The end of the age of reform

Abstract

[Extract] Through 2011 and 2012 the Australian Labor Party has slouched its way towards electoral oblivion. The lack of legitimacy of its leader, Julia Gillard, is a factor in this lemming-like stagger to the abyss. She was elected on a lie, and the voters have never forgiven her. "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead" were eleven of the most toxic words any Australian political leader has ever uttered.

Gillard's political judgment in office has proved to be just as suspect. Her original fib turned into a government of feint, sham and pretence. The downward spiral that began with her brazen reneging on the election promise not to introduce a tax on carbon dioxide reached its nadir with her indecorous embrace of various pungent members of parliament. Yet for all that, the two Labor leaders who preceded her were no less dysfunctional. For the ALP to have suffered one hopeless leader was bad luck; but three in a row was a pattern. It suggested something deeper at work.