*Pic: Counterpunch’s pic of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, HERE
In an article by Pete Hay, published in The Mercury (22nd March, 2016) the following is assumed, “There can be no democratic politics without the concept of the public interest. It is the bedrock from which democracy proceeds.”
The article further states, “Policy decisions that are not in the public interest are not legitimate. Even the extreme individualism of neo-liberalism … must have recourse to the concept of the public interest.”
This begs the question – are any major political parties in today’s modern Western world democratic and do they have consideration for public interest other than that of being consumers or burdens in respect to the maximisation of corporate profit?
Neo–Liberalism, I suggest, is not an ideology but a concept by Milton Friedman which was initially implemented at an opportune time by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher during the demise of socialism.
To follow the implementation of Neo-Liberalism in Australia, let us start during the early 1900’s when we had left behind the absolute rule of the monarchy and moved into an era of ideology. At that time the Labour movement was borne out of the Trade and Labour union movement.
In those early days during Labor Governments in Australia, because of a majority ideological consensus, the Public Interest would have been issues such as the basic wage, the 8 hour working day, a 40 hour working week and job safety.
The elected Labor Party was expected to administer and legislate according to its declared ideology – however the implementation of that ideology would have been strongly resisted by the conservative establishment.
In the 1900’s the Labor Party and the labour force were divided in their ideology, one had as its ideal to be on the road to world socialism whilst the other had a large Irish Catholic labour force and were told from the pulpit to oppose godless Communism.
This led to an upheaval for the Labor Party when in the early 1950’s the Catholic membership formed the Democratic Labor Party and split from the Labor Party.
The Democratic Labor Party was relatively short-lived and lost electoral support because of their opposition to the protest movement against Australian military participation in the Vietnam War against the Communist Vietcong. Consequently the party was dissolved in 1978.
Many of the politicians of the Democratic Labor Party still saw Communism as a threat and went over to the Conservative Liberal Party and few returned to the Labor Party.
Bob Santamaria had a formidable influence in the Democratic Labor Party.
He abhorred the use of the contraceptive pill for women which he perceived would lead to a broad cultural crisis, he also deplored homosexuality and was against women in the workforce, women’s liberation and he loathed dissident priests willing to deviate from the orthodox.
The ultra-conservative behavour of Tony Abbott can be understood and explained because of adulation in his early formative years of his extreme conservative hero Bob Santamaria.
The fact that he attained leadership and influence in an age of women’s liberation in a party which calls itself Liberal would have been beyond comprehension other than for the fact that his strong anti-Labor views would have been readily embraced by those wanting to implement the concept of Neo-Liberalism in Australia.
The curse of unionism to Neo-Liberalism had been effectively and brutally dealt with by the conservative heroin Margaret Thatcher in Britain and in time it was Australia’s turn.
Since the split in the Labor Party, over the years and with the help of Robert Menzies, Socialism and Unions have become swear words not to be uttered by nice people.
The upwardly mobile middle class did not want to be seen associated with Unions and the Union membership consequently dropped, which of course depleted the Labor Party’s financial base.
As time progressed and the experiment of world socialism failed, the Labor Party, to survive, had to try to represent a larger portion of the middle class.
The middle class had a different ideology[ they believed in the promise of upward mobility and the ‘trickle down’ process for social welfare.
After the election in March 1983, the Hawke-Keating Government changed the Labor Party’s ideology and adopted a Neo-Liberal agenda such as floating the dollar, reducing tariffs and the avoidance of increased taxes. Privatisation of government-owned enterprises was used to minimize budget expenditure and raise revenue.
On the 9th of November 1989 the Berlin wall came down and the Western world celebrated and embraced capitalism and globalisation.
Since the end of World War II Labor ideology and public interest therefore had changed and because of high inflation and to secure an age pension guarantee, the ACTU agreed to forgo wage increases and swapped them for compulsory employer Superannuation contributions which became part of the Accord.
Every worker had a share in a superfund now (women a bit less than men), which turned them all into avid stockmarket watchers and active proponents of Capitalism. Stock market reports from then on became regular news items watched by the new ‘would-be capitalist’.
Because of the lifting of tariff barriers many blue collar workers lost employment in the manufacturing industry.
Globalisation and the economy were now perceived to be the driving force over which individual nations had limited control.
The old guard, the blue collar workers now had nowhere to go; they now had a Labor Party devoid of a traditional Labor ideology without the ability to protect their jobs.
From now on to maintain productivity workers had to trade work conditions or efficiency improvements for wage increases in order to keep pace with inflation.
Union membership dropped sharply but strong unionism remained in some sections of the labour force such as the education and health sector.
We now have a Labor Party with the same obsession as the Neo-Liberal party, the economy, deficits and opinion polls – without leadership and without a vision for the future and devoid of past Labor values.
Both parties are now run by lawyers spawned by the middle class with little knowledge of the labourer’s long and hard struggle to get their offspring a university education. Their progeny, having studied hard to pass law, economics or business studies are now strong believers in meritocracy.
They now perceive that their education and status was achieved by individual effort alone.
As members of the Labor or Conservative party they now are juggling for prominent positions and vying for the same corporate funds needed to run their election campaigns by advertising experts and spin doctors.
We have a Labor Party without labour values, unrepresentative of the labour force and a Neo- Liberal party without Liberal values – the latter passing more and more laws restricting social Liberal values.
It’s now the corporate world which funds the political parties and determines what is the Public Interest.
Money has replaced ideology and governments, regardless of what they call themselves, Labor or Liberal; they serve the same corporate masters.
In Tasmania both Labor and Liberal have a history of serving their corporate masters … the logging industry.
What is happening in Lapoinya and its enforcing of the Workplace Act 2014 is not for financial gain but to enforce Neo-Liberal ideology and to ensure re-election.
As Harvey* (2005) indicates, “that policies inspired by neo-liberalism could be implemented under the auspice of autocrats as well as within liberal democracies … if the democratic process slows down neo-liberal reforms, threatens individual and commercial liberty, which it sometimes does, then democracy ought to be sidestepped and replaced by the rule of experts or legal instruments designed for that purpose.”
*Harvey, David (2005): A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Bob Lubout is a ‘climate refugee’ from Perth WA. He has been living in Penguin on the NW coast of Tasmania with his artist partner Sandra and their two dogs, Tessie and Winston since 2013. Bob’s work history includes owning his own TV/Electronic repair and maintenance business for many years and travelling all over the world servicing and installing analytical mining and industrial X-ray equipment. He went to Curtin University as a ‘mature age student’ where he gained a Bachelor of Education majoring in Sociology and Politics and then onto Murdoch University where he gained a Graduate Diploma of Science and Technology Policy. This led him to a career as a TAFE lecturer, teaching electronics, maths, science and aviation. Bob now enjoys spending his time researching and writing and flying around this beautiful part of the world in a small aircraft.
