Thu, 24 Jun 2004

The ALP has lost the plot

When Mark Latham took over the helm of the ALP, I was cautiously optimistic about the direction it might take; and almost anything seemed better than the two drones that he succeeded. But the past few days have seen two really woeful policy decisions—the support for the government’s plan to bump up the price of PBS medicines by 30 per cent; and now support for the so-called free trade agreement with the USA.

For ever so long, the ALP has stated that increases in medicine costs would hurt those least able to pay; that was true then and it’s still true today. There’s just no excuse for this. All the bleating about what they’ll be able to do with all the lovely money these savings will provide to future budgets is beside the point. They are supposed to be concerned about the poor and the weak, and now they seem to be happy to trample on them.

As for the free trade agreement—apparently a consequence of Johnny’s little suck up to the Americans over Iraq—just don’t get me started on this one now …

Anyway, to put this into clear terms, my intention had been to give Latham time to show his colours before deciding whether to turn away from the ALP at the next elections. As far as I can see, there’s no need to wait any longer. The ALP, for the first time ever, can expect not to get my vote at the next elections.

Posted at: 14:38

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