Some experience in the real world wouldn't hurtBy LEONARD COLQUHOUNAmid all the outpourings of self-loathing, dysphoria and Howardphobia, together with the now traditional diatribes denouncing those who voted 'unprogressively' as (a) hate-filled racists, (b) ignorant bogans, (c) selfish suburbanites, (d) lucre-loving consumerists, (e) hard-hearted xenophobes, or (f) all of the above, there's the lonely, plaintiff voice of a nine-term Labor MHR asking "What's wrong with my Party ?" Granted, it appeared in Murdoch's national broadsheet - pause for much of the readership of this website to indulge themselves in reflexive, Pavlovian gagging. In brief, Barry Cohen wants to know how the current Federal ALP caucus could comprise almost solely lawyers, public servants, Party apparatchiks, union officials* [with, he notes, very soft hands], state MPs and their staff, and teachers [And for how many semesters did these 'teachers' work in actual classrooms with live students ?]. What's happened, he wants to know, to the accountants, chemists, clerks, company executives, doctors, ministers of religion, policeman, farmers, retailers and tradesmen who made up the bulk of the 1969-72 ALP caucus. Everyone who writes to, and reads, this website should be asking the same question, especially the whiners, the sore losers, the self-appointed moral high-grounders, particularly those who sneer at ordinary voters like accountants, chemists, clerks, company executives, doctors, ministers of religion, policemen, farmers, retailers and tradesmen. Cohen ruefully remarks that "thanks to the factional control of pre-selection and the take-over of many branches by a middle class elite, the elected representatives are coming from a very limited field of experience". A decent man who fully deserved his title of "honourable", Cohen is too kind to mention that much, if not most, of the "middle class elite" are cheer-leaders for lobbyists whose main political aim seems to be the acquisition of taxpayer funded goodies for their moralistic hobby-horses, which, of course, the non-elites are too obtuse to appreciate, and would have to be socially engineered to accept. Sadly, he remarks, fellow Party members seemed surprised at his concern that most of their careers had been on the public tit. His conclusion should be taken to heart and acted on: "Some experience in the real world wouldn't hurt". The Australian, "What's wrong with my party", Thurs 21 Oct 04. * which raises another point for the TT readership's consideration: if becoming a union official is reduced to being just another rung on the ladder of opportunity to ALP apparatchikhood, cui bono ? Not likely to be the rank & file, is it ? At my last VIEU Council meeting in Dec 02, Greg Combet actually acknowledged that the movement in general had lost focus and taken its eyes, both collectively and individually, off the ball.
Leonard Colquhoun, of Invermay 7248, is a retired teacher [but not an 'ex-teacher', as they tend to
end up as EduCentral parasites burdening real teachers with make-work or as ideological drongos
helping to lose elections for the ALP] whose classroom experience spanned four decades
at primary, middle secondary and HSC levels in SE Australia and in PNG
[where he added the words puk-puk and pek-pek to his foreign language vocabulary].
His teaching subjects were English, histories [Greek & Roman, Asian and Modern],
Latin and pre-metric technical drawing, which gave him deeper insight into the saying
"five-eighths of eleven-sixty-fourths of FA". A member of the relevant unions for 30 years,
in his last workplace he was branch organiser for VIEU.
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Friday, October 22, 2004 |