembly
were to close on 28 October. My Government
invited The Hon. Bernard Blomfield Riley QC,
a former President of the NSW Bar Council, to
become an additional judge of the Federal Court
of Bankruptcy He accepted our invitation and
agreed to resign on 19 October. Thereupon Wran
resigned from the Council on the same day and
nominated for an Assembly electorate whosemember agreed to call it a day. Before the year was
out, Wran had become the new State leader.
Whitlam calls this episode, masterminded
by John Ducker and Lionel Murphy as Federal
Attorney-General, the sole instance of judicial
manipulation by my government.
Almost entirely on the basis of his support from
Ducker and the NSW Branch, Whitlam remained
leader after the 1975 cataclysm. It might have been
better all round if he had not stayed for the disastrous
1977 election with its implied personal rejectionin a way 1975 never was. Wran, however, made it
clear that he was not wanted in the State campaign.
Wrans narrow win on 1 May 1976 galvanised the
Labor Party throughout Australia. For much of
the period, Wran was, as he put it, the captain of
the only Labor ship afloat. From the defeat of the
South Australian Labor Government in 1979 to the
return of the Cain Labor Government in Victoria in
1982, New South Wales was the Labor bastion on
the mainland, and Wran himself the most eective
leader of the opposition against Malcolm Fraser.
PHOTO: Gough Whitlam with Patricia
Amphlett better known as the singerLittle Patti, a strong supporter in 1972.
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The fact that Wran deliberately distanced himself
from Whitlam has obscured the continuity betweenthe Whitlam and the Wran reform programs. The
big-ticket items in the Wran program in his first two
terms the modernisation of the public transport
system, the $4 billion capital works program, the
Education Commission, the rationalisation of
hospitals and health services (in practice, their
relocation to the areas of population growth in
Western Sydney) were developed firmly with the
conceptual framework of Whitlamesque reform.
Wran distanced himself from the Whitlam
approach in two fundamental respects: the pace
of implementing his program, and managing his
Cabinet. The frenetic pace with which the Whitlam
Government set out to implement every line of the
1972 Policy Speech gave rise to the conventional
reproach: Too much too soon. By contrast, Wran
maintained: The thing about the Australian
people is that they dont tear oyour arm or your
leg if you break a promise you cant keep. Again,
contrasted with Whitlam, Wran exerted himself
constantly to maintain Cabinet unity, both in
appearance and reality. For all his strength and
success, Wran was never as much a one-man bandas Whitlam. In his first Cabinet in May 1976, 13
of the 18 ministers had voted against him in his
leadership contest against Pat Hills in December
1973. He had been identified with neither faction
of the Right or Left, but in Jack Ferguson he had
what Whitlam never had in government, a deputy
from the Left who combined principled leadership
of the faction with unswerving personal loyalty.
Theirs was a partnership which was also a
mateship. It faltered only once (over the right of
elected Legislative Councillors to be admitted
to Caucus). Wrans tight discipline over Cabinet
stood in stark contrast to the Whitlam Cabinet. As
he said: Naturally we have our arguments and our
dierences. But when weve had a really big one,
as were walking out I say to them: Now lets wash
the blood othe wall and grin when we go out and
stick together.
They might have expressed it less colourfully, but
the other three most successful Labor Premiersof the 20th century McKell, Cahill and Carr
governed in this spirit. It was in fact the doctrine
of solidarity that used to typify NSW Labor at its
most confident best. Yet, of all the lessons Whitlam
learnt from his long and productive relationship
with NSW Labor, this was one he was never able to
apply to his Cabinet of Labor giants. Compare and
contrast (as Whitlam would say) Neville Wrans
statement I have just quoted with his own: I dont
mind being surrounded by prima donnas, as long as
I am prima donna assoluta.
But the lesson he never forgot was that the
strength of the Party was drawn in large measure
from the rank and file in a committed branch
membership, working in close relationship with the
parliamentarians they had chosen. It was to them
that he appealed again and again, over the heads
of the machine, and it was NSW Labor he had in
mind when he excoriated the controllers of the old
Victorian Central Executive in June 1967:
There is nothing more disloyal to the
traditions of Labor than the new heresy that power
is not important or that the attainment of political
power is not fundamental to our purposes. The
men who formed the Labor Party in the 1890s
knew all about power. They were not ashamed
to seek it and they were not embarrassed when
they won it. They recognised the limitations
of industrial action. In that recognition lay the
very genesis and genius of this party.
I did not seek and do not want the
leadership of Australias largest pressure group.
I propose to follow the traditions of those of ourleaders who have seen the role of our Party as
striving to achieve, and achieving the national
government of Australia The means must lie
within the Party itself. We have not been defeated
because of our policies or our candidates. We
have been defeated because the people thought
that our organisation did not apply our policies
and because they thought our organisation itself
did not trust our parliamentarians.
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I also remember the warnings from commentators
and policy advocates alike, about the perils of urban
development in the absence of forward-looking
infrastructure.
How right they were.
And I remember some years later, when my then
fianc and I bought a block of land in one of those
new suburbs, a proposed train line to the North-West
was on the developers marketing collateral.
Today I speak with scores of constituents every
day who are either forced to sit in queues of trac,
or travel for up to an hour without a seat on an
overcrowded bus or train, as they make the daily
commute to and from work.Having lived in Western Sydney all my life, and
having worked in the city for a large part of my career,
I understand exactly what they mean.
Thats why I am and always have been a vocal
advocate for infrastructure investment in West and
North-West Sydney.
If we are serious about de-centralising our
major cities; about making life for residents in our
new suburbs liveable and life with a choice of
employment opportunities at home or a bearable
commute to the city then we must be willing
to invest in the infrastructure that can support
sustainable urban growth.
And we must never forget the fact that we, as
Labor governments, have a responsibility to provide
this vital investment to ensure that all residents
enjoy the equality of opportunity they deserve, no
matter where they live.
This is one of the most striking dierences
between us and our conservative opponents. From
1996-2007, the Howard Government invested barely
a cent in schools and they cut funding for the tertiary
sector in real terms. They stripped $1 billion fromour public hospitals. Their first Budget abolished
the Better Cities program, specifically designed to
deliver urban infrastructure projects in our growth
suburbs. And they were responsible for 18 failed
broadband policies.
Whilst the Liberals were cutting these essential
services, new suburbs were being built which
had barely any access to essential services and
infrastructure. This has created a new form of
BY MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
NOW IS THE TIME FORINFRASTRUCTUREINVESTMENT INWESTERN SYDNEY
Growing up in Seven Hills over 20 years ago, I vividly recall announcements by
the Liberal Premier of the day of new land releases in Sydneys North-West.
I didnt understand what this meant until I saw the masses of new brick houses
sprouting in areas I once knew as bush and farmland, seemingly overnight.
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disadvantage in West and North-West Sydney. Its
not a form of socio-economic disadvantage per se,but a form of disadvantage that results from being
denied access to good schools, good health care,
broadband and public transport, simply because of
your postcode.
You are disadvantaged when you are denied
the services you need to maintain a good quality of
life. If you do not have
sucient schools in your
area to stop classrooms
from being overcrowded
because there are no
high schools in Kellyville
Ridge, Stanhope Gardens
and The Ponds, then your
children are disadvantaged.
If you are denied access to even the most basic
broadband service because you live in North-West
Sydney, then you are at a disadvantage compared
with residents in the North Shore who enjoy the
benefits of ubiquitous and superfast broadband.
And if you live in West and North-West Sydney
and have to catch two buses or drive for 30 minutes
simply to get to your nearest train station, then youare at a disadvantage to residents in the Inner City
who are spoilt for choice when it comes to public
transport.
This form of disadvantage builds on the socio-
economic inequalities that are still experienced by
too many residents in our community.
We all know that Labor Governments have a
responsibility to step in and take action to address
this. If we do not, no-one will.
Residents in West and North-West Sydney
recognise this clear and fundamental dierence
between the two major political parties. But when we,
as the Labor Party, fail to deliver vital infrastructure
for these communities, their sense of disappointment
is profound. And as we saw during the recent State
election, they will leave us mercilessly.
It is not an unreasonable expectation that
where land is released for new housing, there are
corresponding investments in new infrastructure.
These investments need to be in a variety of forms,
but four in particular: transport, broadband, health
and education.The very real frustrations regarding the quality
of transport services held by constituents in West
and North-West Sydney, especially residents in my
electorate of Greenway, is precisely the reason why
the need to build the North-West Rail Link is so
important.
Thats why in her first meeting with the incoming
NSW Premier, Prime Minister Julia Gillard
rearmed the Federal Governments commitment
to work co-operatively with the State Government
to achieve the best outcomes for the people of
NSW. It is a testament to Prime Minister Gillards
understanding of the needs of residents in West
and North-West Sydney that she agreed to work
constructively with her NSW counterpart on key
issues of concern to residents, specifically transport
infrastructure.
This is a stark contrast indeed to a Federal
opposition which did not invest in infrastructure
during its wasted years in oce and has still not
committed to this day a single cent to investments
in urban public transport. That was a government
which, in its first Budget, scrapped the funding forwhat was known as the Western Sydney Orbital (now
the M7 Motorway), delaying its construction by
more than a decade. That was indeed a government
with no regard for the future.
Compare this to nation-building projects like
the National Broadband Network (NBN) which are
investments in the future. This Labor Government
has made the bold decision to step in where markets
have failed to provide aordable and accessible
broadband.
The simple fact is that fast broadband services are
simply non-existent in many new suburbs in West
and North-West Sydney. Recently, I held a mobile
oce in Kellyville Ridge, one of Sydneys fastest
growing suburbs. The single biggest issue raised
with me was the lack of access to fast and aordable
broadband services.
In the days following my mobile oce, I received
a letter from one constituent who wrote
My wife and I can only use wireless broadband
Labor Governments
have a responsibility
to step in and take
action If we do not,no-one will.
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and our mobiles from the front, upstairs balcony of
our house. I have no choice of service provider ... Ifind it extremely frustrating that in this day and age
in Sydneys largest growth area, we cannot access
quality broadband/mobile services.
I could not agree more.
Its easy for a hollow Opposition to drum up
fear campaigns, but lets just remember one thing:
not once during the wasted Howard years did the
International Telecommunication Union (the ICT
arm of the United Nations) predict that Australia
was on the verge of becoming the global leader
in broadband. As the ITU Secretary-General, Dr
Hamadoun Toure, recently commented on what the
NBN will achieve for Australia:
The way I see it here, Australia has undertaken
the largest infrastructure project ever. Three to five
years from now, Australia will be number one in
broadband in the world.
Its no wonder then that the NBN question which
I field from so many businesses in the North-West, as
well sole traders who operate businesses from their
homes, is not Why? but rather, When?
In health, I have witnessed the benefits of the
Federal Governments Primary Care InfrastructureGrants that provide local medical practices with the
financial boost to expand their services and reduce
waiting times.
The Gillard Government is also delivering on
e-health initiatives, with
Western Sydney being
the first to benefit from
this new project. E-health
will cut down medication
errors, keep up-to-date
clinical records and bring
our health system into the 21st Century.
As a former lawyer with a privacy and IT
background, I recall the years of wasted stop/start
e-health strategies under Mr Abbotts tenure as
Health Minister, where nothing actually eventuated
in e-health other than re-runs of his media releases
saying it was a great idea. Now, only a few weeks ago,
I had the pleasure of hosting Health Minister Nicola
Roxon in Western Sydney to formally announce
its launch. The choice of Western Sydney was no
accident, and reflects the Federal Governmentsrecognition of the importance of the best quality
health care for Australias largest growth area.
Every family in every community across the
country deserves world-class health care. But
you only have to look at the statistics to see how
important it is in West and North-West Sydney. For
instance, the Blacktown Local Government Area has
the highest rates of cancer in New South Wales. We
have the highest rates of cardiovascular disease and
the highest rates of smoking-induced illness.
On the one hand, it can
seem depressing that one
Local Government Area is
home to such concerning
health numbers. But for
members of the Labor
Party, the numbers should
drive us to invest in better health care by training
more doctors and nurses, funding more hospital
beds and most importantly, pursuing our national
preventative health strategy.
We have done much for residents in West and
North-West Sydney but we can neither aord torest on our laurels nor fail to recognise the need that
there is much more work to be done.
The North-West Rail Link is a case in point.
All levels of Government need to work together
to deliver this vital piece of public transport. You
can be sure that Ill continue to speak up about its
importance, even if I have to rue a few feathers on
my own side of politics.
West and North-West Sydney may be in the
process of enormous urban growth. But the
challenges have and will always remain the same:
how we can provide the services and infrastructure
needed to cater for a growing population.
As members of the Labor Party, we know its
the job of Governments to get on with the job of
delivering these services. We know that Labor
governments are in the best position to provide
quality public transport, broadband, health care and
education because unlike our opponents, we actually
believe in it.
Every family in every
community across
the country deserves
world-class health car
Three to five years
from now, Australia
will be number one in
broadband in the world.
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Medibank/Medicare was a simple, bold and
deeply radical reform that, reflecting the breadthand depth of the forces opposed to it, was trenchantly
contested at every election from 1969 onwards.
Medibank was a crucial factor in securing the
great swing to Whitlam Labor in 1969 and propelling
Labor to power in 1972.
The Coalitions refusal to pass the Medibank
legislation in the Senate helped to bring about the
1974 double dissolution.
Medibanks eventual introduction in mid-1975
helped precipitate the constitutional crisis of that
year, the dismissal of the Whitlam government
and the election of the Fraser government, which
campaigned vigorously on the repeal of Medibank.
The landslide defeat of 1975 and its repeat at the
1977 election did not diminish the ALPs resolve
and commitment to Medibank.
Rather, from 1977 onwards, the ALP reworked
the Medibank concept into what became known as
Medicare.
Learning the right lessons from the controversies
over Medibank, in Opposition the ALP launched
a sustained program of consultation, dialogue
and review with the entire health sector, and thebroader public.
While rearming the core principles of Medicare,
the ALP leadership reworked the details to fashion a
better and more robust health reform package.
Medicare was debated at every level in the ALP.
By the time of the 1983
election, Medicare was
perhaps the only policy
agreed on unanimously by
the political and industrial
wings of the ALP and
across the factions and the
branches.
The ALP commitment to Medicare had been
painstakingly built over the almost 15 years between
the 1969 and 1983 elections.
In 1983, the Hawke governments Medicare
proposal had been considered and reviewed by
every important stakeholder and interest group,
even those who were not its supporters.
Consequently, the ALP government moved
rapidly to introduce the Medicare legislation thatpassed through Parliament in late 1983 allowing the
scheme to commence operation on 1 February 1984.
However, the introduction of Medicare, and its
subsequent endorsement by the Australian people,
did not lessen the intransigence of its opponents.
After its introduction in 1984, the Coalition
opposed Medicare and advocated its repeal at the
elections of 1984, 1987, 1990 and 1993.
In 1996, the only substantial policy commitment
that John Howard was obliged to make in order to
secure victory that year was to accept the Medicare
scheme in its entirety.
Medibank/Medicare therefore was reform that
took a generation from 1969 until 1996, to pass from
bold idea to established order.
Medibank/Medicare was contested vehemently
by four Labor leaders and six Leaders of the
Opposition at 11 federal elections.
Medicare could not have succeeded had it been a
timid or marginal reform to the health system.
Had focus groups and shock-jocks dictated
the fate of Medibank/Medicare, it is more likely
than not that it would have been modified out ofexistence in the years of Opposition in 1975-83.
But it was not thanks to the marriage of bold
policy, excellent process and inspired political
leadership.
Compare the sustained corporate commitment
displayed by the ALP to Medicare with the
continuing imbroglio over climate change policy.
As with Medibank/Medicare, the ALP is nominally
committed to a massive reform project, with a tax
change at its heart and a range of consequential
impacts on the interests of varied and numerous
stakeholders.
Not the least of these impacts is an unknowable
impact on jobs, including those of unions loosely
aliated with the ALP.
The need for the ALP to develop plausible climate
change policies had been apparent since well before
the 2007 elections. At that years elections, the ALP
matched the Howard Governments commitment
to an ETS scheme.
The bigger and
better the reform,
the longer it
took to get up.
22
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Yet while the principled commitment was made,
the ALP was either unwilling or unable to undertakethe long, grinding work of forging a consensus for
these changes within the ALP, or among its broader
constituents and support base.
It is almost impossible to implement and develop
such complex policies solely from within government.
Yet, in the absence of any robust and meaningful
policy-making institutions of the sort that existed
in the ALP in earlier decades, policy-making from
government was the only option remaining for the
Rudd and then the Gillard Labor Government.
It is not to derogate in any way from the
commitment, hard work and capacities of Kevin
Rudd, Julia Gillard and their senior Ministers on
the climate change issue to say that the task of
transforming a general commitment on climate
change and the ETS into workable legislation
was deeply compromised by the irrelevance and
atrophied institutional decay of the ALP.
The functional reason for the existence of a
political party is to set the big goals, advocate the
radical alternatives and, as far as possible, to shape
the policies into a realistic and workable whole to
be implemented by government.On the whole, it is better that political parties
create and shape this blueprint in Opposition.
This was done by the Whitlam Opposition in
1967-72, by the Hayden Opposition in 1977-83
and, interestingly enough, by the Hewson/Howard
Opposition in 1990-96.
Each of these oppositions worked hard to create
a workable set of policies that subsequently served
them well in government.
Between 1996-2007 it was the failure of Labor to
renew its machinery, overhaul its policies, attract
new members and modernise the party that left it
institutionally and politically under-prepared for
government in 2007.
As the Labor Party gave up the business of
producing contemporary responses to current
problems, so too did it leach its most dynamic and
committed members and supporters to the Greens
and other new political structures that emerged to
fill the vacuum.
Policy disagreements and conflicts whether on
climate change, carbon tax, gay marriage, refugees,immigration or a host of other issues, would once
have been debated and resolved within the broad
church of Labor.
Every indication is that these broad policy
dierences will now have to be dealt with outside
the old ALP and hammered out in some form of
agreed policy deal between the ALP and the smaller
progressive parties and
factions whose support
will be crucial to win and
retain government.
The rub for Labor is
that these policy deals
will have to be agreed
before, and not after, an election if Labor is to have
any hope of winning the election in the first place.
This means that the once dominant Labor party
will have to contemplate becoming simply the
largest party in a coalition, somewhat in the nature
of the relationship that now exists between the
Liberals and the Nationals.
The price of such a coalition for Labor will be to
countenance its smaller partners transforming theirvotes into seats in the House of Representatives, at
Labors expense.
For Labor, this prospect is almost beyond
imagination, but, unless it is prepared to bring into
being a new Labor party with policies and processes
that meet the needs, hopes and aspirations of the
new generation, its fate is sealed.
The ALP would do well to learn from its history
and revert to the methodical and inclusive policy-
making processes that underpinned its great reform
period in the generation from 1969.
If it cannot deeply reform itself, then how can the
ALP credibly take a reform agenda to the Australian
people?
The functional reason
for the existence of a
political party is to setthe big goals.
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Im
with theNSW
RightThat bold, and sometimes provocative, statement used to
be a badge of honour in the national political environment.
It might not have had the same historical resonance as Ich Bin
Ein Berliner, or Civis Romanus Sum but it did sum up well
the tribal pride associated with being a part of the strongest
and most successful arm of the Australian Labor Party.
BY CHRIS BROWN
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It is, therefore, a pity to see our faction in the
doldrums in recent years, at a state and federal level mocked by the media and ripped apart by internal
fights. However, before I propose some ideas to help
this once-great faction rediscover its mojo, let us
first review from where weve come.
Over the past three decades it was the NSW
Right that delivered and sustained the Wran,
Hawke, Keating and Carr Governments. Neville
Wrans election in 1976 helped drag the national
ALP out of its Dismissal Blues. It was the influence
of the NSW Right that finally brought Labor back to
power in Canberra in 1983 and it was the dedication
of the Carr Opposition that taught other States how
to defeat their own Conservative opponents during
the 1990s.
It has always been Centre Unity that has
brought stability to NSW Labor and worked with
our parliamentary and industrial brethren to
deliver results to those we represent internally
and externally. We have secured support from State
Conference to ensure a practical and progressive
policy agenda. Ours is the only state branch that
successfully resisted attempts to establish a Centre
Left faction and it was our people that won AustralianYoung Labor in the early 1990s, then the State branch
soon after.
While it is the procedural successes of Centre
Unity that has most dominated its reputation,
this ignores the fact that with Party control came
the opportunity to deliver on a proud policy
agenda. It was the NSW
Right that floated the
dollar, balanced the
Budget and opened the
Australian economy to
the world. We freed up
public assets in banking,
telecommunications and transport, stimulated
innovation in manufacturing and agriculture by
backing tari reform, generated millions of new
jobs by establishing modern sectors like tourism
and creative industries and delivered the best ever
Olympic Games. Our people fought for, and won,
compulsory superannuation and then used that
pool of national savings, partnered with private
capital, to rebuild our State infrastructure base.Maybe because of our traditional role as the
custodians of economic common sense, it is easy
to overlook the dynamic leadership role that our
committees, Ministers and governments have
played in social policy. The NSW Right was the
reason our national
parks system has grown,
that Sydneys harbour
and beaches are so clean
and accessible, that an
injecting room at Kings
Cross keeps young
addicts alive, that Medibank and Medicare exist,
that immigration has grown and children were
taken out of refugee detention camps and that
Tasmanias World Heritage forests were saved from
damning.
Importantly, it was our factions commitment to
a strict curriculum and innovative funding base that
sees NSW schools now as the academic envy of the
nation and the region. It is the NSW Right that has
always been the builder of public domain be that
the modern community facilities of Sydney OlympicPark, Darling Harbour, Parramatta Stadium, the
Opera House, vital economic infrastructure like the
Snowy Mountains Hydro, Barrangaroo or Sydney
Airport or our heritage precincts of Macquarie
Street and the Rocks.
However, despite its past successes and strengths
our group has recently lost its way, its discipline,
its agenda and its lustre and in NSW, we just lost
our government in a massive repudiation by the
electorate.
The NSW Right can only become dominant again
if we take on a new and progressive policy agenda,
and help State and Federal Labor regain political
momentum, rebuild our reputation and attract the
brightest talent to our ranks.
To this end, let me just propose just a few reform
initiatives, across economic and social policy, that
we should consider. I hope they spark controversy
in our ranks and lead to a significant debate about
our future.
The NSW Right can o
become dominant aga
if we take on a new an
progressive agenda.
It has always been
Centre Unity that
has brought stability
to NSW Labor.
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1Let us stop the intellectual cowardice about
privatising public assets that has ripped usapart in recent years. We must start acting in the
interests of working families and ensure they have
the best services they can get, rather than defending
the feather-bedding of often grossly inecient
public service operations. The community could
care less who owns or operates the service or asset
they simply want to get to work on time, breathe
clean air, pay a fair price and enjoy competent and
reliable service delivery.
Be it degraded electricity generators, an unsafe
ferry fleet or hospitals that cant pay suppliers
on time, governments rarely manage assets and
operations as well as the private sector. Let us
champion the true roles of government, namely
regulation, public policy settings, infrastructure
planning and consumer protection and stop
defending bloated public bureaucracies. We dont
have to own and operate assets to help the public,
we just need to regulate them properly. Would
those within our own industrial ranks who oppose
electricity sale advocate the re-nationalisation of
Qantas, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank?
2We must find innovative solutions to endthe mismatch between national savingsand nation-building projects. Having delivered
universal superannuation to working Australians
and now boasting the fourth highest pool of
managed funds on earth, Australia must use this
money used to fund the vital economic and social
infrastructure our nation needs to reduce trac
congestion, improve productivity and enhance
social equity.
3Using this great pool of infrastructurefunding, we must rebuild our great cities andbetter connect our regions to make them better
places to work, live, study and play.Whether it be
transport links, sustainable energy, theatres and
stadia, hospitals, schools, broadband or national
parks, we have the chance to drive this agenda and
spark the imagination of future generations about
the style of communities in which they want to live.
We a smart enough, and rich enough as a nation to
have both a Big Australia and a Clean Australia,addressing congestion with a mix of infrastructure
provision and decentralisation.
4We must end the ridiculous proliferationof local government in Sydney. We have 45separate Councils wasting our money, squandering
our rates and generally being a blot on progress. Peter
Beattie had the courage to force amalgamations and
Queensland will reap the micro economic benefits
of this policy for decades to come.
5Labor must take the initiative and lead the
debate about the creation of a second CBD
in Parramatta starting with support for a
Macquarie Commission to advise State and local
government on necessary reforms. Whingeing
about congestion in the Greater West is not a policy
response, but delivering appropriate transport
links, health and education services and cultural
and sporting facilities for the four million plus
residents who will call this region home by 2050 is a
true Labor agenda.
6We should champion the cause of a nationaldisability scheme to ensure greater equityof access is accorded to those with physical and
intellectual challenges, and to their carers. This
is an idea that is already overdue and completely in
line with Labor and Centre Unity ideology that good
government should be about innovative solutions
to care for those left behind.
It is only with an embrace of innovative policy
reform that Centre Unity can seek to rebuild its
reputation. Political fundraising, patronage, union
election victories and flexing of preselection muscle
are all very well are not enough to guarantee the
future of the NSW Right, and in my view, are not
enough to justify our existence. Our Party needs
us back in the game, delivering electoral success,
ensuring industrial harmony, leading policy reform
and serving the interests of our people.
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We must encourage bold and innovative ideas if we are to rebuild
our great Party. Robust and meaningful policy conversations need to
be encouraged, not muted, at all levels of the Party if we are to move
forward with a vision for NSW and Australia. The big, new and bold
articles that follow are designed to stimulate discussion amongst
Party members and beyond.
6POLICY IDEASFOR LABOR
NEWBIG
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28
01>> GREEN GRID FOR AUSTRALIA
BRER ADAMS
Its time to give Australia a green grid argues
Brer Adams, adviser to South Australian Labor
and now a private sector specialist in renewable
energy.
When the media starts asking if a carbon price
will increase the cost of a birthday cake you know
the climate change debate needs reframing.
Labor can win this debate by focusing on the
electricity sector, which accounts for half of all
human caused carbon emissions in Australia. The
good news is that while climate change action hasbeen stuck in the Parliament, the cost of large-scale
clean energy technology keeps getting cheaper. In
just two years, the price
to generate wind energy
has fallen from about
$140 a megawatt hour to
as low as $90 a megawatt
hour. While the cost of
wind energy has fallen by
more than a third and solar generation costs have
fallen even faster, the price of coal based generationhas gone up by 10 percent and will keep rising with
international commodity prices.
Australia is on the cusp of generating among the
cheapest renewable energy in the world but achieving
this will require connection of the most ecient wind
and solar resources to the electricity grid.
The solar region of Mt Isa in Queensland and
the wind regions of the Eyre Peninsula in South
Australia and the south-west of Victoria could be
the clean energy corridors powering a lower carbon
national grid. Locating energy generation where
the resource is strongest delivers more electricityfor the cost of the investment. The benefits arent
only economic. These sparsely populated but job
hungry regions are far better locations for large
wind-farms than built up coastal communities that
happen to be close to the existing grid.
This does not require more taxpayer grant
programs. What is required is reform of the
Australian Energy Market rules that manage the
electricity grid system. In the past, coal-fired power
plants were located near population centres. In
the future, clean energy power plants need to be
closest to the resource. For the best solar and wind
resources that are often hundreds of kilometres
away from our major cities.
The grid was built over a century ago to support
coal-powered generators. This legacy network has
been a taxpayer subsidy to incumbent coal-fired
generators. Even today, more and more money is
poured into propping up that out dated network.Much of that investment would be better spent
connecting wind and solar regions and upgrading
interstate connections to create a truly national
and competitive system.
The reform that is needed is laboriously
technical: new rules that support extensions of the
grid to regions of highly ecient renewable energy
and gas generation.
Connecting these regions does not need to
increase overall cost. Instead hard-headed reform
can focus grid investment to reduce the overall cost
of energy. Investment in a clean energy grid can beoset by cheaper generation costs.
Fortunately, when it comes to energy resources
ours is a lucky country with the energy resources of
the future: natural gas, uranium and limitless solar
and wind resources. That we use little of this for our
own needs will one day be seen as an historic oddity.
Much of the world exploits inferior clean energy
resources while Australia has so far failed to play to
its natural advantage. Europe is looking to the solar
Australia is on the cusp
of generating among
the cheapest renewable
energy in the world.
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drenched deserts of Africa and the UK is laying
underwater cables deep in the Atlantic to connectvast o-shore wind-farms.
Starting this transformation is more urgent
than ever because the nation faces what Americans
might describe as a Sputnik moment: when a nation
realises its on the brink of losing a competitive edge
to its rivals. Australias edge is cheap energy.
Since industrialisation, our economys stellar
growth has been fuelled by fossil fuel energy
generation that was among the cheapest in the
world. But what was for so long a potent advantage
is fast becoming a dead weight on our economy
as the cost of carbon accelerates already rising
commodity prices.
By changing the grid investment rules, Australia
could again boast an energy advantage with the
cheapest renewable generation in the world. With
this reform, Australia would be on track to meet at
least 30 percent of our energy needs from renewable
energy by 2030, the minimum needed according to
the International Energy Agency.
Removing the transmission barrier will give
energy entrepreneurs confidence to invest in
Australias regions. Local energy companies likePacific Hydro, which currently invests more in Chile
than it does at home, will build the foundations of
an ecient new energy base to meet the needs of a
growing economy.
Federal Labor kick-started energy market
reform in the 1990s. By again using market-based
reforms, this transformation can be achieved at
lowest cost for consumers. A clean energy agenda
can be the next chapter in Labors proud record of
economic reform.
Energy reform will upset vested interests, but
what will Australia have to show from inaction?
Less jobs in high-value manufacturing and rising
power bills for a carbon addicted energy base that
will eventually be redundant. The do nothing option
actually does the most damage.
Labor can put a price on carbon, expand
renewable energy and build a truly national clean
energy transmission grid.
02
>> A NEW CITY FOR THE PILBARA
PAUL HOWESThe resources boom in Australias North-West
means we need a big new city in the Pilbara argues
Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian
Workers Union.
Australia needs a vibrant new city in the Pilbara-
Kimberley region to provide the workforce and
the services for an area which is fast become the
powerhouse of our nations economy.
Already around 8 percent of Australias wealth
originates in Australias North West due largely to
the $100 billion worth of minerals and petroleumsales which come out of this region every year.
And these figures are set to grow exponentially.
If we are going to maximize the value of the boom
we should take this as an extraordinary opportunity
to create a new environmentally sensitive, living,
breathing, community in the region.
The regions reliance on a fly-in fly-out workforce
is counter-productive
and will give nothing
to a region which is so
important to Australia.
Instead we should be
developing a new city,
roughly the same size of
Cairns or Townsville.
If we are pro-active, and take up this opportunity,
it can become the focus of a national policy debate
looking seriously at our population.
The North-West could become a new test-bed for
how we grow new regional urban centres, well away
from the capital cities on the south-east corner of
this huge continent.
A serious and open-minded discussion aboutpopulation will involve key questions about the
environmental, community and economic cases
for allowing cities like Sydney and Melbourne and
Brisbane to grow unabated.
Anyone interested in the current political
agenda knows that Australians living in the suburbs
of our capital cities are, quite rightly, upset at what
they see happening to their communities.
We need a new city in
Pilbara-Kimberley reg
an area fast becominthe powerhouse of our
nations economy.
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We see the capital cities grow but there is not
enough infrastructure development to support thisgrowth.
The Australian Workers Union has always
favoured decentralisation and the growth of
regional Australia. It is in our DNA.
The Union started oin the bush 125 years ago
and even today most of our membership lives and
works outside of the big metropolitan centres.
Thats why in recent months the AWU has
campaigned hard for massive new infrastructure
developments in the regions.
Money from a proposed mine tax should be
spent on building new, high-quality urban centres
with schools, hospitals,
aordable housing and
other important facilities
in our resource regions
on top of roads, rail and
ports we need to make
sure that we maintain a
productive, competitive resource industry.
Attractive new urban centres where families
can settle knowing they have good secure jobs will
ensure the long term commitments to communitywhich we need if we are to decentralise Australia.
These new centres should be seeded with
quality local tertiary education centres to provide
the R&D nuclei supporting the development of
new regionally based, environmentally sensitive,
export-oriented enterprises.
There are models for this type of planned
urban decentralisation and development in desert
environments in Israel.
Just as Israel has used our gum-trees to help the
blooming of their deserts so we can learn from them
in the development of new enterprise oriented
urban centres.
Australia lost a major opportunity to move
people out of Sydney and Melbourne when the
Fraser government canned the Whitlam-era
Albury-Wodonga and Orange-Bathurst regional
development centres.
Imagine how much better our urban environments
would be if Malcolm had not in a fit of pique in theugly political environment of the Whitlam sacking
closed down the regional development plans.
The lesson of that policy tragedy is that we need
to build bipartisan support for a population policy
which eectively shifts our urban growth from the
south eastern seaboard.
We should look to the advantage we currently
have thanks to the boom in developing a major
new urban centre in the Pilbara or the Kimberley
region.
This new centre should not just service the needs
of the big growing resource sector but should also
be outward looking.
An export oriented centre in the North-West
should support the creation of new industries, and
quality services, looking to sell into Africa, the Middle
East and the growing economies of India and China.
This needs planning and a long-term
commitment to provide the infrastructure which
will allow a modern environmentally sensitive city
to set down roots on the edge of the desert.
I do not think this should be the only new regional
urban centre that Australia develops but we need tostart somewhere.
A region which produces so much of the wealth
of Australia is a good place to start a good place to
develop over the horizon ideas about how we live in a
carbon constrained future.
POLICY IDEAS
FOR LABOR
NEW
BIG6Even today most of our
membership lives and
works outside of the big
metropolitan centres.
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04
>>FREE UP WATER LICENSING
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ANDECONOMIC BENEFIT
NICHOLAS CAR
With skyrocketing international demand for
basic food stus which Australia can produce
eciently and with less environmental impact
than high-value crops, it is time to reconsider
water licensing arrangements in Australia argues
Nicholas Car, a former CSIRO water research
engineer who now works in irrigation consulting.
The Arab Spring riots were triggered by hunger
in Tunisia and China is about to start net foodimports which will not stop in our lifetimes. With a
rising global population needing to be fed and with
other demands on cereal and fibre crops such as
biofuel, it is a good time to be producing the basics
like rice, wheat and cotton.
Australia should reform its water markets to take
advantage of global food demand while at the same
time yielding a better result for the environment.
For the last 10 years, Australian crop agriculture
has been in the doldrums with virtually no rice
grown in southern NSW and grapes dying in South
Australia. Now that we have water again, farmers
are striving for bumper crops to erase debt. This
cotton season is the largest, and probably will
be the most lucrative,
in Australias history
while grape growers face
very poor returns due
to oversupply and poor
growing conditions. With
predictions of increased
weather variability
for Australia generallyaccepted by climate scientists at the CSIRO, we can
expect this pattern of drought followed by plenty to
continue.
To do the right thing by our environment, we
need to be able to grow crops when it is opportune
and hold owhen it is not. This is something that
cotton and rice growers known and do well: in years
of drought they sit patiently with minimal or no
investment in crops waiting for the rains which,
when arriving, the farmers can take advantage of
by quickly planting large areas. For winegrape andfruit growers on the other hand, variability is a
nightmare. You have to keep 10 year old vines alive
with water every year even when there is no rain.
When theres too much rain, fruit doesnt
mature, as is the case this year in South Australia.
To choose to grow permanent crops that need
water every year, such as
grapevine or apple trees,
or annual crops, such as
rice or cotton, is as much
a factor of government
policy as it is environment
or purchase prices. Indeed,
separate water markets
(High Security and General Security) exist in NSW
to allow farmers with permanent plantings to get
water as a priority, regardless of potential sales
returns or even environmental outcomes!
The NSW government would do well to merge
the two water markets. This would remove an
institutional barrier farmers face when making
choices about what to grow. In a highly variable
environment and with strong internationaldemand, basic food crops are the right ones to be
growing in Australia.
In 2009/2010, a farmer that I worked with
in Grith NSW, grew both winegrapes and rice.
With record high grain prices and record low wine
prices, he lost money on the supposedly high-value
grapes and made it all back, plus extra, on the rice!
This farmer is considering abandoning his grapes
altogether something that the Australian wine
industry would welcome due to a massive grape
glut and to just grow rice. One of the issues
holding him back is that he has a High Security
water license entitling him to a certain amount of
free water which has value above and beyond the
licence he has for General Security water due to its
greater priority in years of drought. A single pool of
licenses, of equal allocation priority, would remove
this disincentive to move to basic crops.
Australia should reform
its water markets to
take advantage of global
food demand yielding
a better result for
the environment.
A single pool of licen
of equal allocation
priority, would remov
this disincentive tomove to basic crops.
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We should not have a government policy
that eectively props up undesirable cropsas this distorts the market and, in this case, is
environmentally counter-productive.
A single license pool would also simplify the
water allocation task of state governments by
removing a tier from their allocation stack. A single
pool would also make inter-basin trading simpler
by removing the need for two sets of rules.
A move towards high-water using basic crops
such as rice can be seen as counter intuitive in the
arid Australian context but water scarcity is only
sometimes a problem in Australia just remember
the widespread flooding earlier this year! We need
to fit our industry into our countrys natural cycles
better by using water
when it is there and not
planting at all when it
is not. The recent high
prices that basic crops
are fetching, which are
expected to continue
indefinitely and the fact
that Australian grapes are in massive oversupply
now, shore up the economic arguments for change.When you see a reform that promises both
better economic and environmental outcomes, you
know its the right thing to do. This suggestion to
merge the two water markets would be politically
acceptable to implement and of great benefit not
only to our environment and our economy but also
to poor people overseas who cannot eat wine.
05
>> TIME FOR A NATIONAL
COMPENSATION SCHEMEJOHN DELLA BOSCA
John Della Bosca as former NSW Party
Secretary (1990-1999), Minister in the State
Labor Government (1999-2010) and a foundation
Member of the Centre Unity group says its time
for a National Compensation Scheme.
Good ideas are more valuable to social democrats
than good ideologies. Ideas solve problems;
ideologies often obscure the solution. More than 30
years ago the Whitlam Government had many good
ideas and more than one obscurantist ideologue.One Whitlamite idea in particular would have
solved the key problems for people living with
disability in this country. Back then this good idea
was called the National Compensation Scheme.
Whitlam had given Sir Owen Woodhouse the
responsibility of inquiring into the possibility of a
social insurance approach to meeting the needs of
the sick and disabled.
The Woodhouse report recommended
establishing a national, no fault, publicly funded
compensation and rehabilitation scheme for all
categories of injury no matter what the cause.
The resulting Bill passed the lower house and was
sitting in the Senate when Whitlam was dismissed.
The Bill went the way of the Whitlam Government
and the chance for reform was lost.
The right of Australians living with disability to
the joy of an ordinary life has remained lost for the
last 30 years. The sad truth is that people living with
disability, their families and carers are amongst the
most disadvantaged groups in the nation. People
with a disability are less likely to complete their
education, less likely be employed and more likelyto be poor and dependent on income support.
Projections show that over the next 70 years the
growth in the group of people with a severe disability
will be between two and three times population
growth as a whole. At the same time, the number
of people willing and able to provide unpaid care is
expected to decline markedly.
We should not have a
government policy that
props up undesirable
crops as this
distorts the market.
POLICY IDEAS
FOR LABOR
NEW
BIG6
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NSW Labor has laid much of the groundwork for
dramatic improvement with the Stronger Togetherpackages dramatically improving disability services
over the last six years and the creation of the Life
Time Care scheme for the traumatically injured;
these are just building blocks for the revolutionary
change required.
The solution is The National Disability Insurance
Scheme (NDIS). It is
the good idea for this
political cycle the Light
on the Hill we need to
demonstrate core Labor
values are still relevant
and very much a part of
our identity as a Party.
The NDIS was enthusiastically supported and
endorsed at the Federal Labor governments 2020
summit. Following the Summit the government
referred the design, funding and implementation
of an NDIS to the Productivity Commission. The
Productivity Commission has been conducting
an inquiry into how to best support people with a
disability and their families. The opening words of
their recent interim report released on 28 Februaryare The disability support system overall is
inequitable, fragmented and insucient and gives
people with disability little choice.
The scheme would provide assistance to all
people with a disability no matter how theirdisability is acquired. It should not matter whether
you are born with a disability, acquire one through a
car accident or develop one through a serious illness.
Everyone should be able to get what they need,
when they need it, in order to lead a full productive,
participatory life where they have the opportunity
for the dignity of work taken for granted by most
Australians.
The NDIS would provide funding for early
intervention, essential care, support, therapy, aids
and equipment, home modifications and training
for people with a disability that has a significant
impact on their daily life.
The scheme would be person-centered and
individualised support would be based on the
needs and choices of the person with a disability
and their family. This is an area in desperate need
of reform too often the
needs of people with a
disability take a back seat
to organisational
