Word: laborative
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When it seemed Labor had no one else to turn to, Latham positioned himself as a serious - albeit risky - option. As the last, best hope since the party lost government in March 1996, he has been indulged by his colleagues in an election year. So much so, in fact, that the factions that traditionally provide the ideological dynamite for Labor's creative self-destruction have taken a pause: it's the Mark Latham show. As a political act that veers from somber to slapstick, earthy to edgy, the new leader could fill all the channels on a satellite television network...
...Lorraine Latham's four children. In one respect, there's no mystery to the man. He's simply the first of the post-baby boom generation to get this close to Australia's top job. He hit his teens as Countdown began defining youth culture, as Gough Whitlam's Labor project was on the skids and as Kerry Packer busted apart the cricket and media establishments. Next came university - a two-hour commute - and, after hours, the throbbing, beery era of Sydney's pub rock: Midnight Oil, INXS, the Angels, the Radiators. Latham and his cohorts first faced...
...inner Sydney to one of the nation's major experiments in public housing - the Green Valley estate on the city's southwestern fringe. The area was settled before basic services - sewerage, hospitals, child care, transport and leisure facilities - were established. The self-proclaimed champion of the urban sprawl was Labor leader Whitlam, federal member for Werriwa (1952-78). He put suburban issues into the mainstream of politics. "I was always interested in why Green Valley didn't have the sort of facilities that other parts of Sydney took for granted," Latham told biographer Craig McGregor. "What is it that causes...
...Latham also sees himself as a messiah. A person who joined the Labor Party on the same night as Latham in 1979 recalls the teenager boasting how he would be prime minister one day. Latham has spent his entire adult life making his way up from the grass roots: working as an aide to the retired Whitlam, then in the office of New South Wales Labor Opposition leader Bob Carr (now Premier), as a Liverpool City councillor and, since 1994, as the local M.P. for Werriwa. He's diligent, serious and bookish - and a seeker of political tutors. His Labor...
...side; it can be a turn-off to women, in particular. Latham's exuberance, enthusiasm and passion for the cause can run off the rails. He's tribal, never backs away from a fight and, as he has said, when it comes to the conservatives, "I'm a hater." Labor's schools policy takes from the rich and gives to the poor; it's called needs-based funding, but it's also dripping with two-fingered social envy...