From the SMH:
Polling conducted exclusively for Fairfax Media found Mr Albanese leads Mr Shorten 58-42 as preferred Labor leader among voters in Victoria and NSW.
Even in Mr Shorten’s home state of Victoria, Mr Albanese is seen as a better leader and a better manager of the economy, the Fairfax ReachTel poll of 1800 people conducted on Tuesday found. In NSW, Mr Albanese holds a commanding lead of 61-39 over Mr Shorten.
Among those who identified as Labor voters, Mr Albanese dominated in NSW but ALP supporters in Victoria backed Mr Shorten.If the response of Labor voters is mirrored by rank-and-file members when they cast their ballots by Friday, the direct election experiment, to be announced on Sunday, could result in a cliffhanger. Mr Shorten is tipped to prevail thanks to the backing of the dominant Right faction in caucus.
Labor MPs will gather in Canberra on Thursday and are expected to look past evidence of Mr Albanese’s wider electoral appeal.The Right outnumbers the Left 48-38 in the new caucus but some on the Right believe Mr Shorten will attract 50 to 52 votes. Both camps were hitting the phones on Wednesday to lock in supporters on both sides of the divide.
The “Right” faction in Labor is inappropriately named. It is controlled by a clique of narrow union interests. I’m no reflexive union-basher, either. I believe that unions are a crucial part of a healthy economy, ensuring that a fair share of profits goes to labour, preventing the kind hollowing out of middle classes we’ve seen in other Western nations. But putting unions in charge of the party is not a good idea.
The Labor Party is always going to occupy the “labor” territory in Australia’s political economy anyway. Yet with unions in control it struggles to occupy the essential centrist territory of governing for small businesses and entrepeneurs that the Liberal Party by definition ignores owing to its deregualtion agenda and increasingly simplistic attachment to oligopoly business.
The Labor Party works best when it’s economically liberal components lead and are in tension with its union base. The Keating/Kelty days are an example.
Most folks don’t even think in these terms but there are direct and more simple implications for it. Shorten is the same union “hollow man” that’s just stabbed two Prime Minister’s in the back. His rap is that of the union number cruncher and the public is seeing him be rewarded for it. It’s obvious political vacuity .
The new Government is in power because Labor couldn’t present a untied front around sensible centrist economics. The Abbott Government has made a poor start to its rule across the board and has enjoyed the shortest honeymoon period in living memory. It is weak.
Aiming up at it with the same guy that put it in power is quite a twist.
