The emergence of significant followings for populist parties in the Palmer mould should be a wakeup call for the ALP to expedite the reform and renewal agenda to which Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese committed themselves during the parliamentary leadership contest. Recommendations for greater branch support and member development such as party reviews have repeatedly brought forward and have as repeatedly been ignored don’t require rules changes or deferrals pending State Conferences. Just that State Administrative Committees cease to be asleep at the wheel where hand-on reform and renewal are concerned and take seriously the measures for more effectively gaining, retaining, and involving members that are required in order for Bill Shorten’s 100,000 member target to be achieved - QUOTE (John Warhurst in ‘Eureka Street’, 1/6/14): ‘PUP suffers from a number of potential weaknesses. All their senators are new to the job. Their leader is outside the Senate. They reckon they have insufficient staff. And they have no clear unifying ideological framework. But they continue to be underestimated by both the major parties and the media. In the past similar foolish underestimation of political figures outside the usual mould, like former Qld Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and former Independent and then One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, rebounded badly on the major parties. Palmer, an enigma, has already survived longer than many of his critics last September thought he would. In fact he has grown in confidence and reputation rather than walking away or falling in a heap. He has a special eye for publicity and the media are drawn to him almost despite themselves. His new senators should maintain party discipline at least in the short term because Palmer effectively owns them. Individually they may show surprising competence as the Tasmanian Jacquie Lambie has already done.’
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 23:01:22 +0000
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