ALP Boss: It Was WorkChoices What Won It

ALP National campaign director Tim Gartrell's rather illuminating address to the National Press Club this week was remarkable for both what he said and what was illustrated by what he omitted. It wasn't a searingly frank assessment of the ALP campaign and I doubt anyone expected such from this 'disciplined' electoral machine. But he did mention, and go on to re-mention nine times, the WorkChoices laws. It was obviously central to the defeat of the Howard government, ranking above any other policy area he mentioned. It was the only distinct area of policy he identified apart from Interest Rates. The general thrust of his analysis is best summed up when he said "WorkChoices were attracting very large numbers of voters in the 45-65 age band who had previously voted for the Coalition", and "Labor’s messages about WorkChoices and industrial relations and ending the blame game in health crossed all demographic boundaries", or "Labor won seats with a high proportions of labourers - seats like Blair, Braddon, Flynn, Page and Wakefield but also in seats with high proportions of blue collar workers, including technicians and trades people, machinery operators and drivers". And why?

They were under financial pressure. They were worried about WorkChoices. They were worried about their kids’ future.

He also explodes another myth that can best be described as "what economic boom?"

What the Government didn’t understand was what Kevin Rudd knew – that people are doing it tough; particularly in outer-metropolitan and regional areas where our feedback was that family finances were tightening significantly.

This is where Gartrell's analysis gets interesting. Was it the ALP that led the community opposition to WorkChoices? Did the ALP run a two-year marginal seat campaign highlighting the impact of workchoices? Did the ALP create the groundswell of unease out there in the community that shifted votes? Of course not. That role was played by the community driven Your Rights At Work campaign, which Tim forgot to mention. He did mention that the ALP committed to getting rid of WorkChoices - except for unfair dismissal laws, prohibited content, comprehensive awards, union right of entry, etc. etc. I don't think Tim is an ostrich in the sense that so many of the media from another planet are. I think he knows damn well where and how that election was won, and it certainly wasn't from Centenary House. As he mentions in his concluding statements, this election was won because the ALP stood on the shoulders of others. Those 'others' where the thousands of people in the community who organised around the Your Rights At Work Campaign. Tim did a good job of explaining the trees to us - he just couldn't see the forest.