For those of you who think we should just accept others know best about whats best for the ALP PLEASE READ. Michaelean ODonnell wrote this Im a 19 year old member of the Macedon Ranges Branch of the ALP. I joined the party with my Dad at the age of 16 because I believed that Labor governments could improve peoples lives. I still believe that, but Ive grown rapidly more circumspect about the degree of integrity with which the party operates and the competency of the governments that the current system generates. Over the last few months Ive participated in my first ALP pre-selection. Its been an incredibly frustrating and disillusioning process for me, and I believe many of you, my fellow travelers. Ive come to the view that if those who control the party continue to behave as theyve done over the last couple of weeks that the Australian Labor Party has no future as a force for good in this country. But this is not a resignation letter, quite the opposite. I think the partys changing and will continue to change for the better. But as we on the progressive side of politics ought to know only too well those who hold positions of power and privilege are loath to relinquish it, no matter how worthy the principle. Progress can only be achieved by the determined agitation of committed reformers. It is in this spirit that I intend to put a motion to my local branch asking the Victorian Administrative Committee to disendorse Mary-Anne Thomas as the ALPs candidate for the seat of Macedon in the 2014 state election. I move this motion without personal malice towards Ms. Thomas. Nor do I move this motion because my preferred candidate didnt win. I personally have nothing to gain, and a lot to lose in my relationships with other branch members. Finally Im no factional operator, while notionally of the left, its a position Ive been forced into by a bipolar system that I detest. I move this motion because I believe deeply in democracy. I believe in democracy because I believe that all people have the right to be respected. Their views, their opinions, their intelligence and their decisions deserve respect.The ALP exists to give ordinary people the opportunity to participate in the shaping and control of the institutions and relationships which determine their lives. To win less than one fifth of the two candidate preferred vote and be declared the winner by a distant and opaque party committee might qualify as democratic in China, but in the modern ALP it qualifies as something between an embarrassment and a really nasty joke. In short its a decision that flies in the face of the ALPs founding principles, a decision that needs to be reversed. In time I hope that the system that generated this debacle can be overhauled. For the time being Id urge all whod like to see this party continue to fight and win in the decades to come to help ameliorate a rotten systems worst excesses
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 23:31:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015