Kevin turns Left after all

Comment by Janet Albrechtsen on the sudden lurch to the Left by Australia's Labor party leader. He WAS promoting himself as a centrist but has now recast himself as an old-fashioned class warrior

Good news folks. I am forced to admit error. I had thought this would be - with one exception - an election between TweedleJohn and TweedleKev. With the one exception, a few weeks back Kevin Rudd looked like a Clayton’s John Howard - the Liberal Prime Minister you have when you’re not having a Liberal PM. Blairlike, Rudd had appeared to shift the ALP to the centre. Gone was the hit list of rich schools and Lathamesque forest policy. In was practical reconciliation with Aboriginals and abolition of the three mines uranium policy. The giant exception was, of course, WorkChoices. But even that was easily explained. The unions are planning to spend many tens of millions of dollars to get Rudd elected if he dumped WorkChoices. An easy decision for him - and to be fair he had always said he did not care for WorkChoices.

But as more policy emerges and the ALP’s national conference distills Labor’s election platform, the Tweedledum/Tweedledee analysis needs to be rethought. In critical respects Rudd has returned to the ALP’s past and sharpened the election differences mightily.

The symbolism of the “Gough for God” lionisation was the first chilling clue that Rudd Labor may be more traditional Labor than we had expected. It is, of course, obligatory at ALP conferences to pay tribute to the party’s past idols. But the deification of Whitlam, complete with chants of “we want Gough”, was not merely formulaic worship.

More substantial in policy terms was the adoption of the ALP’s broader economic platform, Rudd’s declaration that he would be a more “activist” PM and the concomitant jubilation of Jeff Lawrence (the ACTU secretary-in-waiting) and Doug Cameron at the party’s interventionist stance on industry policy. When political parties start espousing an “activist industry policy” it means they have succumbed to the ultimate political hubris - imagining that they can pick winners better than a free market and ignoring history that tells us that they can’t. Suddenly the ALP was looking more like Gough Whitlam than Tony Blair.

Add in the “workers paradise” elements of a European style family leave policy, the adoption of a federal bill of rights and a Fair Work Australia body that looks like a union picnic day, and Rudd Labor is no more just a little step to the left.

It is of course possible that this different face of Kevinism is just a feint. A carefully choreographed waltz with party unity, with a few necessary union slapdowns, after which Kevin tells the loyalists he respects them and will still love them in the morning. Maybe tomorrow, pragmatic centrist 21st century Kevin will re-emerge. Maybe he’ll keep switching from Whitlam Kevin to Howard Kevin depending on the audience. Who knows? One thing is clear. The real Kevin Rudd is not yet clear.

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A bizarre blast from the past

Comment by Paul Kelly



Labor leader Kevin Rudd has seized a bizarre fate -- a resurrection of trade union power, collective bargaining rights and a far stronger industrial umpire as the keys to The Lodge. Rudd's new industrial policy is a giant step into the past. Indeed, so sweeping is Labor's embrace of the principles of collective power and re-regulation that it must be wondered whether Rudd fully comprehends what he has done. It is the most intriguing question from the ALP national conference.

Neither Rudd's spin as the leader of the future nor his selling of the policy as a homily to family values can disguise its reality - this is a radical re-casting against individual discretion, employers and small business in favour of collective power, trade unions and third-party enforcement. With this policy, Rudd forfeits any chance of being a serious rival to John Howard on economic policy. He looks a conventional leader using spin to pose as a modernist.

The mechanics of the decision are telling. The policy is a collaboration between two of Labor's best brains, ACTU chief Greg Combet and deputy leader Julia Gillard. It has not been approved by the Opposition front bench. It has not been vetted by Labor's business guru, Rod Eddington. It was not debated at national conference because it mirrors a Labor-ACTU consensus. Key sections were kept from business before the announcement. It draws a line in the sand. It defines Rudd's election strategy as a joint and massive assault by Labor and the trade unions against Work Choices.

At this point Labor loses the goodwill of big business, the hope of winning small business and the dream that it stands for entrepreneurship. Rudd's election strategy is to pitch to working families with the claim that an arrogant Howard has abandoned them. The stage is set for a bitter election over the industrial model that Australia needs for its open economy, an issue unresolved for a generation that now approaches showdown time. The Rudd-Gillard policy Forward with Fairness is a sweeping alternative to Work Choices. It reveals Labor's conviction that Work Choices is a loser for Howard, that Labor had no option but to find a policy acceptable to the unions and that its marketing by Rudd and Gillard should rely upon fairness and family values.

In his speech, Rudd said Howard had launched "an assault on Australian family life" and that Labor would "restore the balance". This is neither a credible nor accurate statement about the totality of Labor's policy. This policy goes far beyond any family friendly test. It is better described as union friendly. The details and the scale of Labor's package transcend any effort merely to restore fairness to the workplace.

Consider two of the latest elements. First, Labor will allow any workplace where there is 51per cent support for collective bargaining to impose this upon the employer for the entire workplace. The new umpire, Fair Work Australia, can decide whether there is majority support (yes, a union-organised petition is enough). The Labor Party calls this democracy and wants to pretend it is family friendly. In truth, it is about power. Power for collective at the cost of minority rights.

Second, Fair Work Australia centralises powers on a huge scale such that the advisory, mediating, prosecuting and judiciary functions are combined (yes, the umpire will have different divisions). This raises serious questions of workability and of the powers and culture of such an organisation. Its officials will be located in your neighbourhood. Is this a blessing or a terror for local business? It is significant that Labor formulated this concept in consultation with the unions and in secret from business. Such an institution is more about power than fairness.

In addition, Labor will create a new complex safety net based upon both 10 nationally legislated and universal conditions (applying to both big and small business) plus a re-strengthened award system containing a further 10 minimum standards. And don't forget: individual workplace agreements will be outlawed and unfair dismissal laws re-imposed.

Business wanted to believe in Rudd. It is unlikely to repeat the mistake. As an exasperated chief of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout, said: "Kevin Rudd talks a lot about productivity but this re-regulation will lower productivity."

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PM warns of Leftist threat to women's jobs

WOMEN with children would be at the bottom of the pile of job applicants under a Labor plan, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. But Labor accused the PM of having a 1970s attitude to the workplace, with spokeswoman Julia Gillard describing Mr Howard's comments as bordering on the offensive. Under a new Labor workplace policy announced at the weekend, parents would have the legal right to demand flexible hours in the first five years of their children's lives.

But Mr Howard said the prospect of government officials interfering in the running of small businesses would be their ultimate nightmare. "Some employers will avoid employing women because they will be frightened of bureaucrats interfering in the running of their business," he said.

Under Labor's new workplace blueprint, parents can request flexible working arrangements up until their child reaches school age and employers will only be able to refuse on reasonable business grounds.

Ms Gillard said Mr Howard's dire warnings were similar to those made 30 years ago when women were granted paid maternity leave. "Since then women have flooded into the workplace," she said. A modern industrial relations system will cope with work hours suited to pick-ups from childcare centres, she said.

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The "drought" was supposed to make food more expensive

But that pesky old reality is not co-operating with the theorists again

Inflation slowed in April helped by the falling cost of food and travel, but rising rents and the drought will keep pressure on inflation, a survey shows. The TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge rose 0.1 per cent in April and 3 per cent annually. That compares to a 0.5 per cent rise in March and 3.5 per cent over the year.

The figures may encourage the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), when it meets this week, to keep rates steady as a rising Australian dollar helps keep the cost of imported goods and materials in check. "The moderation in aggregate price pressure will be welcomed by the RBA when it meets tomorrow and should reinforce expectations that interest rates will remain on hold for another month," TD Securities senior strategist Joshua Williamson said.

Underlying inflation, which excludes volatile items such as petrol, slipped to 0.2 per cent in April or 2.8 for the year. That's slower that the 0.3 per cent rise in March. The results echo data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week that showed the consumer price index rose 0.1 per cent in the March quarter for an annual rate of 2.4 per cent. The RBA followed up with data that showed underlying inflation rose 0.5 per cent for the quarter - well below the 0.8 per cent economists suggested would trigger a rate rise.

Even so, the cost of living may accelerate amid rising rents and as drought threatens to curb food production. [We have had the alleged drought for some time already. When is it supposed to start working?]

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