In 2006, when Kevin Rudd deposed Kim Beazley as Labor and Opposition Leader and Julia Gillard became his Deputy, I wrote an effusive email to them both. Looking back, I'm no longer sure how much of the enthusiasm was due to the prospect of John Howard finally being exited from politics.
The duo represented the strongest Labor contention in years, but also seemed to signal a way out of the wilderness. Many of the policies they undertook reinforced this sense of change. Rudd delivered the Apology to the Stolen Generations, signed the Kyoto Protocol, abolished Temporary Protection Visas, closed offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, repealed WorkChoices and began developing a climate change policy that sought to place Australia on the frontline.
I finally let myself consider applying for Australian citizenship — by then I had been eligible for six years and been living in Melbourne for eight. Here finally was a government that seemed to speak to my concerns. Here was a party that seemed to represent our better national aspirations.
In this context, you might get a sense of how despondent I've become over its current directions.
In his Wran Lecture last Thursday, former Labor senator John Faulkner was right in his assessment that Labor has come a long way from the party that attracted 'progressive, socially aware activists passionate about social and economic reform'. As a government, it has 'lost its way', to borrow — with great irony — Gillard's justification for unseating Rudd as Prime Minister.
This month marks a year since she wrested leadership from Rudd. She explained at the time that her decision was based on her view that it was the only way to get the government 'back on track'.
Yet one would be forgiven for thinking not much has really changed. In fact there has been severe regression, particularly with an immigration policy that is considered by refugee advocates to be worse than the Pacific Solution. Labor underestimates the disillusion that it has engendered in this area.
In his diagnosis of the overall malaise, Faulkner notes that the party has 'become so reliant on focus groups that it listens more to those who do not belong to it than to those who do'. I would add that it has alienated