Judith Brett The Monthy: The Nationl Reviewed. Not online (buy it; it’s a brilliant analysis!)
It is true that federal Labor has much better environmental credentials than the federal Coalition, and that the environment went backwards under Howard, both in fact and as a political value. Kevin Rudd seems to be holding the line on the introduction of a carbon-trading scheme in 2010, while the Coalition persists with economy-versus-environment rhetoric, arguing that the global financial crisis means we can’t afford it. But at the state level, Labor’s penchant for corporatism and its links with the union movement are serious impediments. Think about the unholy trinity of Gunns, the Lennon government and the CFMEU, and their united determination to build a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, despite the damage it would do to Tasmania’s small, wine, food and tourism businesses.
The Labor Party is a creature of the industrial revolution, born to fight for the rights and wellbeing of the industrial working class. It did a great deal to convince governments to create the welfare state as a risk manager of the life chances of those with little capital. But it is ill-suited to thinking flexibly and creatively about how to live in a dry, post-carbon future, particularly while wedded to a union movement that, as we have learnt from the timber industry, will fight to protect the jobs of workers, no matter what the environmental cost, has little interest in small producers. The state Labor governments have shown that in managing the biggest risk we all face, the ALP has no claims to be our best bet.
So here is some advice for the Liberals …
Read more, COMMENT HERE
