Yesterday Carmen Lawrence announced that she would be running for the ALP presidency. I am of the view that her election would be counterproductive for the party.
Lawrence resigned her position in shadow cabinet primarily over the question of refugees, and the loss of what she describes as the ‘values’ of the ALP. The use of the term values is extremely vague, especially given the wide berth of value judgements that Lawrence has made in her political career, starting with political scandals when she was premier and her premiership of Western Australia. I even have a memory of Lawrence once describing herself as an economic rationalist (without irony). I will discard any discussion of values in this particular conversation, since it borders on the meaningless.
More importantly are Lawrence’s views on the detention of illegal immigrants. She made this a central part of her political platform. In the lead up to the next election we can be sure that Howard will be using the illegal immigration to strengthen his support in rural and suburban communities. In combination with the issue of terrorism he will be a formidable foe for social democracy in Australia. Carmen Lawrence as president will be a bonus for the prime minister.
Lawrence belongs to that group in the ALP who one could call social liberal. In other words she has a policy and philosophical commitment to economic liberalism (which allocates primacy to the free market) and a tolerant and integrative approach to social policy.
At first glance, many in the ALP would find little to disagree with social liberalism. The difficulty is that you cannot simply draw a distinction between your economics and politics. Economic liberalism creates political consequences: widening inequality; insecurity in employments; longer working hours; cutbacks in social services; decaying social infrastructure. The polity is not entirely ignorant and stupefied. They become irritated at politicians who cry injustice for illegal immigrants while supporting policies that have multiplied the burdens and anxieties in their lives.
A Lawrence presidency will simply confirm the polities justified suspicion that the ALP has little more concern for working people and too much concern for marginalised groups. I have argued in the past that no party that aspires to political power can focus its policy interests on marginalised groups (Aboriginal people; illegal immigrants; the long term unemployed). To do so is to invite electoral disaster. The primary focus must be on working people (i.e. those engaged with the labour market) and the party must first address their concerns. Making the defence of illegal immigrants the issue that divides the ALP from the Coalition is very stupid politics.
It is a pity that the ALP has presented Barry Jones as the only other alternative. A Jones presidency will at least be a nothing presidency, that is, if the past president has learned from the thumping lesson administered by Peter Costello over ‘noodle nation’. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when Jones and Lawrence are the front-runners.
The federal ALP could probably make the federal presidency an excellent propaganda and educational tool. It would mean choosing the right candidate who can inspire broad support among working people. Unfortunately it still remains some kind of factional booby prize.
3:42:24 PM 
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