By Jorge Jorquera
The Labor National Herald: This is undoubtedly what the true believers have been waiting for. It is, sort of, what the headline on the cover of the first issue proclaims — "the first national Labor paper".
A memo from ALP national secretary Gary Gray to branch secretaries promises five issues per year. "It is a bold venture and its success depends on the support of all Party members." How can the members show their support. Do you need to ask? They can, Gray specifies, "do this by:
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- writing letters to the editor,
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- passing a motion, and
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- ordering bulk copies (at 50 cents each) for resale at $2 as a fund-raiser for your branch".
Gray's enthusiasm is so infectious that three responsive party members, including Simon Crean, wrote a letter to the editor in time for publication in the first issue. I suppose the editor will be deluged by now, and you should expect to see eager ALP fundraisers selling the paper around the neighbourhood very soon.
The first national Labor paper is posted to all ALP members in WA, SA, NT, ACT and Tasmania. Gary Gray doesn't explain the reasons for the discrimination, but probably it has something to do with factions in the other states not trusting anyone else with members' addresses.
Anyway, Tom Burns, darling of the Queensland ALP, is the author of the cover story, "The beginning at the billabong". Around the billabong in Barcaldine 104 years ago, the ALP was formed. "The ALP was conceived from a meeting of tough bush battlers" out of the shearers' strike.
Burns spins his yarn well, describing the down-to-earth character of Queensland's first Labor MP, Tommy Ryan, who refused re-election after his first term, saying that in Brisbane, "The friends are too warm, the whiskey too strong and the cushions too soft. My place is among the billabongs."
Ryan may have been the only ALP parliamentarian ever to act on that sentiment. The reader's eyes keep wandering from Barcaldine billabongs to the story about the NSW elections on the opposite page. The enlarged quote describes Bob Carr as "a man steeped in history and one immensely proud of Labor's heritage". Are we talking about the same Bob, and does he really recall Whitlam fondly?
The article on the NSW elections is about "modern Labor", which "depends on civil libertarians, environmentalists, people in the arts and culture industries, public servants, workers in public utilities, the poor, the lowly paid workers not in unions, the unemployed, feminists, republicans, counter culturalists, migrants and intellectuals". Sorry, it's not about defending the interests of these groups, just about votes and buying off campaigns.
"In the event of alienating any group, preference strategy becomes all important. Via the Democrats or the Greens or the Aircraft Noise groupings, the preference flow is solid. The Carr leadership went to immense trouble to build its coalitions for the preferential flow." You can believe it.
Then there are the reassuring words from our PM: "John Howard thinks he can win a national election by standing for nothing". The joke may be on you, Paul. With working people so angered by Labor's attacks, Howard's greatest asset will be his ability to keep quiet.
To be fair, the Labor National Herald is an internal paper and not aimed at winning new supporters. Imagine Greg Sword, national secretary of the National Union of Workers, saying this to a shop floor meeting: "Modern effective unions, large or small, are not organisationally removed from their membership".
And it's obvious who Simon Crean is aiming this fib at: "Since 1983, funding for higher education has increased by over 65% ... Student representatives [read ALP student bureaucrats] should be in no doubt about the strength of the federal government's support."
Does the Herald have anything to say about Australian Young Labor? Well, it appears from the branch news that at least Tasmania's Young Laborites are up to something. They are running a competition to design a new Tasmanian flag!