A number of Labur politicians past and present, both federal and state, along with senior trade union officials have recently directed vitriolic criticism at the Greens, in one case accusing the Greens of having 'eaten Labor's heart and brains.'
It all started to unravel after then Greens leader Bob Brown, without any warning, announced his retirement from political life. Nobody seems to have figured out why he did so. The new leader, one Christine Milne, is a shrill haridan who has none of the personal appeal to middle Australia possessed by Brown.
Labor's power brokers have woken up, albeit too late, that it is the policies forced onto Labor by the Greens which have caused Labor to suffer so badly in opinion polls. (The first polls since the carbon tax was introduced show Labor's fortunes continuing to decline, in spite of billions of dollars worth of cash 'compensation' paid to households in a futile bid to sell the tax.) That's how they do political bribes in Australia. They actually send you a cheque!
Mind you, the blame must equally be shared by PM Julia Gillard who was quick to jump into bed with the Greens and with a gaggle of witless and unreliable independent MPs to cobble together a lame duck majority.
For some time, a number of Labor people have said she would have been better off to have left the Greens at the altar and to have proceeded as a minority government with the independents. I'm inclined to agree.
What is fascinating in all of this is twofold:-
1 Julia Gillard is stuck with the Greens' policies so, in point of fact, we are seeing Labor leaving Gillard behind to stew in her own juice. I'm now strongly inclined to believe Rudd will be reinstalled as PM before long. The carbon tax, and her bare faced lie about it, have killed off Gillard.
2 NZ's Labour Party should be taking careful note of this unfolding drama. No matter what else they do, they risk long term anihilation if they are foolish enough to attempt a similar coalition with NZ's Green Party.
I see a couple of knowledgeable commentators from the left here have described Australia's Greens as the most virulent variety of the species to be found anywhere in the world. The NZ version will be right up there, having its leader drawn from the Ocker gene pool.
3 If Rudd gets the nod and repeals the carbon tax with a big mea culpa, he just might pip Mr Abbott and the Libs at the post, come 2013. He possesses that political pot of gold - people actually like him - God knows why..
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In a move of staggering shortsightedness, back in 05 Labor attempted to shore up its support among older god-fearing types by making mandatory Internet monitoring and censorship official Party policy.
Strangely enough younger people, who live, work, play, and socialise on the Internet - who define themselves through their Internet activities - weren't particularly impressed by the thought of the government reading their emails, recording their browser histories, and logging their chats, and then deciding whether or not to allow them to continue, all the while degrading the quality of the Internet access itself.
So young people, who strangely enough acquired the right to vote as they grew up, decided that they wouldn't vote for a party that wanted such unrestrained power over something so important to their lives. And young people stopped voting Labor, and some of them started voting instead for the Greens, who stood up in Parliament and said "we will not vote for this proposed legislation".
It's probably not too much of a stretch to say that Labor has thrown away the support of two entire generations of voters - people whose lives depend on the Internet, and who don't want a bunch of technophobic Labor hacks fucking it up.
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