More on what's wrong with Labor in NSW
I guess this might sound like sour grapes because there was a time, back in the 80s when I was a warrior of the NSW right of the ALP. I believed that we had the talent and the philosophy and I still think that I was right. John Ducker was Secretary of the Labor Council and his assistant was Barrie Unsworth, the Industrial officer was John McBean. The General Secretary of the ALP was Geoff Cahill, a weak and shifty figure with a very limited future (and probably a sign of what was to come) but his off sider was Graeme Richardson who proved a very fast learner. They were smart, talented, ruthless and in my view straight shooters. They knew what they wanted but they also knew why they wanted it. All had come "from the tools". They had worked for a living and all in their own way wanted to make things better for the people Labor represents.
Unfortunately they also had an underlying weakness in that they valued loyalty above EVERYTHING. Richardson was the most open about it when he said that the real test of a member of the right was that "you will be with us even when we are wrong".
I failed that test several times. In fact I can only think of one time when I passed it. As Secretary of the Education and Science Policy Committee I had signed off on a policy that would make private schools publicly accountable for every cent they had, from both government and private sources. I had moved it in the policy committee and I was very happy to see it in Labor policy but the private school lobby was not so happy. I don't know where it originated but pressure began for me to alter the wording of the policy that had been agreed before it went to the party's annual conference. It was just before the election of the Hawke Government and the pressure came from very high indeed. Finally I had a call from John Dawkins the shadow minister appealing to me to get the issue of the policital agenda and to trust the coming Labor Govenment. Stupidly I did as I was asked and copped it on the chin at the conference. The altered policy committee report was (of course) passed.
Later that year the Hawke Government sold out public education to keep the private school lobby happy. I went on AM and said so, and got called a disloyal c--- for my troubles. I've been a disloyal c---- ever since.
For 25 years they have promoted blindly loyal branch stackers and this is sadly true of both the left and the right. I'll add a fine article by Rod Cavalier to this blog, if I can ever find it again, lamenting the decline of the left into a faint shadow. No one believes in anything anymore. It's all very sad.