Kep Enderby, former attorney-general in the last year of the Whitlam Labor government, has declared publicly that he's decided not to vote for the Labor Party because of the ALP government's terrible treatment of asylum seekers.
He declared this in a short letter published in The Australian on August 2, repeated it to Linda Mottram on ABC Sydney Radio 702 and confirmed this directly to Green Left Weekly.
“I've decided not to vote Labor even though I've voted Labor all my life and I was a member of the Whitlam government,” he told GLW.
Enderby said the Whitlam Labor government introduced some progressive reforms, but that was a strong contrast to ALP governments today. He said he was appalled not just by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's words and actions on asylum seekers, but also the ALP government's treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
He applauded broadcaster Phillip Adams for his recent criticism of the Rudd government over asylum seekers, and urged other ALP members to speak up.
As attorney-general in the final year of the Whitlam government, Enderby introduced laws to decriminalise abortion and homosexuality in the Australian Capital Territory.
Later he returned to his profession as a barrister and went on to become a NSW Supreme Court judge. When he served as head of the Serious Offenders Review Council in NSW, between 1997 and 2000, he was outspoken against the manipulation of public hysteria about crime and the consequent rising rates of imprisonment.
Today, Enderby is in deep despair about the ALP and has become an avid reader and supporter of GLW.
“I am of the opinion, after years of reading the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian, it is necessary for Australians to read GLW.
“There is material in it that you can't get anywhere else. It is important that Australians should be able to read that material, whether it is written by John Pilger, Peter Boyle or whoever it may be.
“The world is shrinking and it is only in Green Left Weekly that you can read about it the way it should be read about.”