Australia’s Labor Party is in danger of being wiped out as a political force because it has lost touch with its base of blue-collar workers, Joel Fitzgibbon has warned.
The outspoken Labor MP, who has represented the federal division of Hunter since 1996, said the party’s loss in the NSW state seat of Upper-Hunter on Saturday was a huge ‘wake up call’.
Labor’s first preference vote plunged from 28 percent to 22 percent as the Nationals were returned with 32 percent of primary votes, a small drop from 34 percent in 2019.
Under-pressure NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay, who was hoping to win the marginal coal-mining seat following the resignation of Nationals MP Michael Johnsen due to allegations he raped a sex worker that he denies, admitted the result was ‘terrible’.
She has insisted she will not quit but is facing unrest in the ranks, with four MPs – Chris Minns, Paul Scully, Ryan Park, and Michael Daley – touted as possible replacements.
Labor campaigned on a pro-coal message, even picking a former coal miner as its candidate, but Mr. Fitzgibbon believes the party lost its base by ‘demonizing’ resources workers in its fight against climate change over the past few years.
‘It’s a wake-up call to all of us in the Labor Party and indeed the Labor movement,’ he told 2GB radio on Monday morning.
‘If we’re not careful it will go the way of the Kodak brand.’
Mr. Fitzgibbon even threatened to retire from politics if Labor doesn’t start speaking up more strongly for blue-collar workers.
Mr. Fitzgibbon said Labor needs to appeal to its working-class base.
The Hunter MP, who almost lost his coal-mining seat at the 2019 election, believes resource workers are suspicious of Labor due to its ambitious climate change policies.
‘That suspicion is only fuelled by decisions made late or on the eve of the by-election to oppose the gas generator in the Hunter Valley, a $600 million investment, they just shake their heads and say, ”We thought so”,’ he said.
In November, Mr. Fitzgibbon quit the frontbench, furious that senior left-wingers – whom he branded the ‘cheesecloth brigade’ – were calling for an ‘even more ambitious climate change policy’ in the wake of Joe Biden’s US election win as federal leader Anthony Albanese attacked Scott Morrison for refusing to adopt a 2050 net-zero emissions target.
‘The Labor Party has to speak more about jobs and jobs security as it does about climate change,’ he said on Monday.
‘A lot of our base walked away from us some time ago now and it’s clear that they haven’t returned.
‘You won’t get them back quickly or easily.’
Read more at Daily Mail
It has been reported that an aluminium foundry in the Hunter Valley, once an ALP stronghold as it is coal-mining country, had to stop production three times in a week because of electricity prices.
It isn’t just the ALP, though, that should be worrying about that, The mining (and more) super-union is betraying its members by not seeking to protect their jobs.
The unions have a near stranglehold on the Labor Party, but won’t do anything about coal because their superannuation funds are riding on renewables subsidies.
Why workers don’t wake up to the fact that the subsidies that keep the non-commercial super funds afloat are funded by taxation I don’t know.
Perhaps I should start a business whereby I take $10 out of their pay-packets and give the equivalent of $6 back years later? How could they resist free money?
Abandoning a party’s traditional electorate is not a good idea. That appears to be what is happening with Australia’s Labor Party as they embrace action on climate change. President Trump won in 2016 because the Democratic Party has been abandoning the best interest of blue-collar workers, one of its traditional supporters. Trump might have won again in 2020 if it wasn’t for the election fraud. If the Labor Party wants to survive it needs to abandon the goals of the radical environmentalists and focus on the best interests of its traditional constituency.
It has been acknowledged for a long time that democracy is a big obstacle for the climate change agenda. Maurice Strong, the father of the UN IPCC, said “Our concept of ballot box democracy may need to be modified.”
Here in Queensland we have a labor government supposedly reelected a while back whose main focus seems to be abortion, euthanasia, snap lockdowns and very little else. I think the media hype of Wuhan virus may have done it’s job to get them re elected but basically all we hear is vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. Very little seems to be done to promote productivity. I cannot understand why people are so anti clean coal technology or nuclear with its new tech as well. Why on earth we are still buying Chinese products like wind turbines and solar panels is beyond me. China was using our coal to make their stuff to sell to us why can’t we use it????
Hey Dave, I’ve got a question for you. Looking at the AEMO site – a sudden spike in pricing – at the 5 minute level – 1735/1740 on May 24. What happened? Did a power plant go belly-up – or some other problem?
I noted that in one state pricing went to $14, 700 for a MW. Ouch.
https://aemo.com.au/Energy-systems/Electricity/National-Electricity-Market-NEM/Data-NEM/Data-Dashboard-NEM
Labor is a hostage of the anti-worker Greens. Over two decades ago, I said that the Greens (rather than the alt-right One Nation) would destroy the Labor Party.
One Nation supports coal. A fair chunk of the old Labor right wing have moved to One Nation, leaving Labor to the inner-city elites who wouldn’t know what traditional work like coal-mining was if it jumped up and bit them.
Still, the Australian elites are quieter today, because the truth is finally out about the Wu-flu. How quiet shall they be when the truth gets out about China’s deindustrialisation of Australia, whereby we put up their pointless solar panels and they burn coal, so we lose and they win?
Meanwhile, the Liberals may have won this most recent tussle, but they’re not a lot better than Labor, especially in New South Wales where the party looks greener than Kermit the Frog.
Also over two decades ago, I thought Joel Fitzgibbon less bright than his advisor, or even less bright than cartoon Kermit. It’s taken a while but he’s finally showing his worth. I doubt many of his Labor colleagues can follow his lead, though. They will goosestep with the Greens until Hell freezes over, a situation which will come quicker than Hell on Earth from burning coal, but not as quickly as modern Labor burning the working class in favour of the woke class. Again. And again. And again.
At least China is following the science of economical and reliable energy, while others stumble over the failed promises of green energy … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Iu9D5RhqQ