Labor has walked away from its planned major redistribution of income, and sought to clarify confusion over coal mining that cost it at the last federal poll.
OPINION: Labor has walked away from its planned major redistribution of income, and sought to clarify confusion over coal mining that cost it at the last federal poll.
The penny has dropped at last. Almost six months after Labor lost the ‘unlosable election’, opposition leader Anthony Albanese has acknowledged that his party’s policies were what cost it government.
Mr Albanese is aiming to bring Labor back to the economic centre – provide the conditions for economic growth and increased employment, and watch as the revenue flows into the government’s coffers.
Then a Labor government can do, relatively painlessly, what Labor in power traditionally does – provide a hand up to battlers, attempt to maximise the workforce, and reduce the numbers on welfare.
In his first major policy speech since replacing Bill Shorten as leader after the election loss, Mr Albanese told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch in Perth that he was looking forward, not looking back.
While he didn’t point the finger at Mr Shorten for Labor’s defeat, Mr Albanese did define his position on the coal industry – a source of major export income and an issue over which Labor tied itself in knots before the poll.
The name ‘Adani’ has hardly been heard since May. During the campaign, Labor tried to ride two horses on the issue of coal.
To shore up votes in Queensland it focused on the economic outcomes of the Adani coal mine as a potential source of thousands of jobs and significant export income. The party’s positions on coal mining and climate change were marginalised.
But in inner-city Melbourne where coal mining is seen as a vote loser because of its link with carbon emissions and global warming, Labor could only be lukewarm at best, as it was in mortal combat with the Greens, which don’t like coal mining at all.
Consequently, Labor lost out in both places.
In Perth last week, however, Mr Albanese stamped his authority on the party, saying there was clearly a place in Australian industry for metallurgical coal, which is crucial in steel production, including for making wind turbines for renewable energy.
With regard to steaming coal used in power stations, there was no Labor plan for closures, he said. Market forces would decide. In fact one shadow minister observed privately: “If countries want to buy coal, we’ll sell it.”
In the first of a series of ‘values’ speeches, entitled ‘Australia’s Jobs Future’, Mr Albanese noted the importance of the mining sector and the potential for lithium mining in Western Australia to generate value adding, helping provide the jobs of the future.
Gone was the tired rhetoric of Mr Shorten. There was no reference to the big end of town, which Mr Shorten repeated in a derogatory sense ad nauseam. In fact Mr Albanese said Labor would aim to work with both business and unions.
Twenty shadow cabinet ministers were in Perth as part of a concerted effort by federal Labor to improve its standing in the west. Some dispersed to visit regional WA, including Kalgoorlie and Karratha.
Mr Albanese is expected to tour the North West Shelf and Pilbara next year. That should provide Labor leadership with a greater appreciation of the value of the resources sector to the national economy. It was sorely lacking last time.
How times change
Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan had a dig at one of her predecessors, Sir Crawford Nalder, at the popular Wines of WA event during the evening adjournment at Parliament House recently, attended by industry leaders and thirsty MPs.
Sir Crawford was deputy premier, Country Party leader and agriculture minister during most of Sir David Brand’s term as premier from 1959 to 1971, taking in rapid economic expansion based on the opening up of the Pilbara.
Ms MacTiernan noted that another sector earmarked for expansion was the wine industry, with the Margaret River and Mt Barker regions identified as great prospects.
But Sir Crawford was less than enthusiastic, and Ms MacTiernan noted he was a member of the Methodist Church, which frowned on alcohol consumption.
The impasse was resolved when Sir Charles Court (with strong Anglican links) assumed responsibility for the industry as part of his industrial development portfolio. The rest is history.
Incidentally, shadow treasurer Dean Nalder was among the throng at Parliament House. Unlike his grandfather, he joined the Liberal Party.
And he seemed to appreciate the local wines.
