Cracks showing in the major parties

February 13, 2002
Issue 

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

HOBART — The ALP and the Liberals in Tasmania have both been rocked this year by scandals reflecting in different ways the ongoing crisis of legitimacy of the major capitalist parties. This demonstrates that the solid (post-September 11) approval ratings for governing parties are potentially fragile.

The year began with increasing fallout becoming apparent in response to Labor federal MHR Duncan Kerr's announcement that he intended to switch from federal to state politics.

Coming only a month after he was elected to a three-year term in the federal parliament, Kerr's stated reason for shifting to state parliament — his desire to be a minister instead of being in opposition — did nothing to undermine the popular image of politicians as self-serving. The fact that Kerr would have been eligible for a superannuation payout of $670,000 only made the situation more irksome.

Politicians know that their decisions are often unpopular but calculate that they can usually ride out the rough waters. On this occasion, the backlash was great enough to threaten the Labor Party as a whole and not just Kerr as an individual MP.

Premier Jim Bacon organised for the ALP national executive to disallow Kerr's switch and was forced to postpone a state election that had been tipped for early March. The scandal was exacerbated when Kerr and Bacon gave differing accounts of Bacon's attitude toward Kerr's proposed switch, leaving the strong impression that at least one them was being dishonest.

Reflecting pressure from ALP voters who are uncomfortable with the party's refusal to provide a progressive alternative to the Liberals, Kerr expressed reservations about state Labor's unpopular pro-woodchipping policies and the federal party's support for mandatory detention of asylum seekers (even if he did wait until after the November 10 federal elections to do so).

(State ALP forestry policies have also come under fire from Senator Shayne Murphy — not necessarily from a pro-environment standpoint — who resigned from the ALP prior to the November federal election. Murphy is now sitting in the Senate as an independent until his term expires in 2005. He has lauded the role of right-wing independent Senator Brian Harradine for bringing "benefits to Tasmania" in return for supporting the privatisation of Telstra.)

Opposition to the federal government's anti-refugee position has been expressed also within the Tasmanian Liberal Party by former candidate Greg Barns. After winning pre-selection by the narrow margin of only one vote, Barns continued expressing his strident opposition to the federal Coalition government's mandatory detention policy.

Barns' opposition has been expressed primarily on the basis of concern for human rights. However, he has also argued that it is in "Australia's" economic interests to increase migration. Barns was disendorsed as a Liberal candidate after publicly replying to a letter by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz.

Barns has argued that the Liberal Party ought to be a "broad church" where different points of views can be publicly expressed whereas supporters of his disendorsement have argued that he was not a "team player" and could harm the party.

Former Liberal state leader Sue Napier and former Liberal premier Tony Rundle have spoken out against the move to disendorse Barns. Current Liberal state leader Bob Cheek — who initially supported Barns strongly and helped secure his original endorsement — has conspicuously supported his disendorsement.

For both the ALP and the Liberals, federal issues (such as the human rights disaster masquerading as refugee policy) have become entwined with state politics, demonstrating their overwhelming centrality at the moment.

The issue for those seeking social change in the interests of working people remains, as ever, the importance of building an effective political alternative to Labor and the Liberals. The measure of effectiveness has to be the ability to actively mobilise the largest number of people in protest actions capable of forcing policy changes by Labor and Liberal governments. It is only this that will give working people confidence to go further and to take power into our own hands.

[Alex Bainbridge was a Senate candidate in Tasmania for the Socialist Alliance in the November 10 federal election.]

From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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