NEWS
Retired City Councillor and Australian Labor Party stalwart David Hinchliffe predicts the recent state and local election “tsanamis” that washed away dozens of sitting members will soon be matched by a federal “tornado”.
The popular pollie who was a city councillor for almost a quarter of a century says his party faces a decade in the wilderness at all levels of government and needs “radical surgery” and would not recover until “old buggers get out of the way”.
And he slammed his party’s propensity to put spin, deals and tricks before policies that connected with people.
Hinchliffe, 57, retired as Central Ward councillor at the recent municipal poll in which LNP candidate Vicki Howard claimed his ward with an 8 per cent swing.
As he and his staff cleaned out the council ward office off the Chinatown Mall earlier this week, Mr Hinchliffe said: “It seems that no matter how battered and bruised the Labor Party is at elections locally, in Queensland and around Australia, most Labor power brokers still don’t get it. If they thought the state and the recent Brisbane election were electoral tsunamis, wait until the federal election tornado .
“Labor has at least 10 years of wilderness ahead of it and we should not spend that time trying to ‘spin’ excuses. People are sick to death of spin and deals and tricks. The Labor Party needs radical surgery and not cosmetic surgery . We should hand the party back to the few members who are left and open up its doors to the 30 per cent of people in Queensland who still, god love them, vote Labor .
Mr Hinchliffe said the reform process should begin by embracing the central principle of a Fair Go on which the Labor Party was founded 120 years ago.
“But it should do that in a modern 21st century way. We should widen the base of the party beyond trade unions, give supporters who aren’t members of the party a say in selecting candidates, give elected Labor members the right to conscience votes on issues affecting their electorates, adopt policies and stick to them, renounce tricks like putting Peter Slipper into the Speakership and re-build brick by brick.
“There are still thousands who want to vote for a strong second party that stands for a fair go but that will only happen if Labor reforms.
“Sometimes, it is better to lose an election and re-build than cling on with desperate deals and tawdry tricks only to be comprehensively wiped out at the next election. We’d have been better off if Anna had actually lost the election before the last one and if the federal independents had opted for Abbott. A dose of Springborg in Queensland and Abbott in Canberra would have left us in better shape to face the future.”
Mr Hinchliffe said Labor must widen its member base, give supporters a say in selecting candidates, adopt policies that connected with real people and communities and supported elected members standing up to their party when appropriate. It should belong to people who support its principles and not to a few old men who use it to bolster their flagging egos.
“Lest anyone think I plan some reincarnation within the Labor Party, I want to make it clear I have no role in this Party whose history I love but whose future I despair about. There are many good women and men who can do this job, but they won’t get the chance until the old buggers get out of the way.”
