Gillard lets Whitlam down

Racism Labor’s unifying thread. Julia Gillard’s approach to asylum seekers reminds us of one thing: for most of its history a consistent thread in Labor Party policy was a fear of coloured migrants.  The inherent racism of the ordinary working classes was papered over from the late 1960s by a Labor Party leader of moral strength but Gough Whitlam’s leadership is being swept aside today by Julia Gillard. The new federal Labor Leader has chosen to pander to ugly racism with its modern touch of anti-Muslim feeling rather than fight it.

Too clever by half. The so-called smart Labor machine men (few if any apart from the PM herself are women) believe that they have out smarted the Coalition by coming up with their East Timor solution. Well my guess is that the biggest beneficiary of this amazing about turn by Labor will be the Greens and that Bob Brown will find himself not only leading a group with the balance of power in the Senate but with a substantial representation in the House of Representatives as well.

Today’s announcement by Ms Gillard will certainly split the Labor Party in a most unedifying way. It gives new understanding to Kevin Rudd’s cryptic remarks on the eve of his dumping about refusing to move to the right on the question of boat people. A week ago I would have thought a comeback by Rudd to a position of power and influence was impossible. Now he has the opportunity to re-emerge — this time as a successor to those who fought the good fight back in the 1960s to ignore the racism of so many of Labor’s voters.

Striking a hard bargain. Presumably the Government of East Timor will drive a hard bargain for any help it gives to an unprincipled Australian Government trying to solve its own problems with re-election. Along with a considerable bundle of money we can expect that the Timorese will succeed in getting the planned processing of gas on an offshore platform abandoned with the facility being moved to their country.

Success so far for pragmatism. Up until now the Labor coup leaders would be quite happy with their handiwork. By having the retention of power as their sole motivation they are getting rid of the negatives at a rapid rate. The Crikey Election Indicator this morning had Labor improving to a 76% probability of retaining office after being down in the low 60s towards the end of the Rudd reign.

When it comes to interest rates this afternoon, the Crikey Indicator suggests there is little chance of an increase: