Bid Bitar Bye-Bye!

Today's  Crikey says: "Bitar's reign of mayhem comes to an end too late for NSW and Fed Labor" 

Ain't that the truth.

Bye Bye Bitter Bitar (Source ALP website)

Today's SMH reports this: ''I am extremely optimistic about the Party's future and absolutely confident that the Government under Prime Minister Gillard will go from strength to strength in the coming months and be in a strong position for a decisive win at the next election,'' he said in a statement today." Read more here:


Now all we have to do is get rid of Mark Arbib. 

For that we will probably need the permission of his "controllers" over at Moonah Place, Yarralumla, ACT 2600. But history shows once he has outlived his usefulness, as a "protected source" he will be discarded.

Well, not all, but that's be a great start to bringing the Labor Party back to its true beliefs and principles and values.

Ben Chifley

"I try to think of the Labour movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. 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". Source: Chifley Research Centre


Well, that is unless we can dig up Ben Chifley - from his grave in Bathurst?

• "If an idea is worth fighting for, no matter the penalty, fight for the right, and truth and justice will prevail." 

That's my favourite quote from Ben Chifley.

ALP Blame Game has started - too late!

The knives are out for Karl Bitar and Mark Arbib - NSW-based Labor Party powerbrokers.

Karl Bitar - ALP National Secretary.

To me, as something of an outsider in the murky world of Labor Politics, all I can say is:

1. It isn't surprising
2. Its too late!

Mark Arbib
Senator and NSW "backroom boy".

These people have presided over a Labor Party machine which has selected candidates who either are "part of the club" - their own preferred factional allies; and they have also persuaded the leaders to only speak about things which are favourable to big business.

In that latter case, I give you the example of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. When Kevin Rudd abandoned his plan to address the "greatest moral challenge facing our generation" he lost all credibility with persons concerned about the environment.

What did Labor believe in?

1. Being soft on the Mining Industry.

Why?

1. Because of a string of Labor seats in Illawarra and the Hunter regions.

But the cost of not believing in anything is now being counted (and will be for several weeks). If the increased Green vote had stayed with Labor, they would not be in this position.

The Labor Party's "experts" - the guys who run the party's private polling, and feed that information to the Leadership, no longer believe in Ben Chifley's "light on the hill". The True Believers have long since left the building.

Morris Iemma, who was dumped because of back-room manoeuvering by Karl Bitar, is now calling for Bitar to resign. Hardly surprising.

Picture: Dean Marzolla Source: The Daily Telegraph

This is what the Daily Telegraph ( a truly awful paper, by the way) says today: "FORMER NSW Labor premier Morris Iemma publicly called for Labor's party boss Karl Bitar to be sacked following what he claimed was the most disastrous campaign in the party's history.

He also called for factional boss and powerbroker Senator Mark Arbib to be dumped, claiming the pair had effectively destroyed the Labor Party."
Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/election/morris-iemmas-call-for-karl-bitar-end/story-fn5zm695-1225908580928

Mr Iemma lost his position as NSW Premier because these two guys shifted their support away from him. So, in fairness, it ought be recorded that Iemma has some scores to settle with them both.

I do not.
I have been a Labor voter for many years, and I personally know a number of senior Labor Party people (as one tends to do if you have lived in Canberra most of of your life, as I have done).

I have been going on for ages about the loss of true Labor Party values.
Nobody has listened to me - naturally enough.

Will they listen to the voice of the Australian People?
That's doubtful.

The late edition of the Sydney Morning Herald has now (belatedly) joined in with the story.
"Calls for Bitar's head after 'inept' campaign"

Baleful influence of "NSW Right" on ALP

Bernard Keane in Crikey has hit the nail on the head today (in Crikey's Morning Election Update).
He says:

• "Getting rid of the baleful influence of NSW Labor on her campaign style might turn out to be a smart play by Gillard, but it’ll only be of any use if she goes all the way and removes the likes of Mark Arbib and Karl Bitar from the government’s policy process as well. That’s where the real damage has been done."

Dead right.
NSW at the State level is addicted to coal mining revenues.
The Union Movement in NSW is addicted to Coal Miners.
The NSW ALP is addicted to the belief that the coal miners keep the Newcastle and Hunter Valley seats in their "safe" hands.

Senator Mark Arbib -
"close adviser to the (former) Prime Minister (Rudd)
and his link to the New South Wales branch of the ALP.

Karl Bitar
National Secretary of the ALP

These backroom boys persuaded Kevin Rudd to abandon any serious response to Global Warming.
The rest is history.

• Rudd is history.
• Gillard will not touch Global Warming, as evidenced by her ridiculous proposal to randomly select 150 unqualified persons to advise the Government.
• It remains to be seen if the Labor Government is history.