Where Have All the Labor Voters Gone?

C@tmomma Uncategorized

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There are certain traditions, in the absence of ritualised faith, which our family observes, and has observed, ever since we moved into this area when the kids were still toddlers. One of them was to go to the Easter Sale at our local Community Hall. The other was to go to the Baptist Parish Fete, at about this time every year.

We always made our best efforts to be first in line too! So we could race to get to the best of the bargains. Or so we deluded ourselves as we dashed in and headed somewhere, anywhere, hoping that, when we got there the holy grail was waiting there for us for the grand sum of $1!

Sometimes the thrill of the chase is half the fun though, isn’t it? To the point that, when you get the stuff home you get this sinking feeling that goes along with the realisation that you now have to find a space for it all in your finite space at home, or else chuck something else to the wayside, which may no longer hold the place in your affections it once did, when it was your latest sparkly new bauble filled with potential to bring you joy. Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way to make it work. Space is found.

And then you start the process all over again, building up your expectations about what gems you might find next year. Or, at least I do.

So much so that it has become one of those family rituals, as I said, and we would feel the loss for missing out on doing it.

Though it wasn’t a ritual born of a need for an entertaining diversion. It was instead, initially, born of necessity. As a young family, who had just lost our family home & business in ‘The Recession We Had To Have’, conjoined with, ‘The Business Sharks Who Preyed On the Naive and Gullible That We Didn’t Need To Make the Acquaintance Of Really’, and so had given up on our dream of ‘Having It All’, then having a family, we came back to NSW from WA with nothing much more than the clothes on our backs. It being too expensive to bring back our worldly possessions with us. So we had a Monster Garage Sale in WA & used the proceeds, after we flew back, to buy a car and set up in rented accommodation in NSW. Back to square 1 we went. Still it could have been worse.

Well, it sort of was, as neither I, nor my husband were able to work. He because he had broken his back in a car accident with a drunk driver, and me, because I was looking after him and two young children, one of whom was in and out of hospital 18 times in his first 24 months. So, goodbye Pharmacy. I was not able to reliably commit to it.

However, we still had our smarts and we could smell at that time, about 1996, how big the computer phenomenon was going to be & knew how important it would be for our children to be a part of the digital future. Hence our identification of the fetes, Easter Sales & garage sales, as a way of picking our way into that future via the cheapest means possible. Luckily we live in an affluent area where people update their tech regularly, so we could afford to be just a step or two behind the pace. Which was enough when we combined that with judicious purchases of new components and a do-it-yourself attitude.

Now, by this time, I bet you’re wondering what all that has to do with the subject of the post?

Well, it’s all because of that word, ‘Context’. Bear with me.

You see, it’s my eldest son’s birthday in a couple of weeks, and without enough money to buy him something magnificent, I always try and find him something the equivalent thereof at the Baptist fete, and it never fails to deliver! So it turned out again this year when, in the headlong rush when the doors opened I ran madly into the hall and came face to face with an as-new telescope, which would normally have cost a few hundred dollars. I looked at the price and it was hard to read but I believe it said $60. I knew I couldn’t afford this so I tried my standard trick & asked one of the Baptists who were manning the tables & taking the $, could they please tell me how much it was? And this was where the term ‘Christian Charity’ came into it’s own, not the faux sort that ‘Believers’ like the Prosperity Gospel Greed Is Good’ Evangelicals like Scott Morrison practice, but the genuine kind, came into play as the man whom I asked took one look at me and knew somehow, in an instant, that I was asking because I hoped he would say a price I could afford. Which he did. He said $15, and so it was that I came away with a very special present for my son.

However, what this random act of kindness did, was get me to thinking about that community of people, with their unostentatious faith, whom I had been observing since early morning happily setting up their fete for the local community. For the community. To enrich the community. Not to enrich themselves particularly, though, of course the money raised helps to sustain them and their congregation for another year.

Now, being political and not particularly religious, though a small ‘c’ Christian by deed and not overt Faith tied to one religion or another, I looked at these people and I thought to myself, “These people are the antithesis of Liberal Party values & the so-called ‘Christians’ who seem, increasingly, to be taking over that party. These people, setting up and running the fete, with their conspicuous happiness and generosity towards each other and to complete strangers like me, are exactly the sort of people Labor is trying to appeal to with it’s policies and by it’s actions. Actions similar, in a macro sense, to that microscopically small action that one person did for another today. To me. Plus, may I obviously add, actions very similar to those that Jesus himself would have done or approved of.

Yet I had to admit that these people were also very conservative, as devout practicing Christians tend to be. Nice and conservative. Happy in their community, but conservative. Therefore, more likely than not, to vote for a conservative party.

Even though they behave more like people with Labor values. Of care and concern for the least of us and a willingness to share what they have amongst everyone.

Now, as it appears that our society is seeing an upsurge in the growth of discrete communities, of Faith, like this one and others, as well as fracturing into sporting communities, or communities of interest based around hobbies, but not so much around politics as their religion (hence the decline in numbers of members of political parties), except as a community of interest in politics exists here on this blog, and in other forums online. I wondered, therefore, what the Labor Party could do to win these good people back to supporting a party with values very similar to their own essentially?

For as I see it roughly, the Conservative vote is made up of the philosophical ideologues of the Right, plus those good-hearted, but small ‘c’ conservative people who identify with conservative values generally, but not the extreme philosophies of the Reactionary Conservatives that we see writ large every day in our Conservative Party, going by the misnomer of the Liberal Party.

We know Labor is the home of the Progressive(and, dare I say it, the Pragmatic) Left, however, I contend that it also needs to become the home of the small ‘c’ conservative Left, like those I saw today. Not that they should be the focus of Labor’s attentions but that they should be accommodated in our tent.

I do think we have some of them, such as the Catholics unlike Tony Abbott, and the Uniting Church, plus the Anglican laity, not the hierarchy, to a large extent. Good people, who practice what is preached to them.

I’d just like these others, who still believe their home is in the Coalition, come election time and time to vote, to see that it isn’t really. Really, it’s with Labor.

Now, how to get them to see that?

1,783 thoughts on “Where Have All the Labor Voters Gone?”

  2. TLBD,

    Yes, as we know, Tony holidays in regional areas, so he really gets them.

  4. And Abbott on CSG just a few weeks ago, in an interview on local radio in Taree, NSW where CSG is a huge issue.

    “Well, I think there are three principles that we’ve got to follow here. First of all, prime agricultural land has got to be protected. Second, the water table has got to be protected and third, farmers and other land holders have got to get a fair go. Now, I think that under the right conditions, coal seam gas extraction is doable. It’s been happening in significant parts of Queensland for about 20 years now and there doesn’t appear to have been any damage to the water table or any significant environmental damage. But we do have to be vigilant and what’s safely done in one part of the country may not necessarily be safely done in another part of the country. The actual regulation of these things is largely in the hands of the states and I want to congratulate Campbell Newman and Barry O’Farrell for the changes they’ve made to tighten up on all of this.’

    Shorter Abbott – it’s OK and anyway who cares because it’s for the states to work out and the LNP premiers are doing a great job.
    http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/News/tabid/94/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9134/Interview-with-Craig-Huth-1073-Max-FM-Taree.aspx

  5. It might not be a summer flock but these tired eyes reckon it’s pretty flockin’ good to look at.

    LIBERAL MPs are furious that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is sticking to a policy position many of them vehemently oppose.
    Multiple sources have revealed a deep rift over Mr Abbott’s support for a referendum on recognising local government in Australia’s Constitution and say it was never taken to Shadow Cabinet or the party room.

    This week former Liberal heavyweights Nick Minchin and Peter Reith spoke out against the idea.

    http://www.news.com.au/national-news/liberal-fury-over-abbott-bid-for-constitutional-recognition-of-local-governments/story-fncynjr2-1226629599892#ixzz2SrJhw0c0

    COALITION MPs have broken ranks on Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme, calling on the Opposition Leader to justify why the policy is needed
    Liberal backbenchers Alex Hawke and Mal Washer questioned the desire for such a generous scheme in the current economic circumstances.

    http://www.news.com.au/national-news/federal-election/abbott-under-pressure-on-leave-policy/story-fnho52ip-1226636332776#ixzz2SrLN8aWL

    Tony Abbott is facing growing discontent among his colleagues about his $3.2 billion Direct Action plan to combat climate change, a policy once described by Malcolm Turnbull as rubbish.

    http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/liberal-party-discontent-grows-20130509-2jau3.html#ixzz2SrOdPaJ7

    CONSERVATIVE heavyweights have turned on Tony Abbott’s industrial relations policy with former Howard government minister Peter Reith labelling it a “band-aid” solution and Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox saying it was “timid”.

    http://www.news.com.au/national-news/federal-election/tony-abbotts-industrial-relations-policy-labelled-timid-and-a-band-aid-solution-by-conservatives/story-fnho52ip-1226639122545#ixzz2SrPqqLuf

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has stirred debate within Opposition ranks, saying a future Coalition government would support coal seam gas extraction “under the right circumstances”.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-25/abbott-stirs-pot-with-coal-seam-gas-comments/3793128

  6. The More Joyous affair keeps on getting better. Brothel owners? What next? Friendly neighbourhood drug lords?

    Lisa Davies ‏@lisazdavies
    Brothel owner Eddie Hayson will front the stewards inquiry on Monday, Chief Steward Ray Murrihy has told the @smh

  7. It is good in his past life sensitive Tone had a big mouth and this little gem has surfaced on his idea of working IR.

    “If we’re honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband. Not withstanding all his or her faults, you find that he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he’s employing someone while he is in fact a boss.” (2002, AM Archive – Tuesday, 2 July)

  8. NormanK
    Add this to your list, it refers to Adam Bandt’s plans to introduce his Marriage Equality Amendment Bill into parliament on June 6.
    ‘Pressure is building on Mr Abbott to mirror the Gillard position with even some Liberals who are opposed to reform favouring a conscience vote on principle.
    Kooyong MP, Josh Frydenberg, told a national newspaper recently that such an approach was entirely consistent with “a proud [Liberal] tradition of allowing people to express their views”.’

    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/greens-press-for-immediate-gay-marriage-vote-20130509-2j9hr.html

  9. Fiona

    Update. Have to go to emergency at the hospital, my wife developed a blood-clot in her eye so we will be away most of the day I guess. Sorry I wont be able to do the raffle catch up later.

  12. NBN: Coalition Fine Print – 1.1M houses WON’T get 25Mbps.

    When is a guarantee not a guarantee? When it’s a Political statement.

    The “minimum” guaranteed speed excludes one in seven (13%) premises covered by the Coalition’s DSL-FTTN: or 1.1M premises will be “NOT happy, Mal!”

    While the “target” is 10%, that’s across all 11.3M fixed-lines, including the 24% premises served by Fibre. The 1.1M excepted premises will all come from the 8.968M premises covered by FTTN.

    From page 8 of the Coalition NBN Policy, “New statement of expectations”

    Click to access Broadband.pdf

    “We will issue a revised statement of expectations directing NBN Co to provide broadband services with a minimum download data rate of 25 megabits per second by the end of 2016 in all areas of Australia, and 50 megabits per second by the end of 2019 in 90 per cent of the fixed line footprint.”

    http://stevej-on-it.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/nbn-coalition-fine-print-1-in-7-houses.html

  13. CK Watt,
    Don’t worry, FJ and I can be both Barrel Girls and Bar Wenches, all at the one time!

    I hope your wife is OK.

  17. Hmmm:

    There are fascist tendencies in all countries – a sort of latent tyranny … Suppression of attack, which is based upon suppression of really free thought, is the instinctive weapon of the vested interest … great groups which feel their power are at once subject to tremendous temptations to use that power so as to limit the freedom of others.

    The easily forgotten truth (is) that the despotism of a majority may be just as bad as the despotism of one man. Fascism and the Nazi movement … elevate the all-powerful State and makes the rights of the individual not matters of inherent dignity, but matters merely of concession by the State. Each says to the ordinary citizen, ‘Your rights are not those you were born with, but those which of our kindness we allow you.’

  20. I’ve had a gutfull of this small ‘L’ Liberal shit!….AND this soft left-of-centre Labor shit…I’m here now to declare myself!….I’m a COMMUNIST w / Chairman Mao sympathies!
    Freedom for the proletariat!….and bugger the rest of you!
    Say!…when’s the bar open?

  21. Jaycee,

    The bar is always open at The Pub. What’ll it be?

    Also – comments here will close at 5pm AEST. Please wait until the Friday thread is up before ordering your numbers 🙂

  22. Thanks, Ian, wise as ever, and NormanK too – more than a flutter, a flapping, I think. Hopefully even a whirling of wings on the near horizon. Surely there are more ‘young Hawkes’ hovering impatiently out there.

    I was quite impressed by young Alex and watching him asked myself as I have at other times when looking at Abbott’s front bench, why there are so few young faces there.

  24. Hello patrons from The lovely city of Townsville

    Fiona and c@tmomma I will be able to conduct the raffle If you are willing to look after the bar and Post the thread.
    We are not going out anywhere tonight as the OH has a bit of a headache( or so she says?) and is going to rest .

    Bear with me people, I am in holiday mode.

  29. Thanks for that, Fiona, I must say that just seeing a fresh face was a welcome relief from the same old Abbott/Howard brigade. But surely Abbott must be keeping young talent at bay, and somewhere out there is someone of ‘true liberal calibre?

  31. J6p

    Clive Palmer, Billionaire extraordinaire. Now standing in the Seat of Fairfax

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