Perplexed from the absence of real debate at the 50th National Labor Conference in Adelaide, I warmed to a recording of Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet. Putting country before Party over far-off events in the Middle East seems to be the smart move for political survival of a Prime Minister who commands a Labor team with the support of 63 per cent of the MPs in the House of Representatives. Only John Curtin achieved a better result in 1943.
A quick look at the polling trendlines in Politico Poll of the Polls shows that the challenges of conservative populism are repeated in most representative democracies across the US Global Alliance (POLITICO Poll of Polls — European polls, trends and election news – POLITICO). Social democracy has been reduced in scope to some Scandinavian countries and far-off Australia. Social Democracy will be reconstructed in Britain by Andy Burnham after Keir Starmer squandered his massive majority on commitments to strategic ties with the Trump administration and arms exports to the Middle East.
Here in Australia, the Albanese Government enjoys a commanding majority with potential support in the Senate for closer ties between Labor and the progressive crossbench.
With Senator Tammy Tyrell joining Labor from the Jacky Lambie Network, in 2026, Labor still needs the support of the eleven Green senators on major policy issues with added potential votes from Senator David Pocock (ACT) and Senator Fatima Payman (WA) from time to time.
The United Front between progressive parties is the real solution to the temporary ascendency of One Nation and the copy-cat version from Angus Taylor’s LNP.
Ross McMullin’s update of The Light on the Hill can promote more discussion of this metaphorical concept from a flexible political perspective. This is an ancient scriptural symbol for moral integrity and social justice. It may have been applied to the use of night signaling devices used for communication between hilltop fortresses in Roman Palestine. President Donald Trump is compulsively using such reactionary signalling devices through electronic soft media in the New Imperial Order.
Locally, Prime Minister Ben Chifley introduced this concept at the NSW State Labor Conference in June 1949 as support for Labor was ebbing at both state and federal levels:
The objectives of the Labour movement are better standards of living, giving to the people of the country some cultural life, some intellectual life, and security from the fear of poverty and want… We have a great objective, the ‘light on the hill,’ which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here, but anywhere we may give a helping hand.
This rhetorical concept could not save the Chifley Government on 10 December 1949 and brought a long twenty-three years in Opposition before the It’s Time message became the New Light on the Hill for three brief years before it was shut out by the dismissal of Gough Whitlam to the cheers of intelligence services in Britain and the US with a commitment to a global military order that served the interests of military industrial complexes over peace and development.
The barriers to social democratic change in the late 2020s are even more overwhelming as the US enforces its strategic goals on allied Middle Powers like Australia. Australia’s freeze on nuclear weapons has been compromised by visits by submarines with weapons of mass destruction and pressures on turning HMAS Sterling near Perth into a nuclear weapons base.
Partisan conference items against Israel only fuel similar divisions in Australia. It is best for Australis to keep out of Middle Eastern affairs and resist invitations from President Trump to send convoys to the Persian Gulf. A future US Democratic administration is likely to tone down support for Israel without the need for an impotent resolution from the 50th Labor National Conference which would not make a scrap of difference in global geopolitics.
Looking back on fractious resolutions from past National Labor Conferences in Ross McMullin’s Light on the Hill, I am quite convinced by Anthony Albanese’s commitment to country over party.
The Albanese Government has an extraordinary majority in times where social democracy has been shut out of public life by conservative victories from the USA to Japan and key EU countries. Commitment to country can forge a good working relationship with the progressive crossbench in the Senate with its eleven Green senators to offer opportunities for clear working majorities in both houses of parliament with due respect for the opinions firmly held by crossbench members.
Both in government in 1915 during the Great War and in deep opposition at the 1955 Labor National Conference in Hobart during the Cold War, ideological motions splintered the Labor Movement in the past.
The latest National Newspoll shows that the extent of the current challenge to the hegemony of Australia’s mainstream LNP.
Poll Bludger offers a critical assessment of these polling numbers:
The Australian reports the latest Newspoll has Labor losing a three-point gain it made in the last poll three weeks ago, putting them back at 30%. The uneven polling picture for One Nation is maintained with a one-point increase to 30%, only one point shy of its record result from the poll before last. The Coalition is up two to 19% after descending from 21% in April to 17% late last month. The Greens are down a point to 12%, having bumped around in a range from 11% to 13% since the start of the term.
Anthony Albanese is on 39% approval and 57% disapproval while Angus Taylor is on 30% and 51%, which in both cases are down one on approval and steady on disapproval. Albanese’s lead over Angus Taylor on preferred prime minister narrows from 47-36 to 44-36, and a three-way version of the question has Albanese down three to 46%, Taylor up two to 22%, and Pauline Hanson up one to 32%. Hanson is up a point on approval to 47% and down two on disapproval to 47%. The poll was conducted Monday to Thursday from a sample of 1238.
The Trump era of imperial politics is ending. The Washington Post’s Ipsos poll shows up current polling trendlines. US Voters are now concerned about jobs and unaffordable prices over populist prejudices about immigration and enduring MAGA greatness. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has a reasonable chance of toppling a new Republican nominee.
By 2028, Anthony Albanese (Dob 1963) will have become the evergreen elder statesman who can visit the incoming US President without gifts of rare earth minerals that have not avoided the imposition of tariffs of 12.5 per cent on many Australian exports to the USA at a time when investment in US data centres here threaten our national sovereignty and traditional concerns about the national government’s record on low unemployment and an outreach to Asian investment (ABS Data):
Level of foreign investment in Australia, by country/country group
The Evergreen Structuralist with a Capacity to Tilt at the Status Quo without Being too Provocative
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article.
Your feedback advances the cause of citizen journalism.
Also by Denis Bright
Australian Political Futures: The 250th 4 July in Retrospect
Political Futures: Do Exit Ramps Exist to Control Wider Middle Eastern Conflicts?
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The tragedy is that many of us don’t realise just how far to the right the Overton Window has moved and so we cling to Albappeasey’s tepid version of a Labor government and call it “progress”. The lesser of two weevils!
I admire your optimism Denis, but I find it difficult to support.
Not sure why anyone is surprised? Since rise of Howard and Murdoch the dominant silen teens and now boomers, whether they realise or not, have become more neoliberal, nativist and conservative vs younger generations < mid Gen X.
‘silen teens’ silent gens
A very independent take on the conference,
Denis
I hope that Albo’s staff members pick up this article in their media monitoring: Good work denis
Interesting article Denis!
Comments from Harry Lime are always welcome. Both of us have similar political values.
Elites run the world and Albo is just struggling to maintain his near record majority so that Labor has a chance of a third term in national government.
The past year has been a time of vicious attacks from Australian neoliberal conservatives and far-right populists.
The Murdoch press persists with this offensive with a claim in yesterday’s Australian editorial that Morrison delivered balanced budgets.
It was Dr Chalmers who delivered twin surpluses (20222-24).
Even before Covid in late 2020, the LNP’s budget deficit was $7 billion in 2018-19. This was an improvement on 2016-17 when the deficit was $32 billion.
Albo inherited AUKUS from the Morrison years.
Worse still, US submarines in the interim are likely to be carrying nuclear weapons into HMAS Sterling near Perth.
Australia and other Middle Powers within the US Global Alliance have become highly controlled states in which strategic policies and economic directions are largely directed by largely unelected sub-committees of cabinet like the National Security Committee and the Expenditure Review Committee which are ruled by political elites.
Our governments usually obey but still have veto powers to dissent if absolutely necessary.
Dissent maybe necessary in the future if the global economy crashes from over-investment in the AI bubble.
Better to have Labor than another round of LNP austerity.
Don’t be afraid to comment Harry Lime. I will not be offended.
My articles merely promote discussion. Your opinions are as good as my own and perhaps better.
It is good to see the younger generation taking to critical structuralism to challenge the idealism of apologists for Labor’s slow path towards social democracy: Cheers to Dr. Duncan Hart for his PhD topic which is still embargoed by UQ Library: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:74b1003.
Just what is it that Albanese has supposedly done for the country?
The article refers to the Middle East.
Was the author referring to the scuppering of the supposed ‘rank and file’ amendment to take a stronger line with Israel, as choosing country over party? Or was it the squashing of any chance of debating Australia’s participation in the illegal US-Israel war on Iran?
Either way, disenfranchising the rank and file is being spun as choosing country over party. Just how does that work?
Michelle Gratton reported “It’s a pantomime,” rails a former senior Labor man from the left, about the coming conference.
Behind the scenes, it might be added, the producers and stage hands are hard at work to make sure the performance runs smoothly with minimum freelancing by the actors.”
The draft motion that was adopted doesn’t commit the Labor executive to take any action on Israel’s genocide whatsoever, none, zip, zilch. It condemns Israel over the death penalty for Palestinians laws Israel passed, who hasn’t, but no action is required. It ‘urged’ the government to do stuff; so what? it wouldn’t be the first time the executive ignored the platform. Israel protested and told the government not to do anything, and that is what the government will end up doing – effectively nothing. It was performative politics by both parties.
So how is this or blocking debate on participation in the war supposedly in the country’s interests?
How is, not just ignoring Australian obligations under the Genocide Convention, but being complicit in a genocide in Australia’s interests?
How is undermining International law, the ICJ and the ICC in Australia’s interests?
How is Israel, and by de facto the USA, being granted impunity in their genocide in Australia’s interests? With such impunity they’d be silly enough to attack Iran, twice, wouldn’t they.
How is supporting and then joining Israel and the USA in their illegal war against Iran in Australia’s interests? Have I missed something? is paying more for petrol, diesel, and consequently more for food and anything requiring transport, somehow in Australia’s interests?
Unless the author considers Christopher Pyne and the companies manufacturing the weapons parts that Australian companies are making and that are almost certainly ending up being used to kill and maim Palestinians, to destroy the infrastructure that supports Palestinian society and life, as what is in Australia’s interest, then what is it?
If so, then has the author taken into account the grants Labor is handing out hand over fist to these companies and the money being spent on secrecy into account? Has he taken into account the cost to ‘social cohesion’ complicity in genocide brings? both socially and financially.
Just how is debating whether Australia should be participating in the illegal war with Iran so bad that it would be harmful for the country?
Just what was in the proposed amendment to the draft motion regarding Labor’s stance on Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians that was so bad that the country was better off without debating it?
What Thommo so perfectly summarised!
If Australia constantly turns it back on Genocide by Zionist Israel backed by Fascist USA how can we ever intone the “Light on the Hill” in the future. I am ashamed to be an Australian a fifth generation whose father fought in the Middle East including Palestine. The ALP is behaving in a way ignoring the slaughter of children that puts my father’s service as a waste. I am so disgusted and revolted by this Govts support of Zionism and its vile tenants that this old lady will look elsewhere to the Left to place her vote.
Thanks Thommo. You speak for me.
It would have been better to have not had an ALP conference so as to have a non event in honesty, for the malnutrition of this political “feast” starves us of essential political nutrition. Murdoch’s mansion of media maggoty misfits, plus corrosive Trumpery has killed sense, resolve, awareness, thus honesty, conscience, duty. Let us speak up more, here. Perhaps Pauline Plop-Drop will yabber for us all. (chuck, heave)
Well said Allie.
This might be an appropriate place to invoke a little Caitlin Johnstone:
“Basically we’ve got two choices: we either aggressively denormalize Israel or we watch our society become more and more Israeli.
We either collectively reject Israel, or we watch western militaries fuse inseparably with the IDF.
We either turn support for Israel into political campaign poison, or we watch politicians obliterate our right to criticize Israel while backing increasingly evil Israeli military agendas.
We either ferociously oppose our government’s involvement in middle eastern wars, or we watch Israeli leaders grow more and more ecstatic as more and more western blood and treasure flows into the war machine.
We either normalize viewing Israel as a freakish abomination, or we sit passively watching authoritarian Zionist operations like Palantir get inseparably interwoven into every level of western power institutions.
We either stand together to oppose Israel for the racist apartheid state that it is, or we watch our Muslim neighbors suffer increasing discrimination and abuse at home while our governments help massacre our Muslim brothers and sisters using high-tech war machinery abroad.”
Labor are normalizing Israel’s behaviour, and somehow this article seeks to lionize that. It appears, Allie, that there are at least two little black ducks that aren’t going to take that lying down, cheers.
It would appear that this article mistakes the “Light on the Hill” for the glint of Benjamin Milekowski, aka Bibi Netanyahu’s, bared backside. In reality, Labor has already mistaken the “Light on the Hill” for a Woodside flare stack.
Where the Labor powerbrokers sought unity at the conference and where this article seeks cooperation, what is really being sought is compliance; compliance with a morally bankrupt and socially destructive position in support of normalizing Israel.
You can lionize Albanese and his band of conartists all you like, photoshop Albanese’s picture in amongst real Labor leaders, throw in a ‘be afraid of One Nation, be very afraid’ scare, plonk in a few graphs that show…………..whatever, and finish with a photo of our glorious leader in kind, empathic mode under a heading that was …………………….whatever that was, and it is still lipstick on a pig.
This Labor conference was still more evidence, if any was needed, that the rank and file are just there to hand out how-to-vote cards, and that Labor is run by a cabal of factional ‘lightweights’, to quote Keating, beholden to the Zionists and fossil fuel companies.
I am the son of a man who was Rupert Murdoch’s left hand man. He designed the look and feel of our first national broadsheet. As features editor and chief sub editor he was able to help. Paul Moline was a man who wanted to give people a hand up, not step on them. My eight years with him before his death at sea was the foundation of my life. I am my fathers son. I am grateful to have known him even for that short time. The light on the Hill applies not only to national goals but to a personal philosophy of being of service.
I met Denis yesterday while I was tidying my garage. He is a man of deep integrity and knowledge. I listened and then read his article. I know that the Light on the Hill is the path that will take Australia forward in a compassionate way that benefits not just us but our friends and neighbours in our region.
By looking across the planet to the north, there is another beacon of hope and deep understanding with the nordic countries.
If we combine this Light with what the Scandies have achieved since the 1930’s we too can make a difference.
Lastly one word… Urea
David Procrop, perhaps add this idea to your campaign with gass taxes, nordic achievement ant the way the planet is headed… we are in a cretaceous kind of climate… with our gas, the production of urea here will benefit all, here and around the world… perhaps we can catch up to where Australia might have been, as my father saw it, as the Light points to as the rest of the world worries about itself… let us let fear pass over and through us as the author of Dune Frank Herbert wrote.
Let us perhaps come from a position of love and compassion to guide us, not that of fear.
May the farce be with us to paraphrase a sentiment that resonates.
Thanks Matthew Moline:I appreciate your comments.
Also, I met a retired senior army officer from the war in Afghanistan from the war in Afghanistan who is an unapologic Left supporter. He has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorders from his commitment.
I hope to prepare a series of articles on how commitments to te US Global Alliance have compromised the political logic of leaders in Midde Powers like Australia from NZ to Germany and Japan.
The retired officer has contempt for stay at home patriots who send enthusiasic yunger Australians off to unwinnable wars with the support of journalists and feature writers from News Corp through the Weekend Australian.
Despite the appeal of President Obama, his administration also fostered the troop surge in Afghanistan which ended in failure.