Shane Malone - Eureka Street

appointment he wanted to attend-just to make sure
everything went smoothly. Long before Keating became
Prime Minister he was described by Kim Beazley
as 'the best family man in politics'. Labor would have
benefited significantly if more of Paul Keating had
got through to the voters in ways that did not threaten
his commendable protectiveness of his family.
Keating will have an exalted place in Labor
history. If the voters were determined to deliver a
retrospective rebuke whatever his government did
after 1993, there was certain! y no sense, from a Labor
perspective, in shunning reform and being excessively
cautious. Far better to extend the political parameters
on issues like the republic and Aboriginal
reconciliation.
M OREOVER, WHAT KEATING PREVENTED was as
important as what he did. By winning in 1993 he
prevented a comprehensive national slash-and-burn
operation. 'Fightback' was about much
more than the GST. Now, three years
later, the coalition has won by doing
their utmost to blur the policy differences
and pledging not to touch so many
of the things that would have been
demolished if 'Fightback' had been implemented.
The upshot, as Keating claimed on
election night, is that Labor has won the
social agenda on issues like Medicare,
the environment and the various
programs that make up the welfare safety
net. That is a notable achievement.
But this analysis-as sceptics of the
incoming government 's credibility
would caution-presumes that the
Howard Government will adhere to its
campaign undertakings. Has the new
Prime Minister really become a moderate
and put his 1980s-ideologue phase
behind him Will he be able to control
colleagues who are not at all m oderate
How competent will the new governm ent be when
its depth is questionable, and only Howard himself
and two colleagues have ministerial experience
While we wait for the future to determine the
answers to such questions, Federal Director of the
Liberal Party Andrew Robb has been defending some
aspects of the coalition's campaign. It was 'not well
recognised', he claimed, that the coalition had put out
no fewer than 61 policies before the election. Odd,
isn't it, that these initiatives, kept from the people
until the last minute, were not properly recognised.
Further, Andrew Robb contends that the election victory
was largely based on distinctive policies, and that
Labor is now in deep trouble.
Surely a more compelling conclusion is that the
m ood of the electorate ensured that Labor would probably
lose-however the Keating government
performed after 1993-if the coalition could position
itself as closely as possible to Labor and could at last
manage a competent campaign.
As for the ALP, the party is obviously bruised,
but claims that its future is questionable are hardly
convincing when it has just completed its most successful
era in federal politics by far, when it has won
five of the last six elections, and when the Keating
government is likely to be increasingly acknowledged
as a good government.
A period of review and reassessment is inevitable
and appropriate. (This appraisal will presumably
evaluate whether there was a Whitlamesque emphasis
on the delivery of reform without enough attention
to explaining the benefits.) The adjustment to
opposition and the climb back from there to government
will not be easy, even though there is a substantial
record of achievements between 1983 and
1996. The knowledge that every incoming government
since 1931-whether coalition or Labor-has
been given at least two terms by the voters is hardly
encouraging for the ALP.
However, as Bob McMullan pointed out on election
night, Labor bounced back from a more devastating
defeat in 19 77 to come very close at the
following election, and the electorate has become
much more volatile since then. There is still plenty
of em erging talent in Labor's parliamentary ranks­
Lindsay Tanner, Stephen Smith and Jenny Macklin
are three among many. The historical parallels
connecting 1949 to 1996 are likely to involve only
the period leading up to the 1949 election, not the
decades of coalition dominance that followed it. •
Ross McMullin is the author of The Light on the Hill:
The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991.
View from the flat:
electoral posters
and other
advertising
from the 1993
election Keating
won against
the odds.
Photograph:
Andrew Starl<
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