Word: laborative
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...identification as an outsider, particularly when he stands a chance of becoming the supreme insider. Nevertheless, he has put himself on a course to fix modern politics, which he says is broken. The public distrusts politicians, he believes, and resents a political system that is wasteful and ineffective. Labor has pledged to improve the machinery of government through leadership: "It will require a government dedicated to advancing the public interest and committed to high standards of fairness, integrity, accountability and responsibility." He also advocates more "grass-roots democracy." Part of this comes from his town hall?style meetings, where issues...
...colleagues to modernize their ideas, arguing for reform in the public domain and working within traditonal political structures. He's rarely inspired headlines or been the front man for a social movement. Despite a talent for communicating, he's not the publicity-seeking type. Yet Tanner's influence on Labor, and the broader political agenda, is arguably more pronounced than Latham's. His mind appears more supple and open than his colleague's, reflecting a broader life experience and cultural knowledge. Quiet and serious, he doesn't do the "matey" thing. Yet as he moves around his inner-city electorate...
...education and communications policies that are now mainstream. He drew attention to the Murray-Darling river system and predicted that "Australians may soon be referring to the water issue in the same way we now talk about the environment or taxation." He pushed hard, and successfully, to reform Labor's internal structure. He highlighted growing social alienation and suggested approaches to community-building. When Latham spouted Third Way ideas, Tanner dissed them as empty pragmatism: "It is mere cocktail politics; pour two nips of market forces, throw in a few platitudes, add a dash of socialism and stir vigorously...
Last year, Tanner, the shadow minister for communications, revisited the topics of isolation and relationships in Crowded Lives, a small yet brave book that again graphs the way society is moving. On the strength of it, Latham asked Tanner to serve as spokesman for community relationships as well. Labor's mentoring proposals are only the first of what could be many Tanner-inspired measures. Tanner says non-material issues, such as relationships, leisure and community bonds will grow in prominence. "The old politics of electoral bribes and pandering to special interests will steadily decline as the dividend it delivers, already...
...winter's night in Melbourne in 1967 that John Deeble, a bright young academic answering a summons, met the head of the Australian Labor Party to discuss Deeble's pet topic. In the home of a Labor parliamentarian, Deeble was calm as he spoke on the notion of a universal health insurance system with the imposing Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam. "Why should I have been nervous?" Deeble, 73, says now. "I knew more about the subject than he did." Whitlam liked what he heard and asked Deeble and colleague Dick Scotton to put something in writing. Within a year their...