Party Games 52/54 Australian Labor Party

Ok. We're up to the big leagues here. One of the two contenders to form government following the election. Labour have been in power since they took power outright in 2007, and leading a minority government since the 2010 election. Currently led by Kevin Rudd who has returned to the leadership earlier this year after having been replaced by Julia Gillard. Now for all the problems of internal strife since Kevin was ousted and running a minority government that the opposition has characterised as chaos (and to which they contributed by ignoring certain conventions such as pairing), the last parliament has run for a full term and put through a number of significant pieces of legislation including the carbon tax, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, getting a seat on the UN Security Council, and the Gonski education reforms. Yes there has been infighting, yes there has been bluster, but there has also been governance, which is what we expect of parliament. 

 Looking forward, what is Labor offering. Mostly, the contiuation of what they have already started. The continued roll out of the NBN as a fibre to the premises network. Keeping the carbon tax. A parental leave scheme that gives less per person but gives more to those less well off. This also includes robbing the Peter of tertiary education to pay the Paul of the Gonski reforms, subsidizing car manufacturers, and their continued competition with the Coalition as to who can be tougher on refugees arriving by boat and who can make the dodgiest deals with neighboring nations to take them off our hands (this seems to be a contest Labor is set to lose). 

 Newer policies include finally getting on board with marriage equality, moving a navy base to Queensland somewhere, encouraging the study of Korean as a second language, and building high speed rail by 2035 (the Bullet Train Party wouldn't be impressed). 

Labor have a vision for the future that appeals to me, but they need to show a bit more conviction rather than going for the politically expedient. 

 The ALP has candidates for all electorates for the house of representatives and all states and territories for the senate. 

website: http://www.alp.org.au/ 

twitter: @AustralianLabor