Nick Greiner's way forward for the Liberal party

eCouncillor attended the dinner celebrating the 20th anniversary of the election of the Greiner government last Friday night and witnessed the former premier deliver a magnificent and historical speech on the state of the Liberal party today and the way forward. Part of that speech published in the SMH on Saturday is reproduced below. I fully support Nick's thesis that the nature of politics in the community has permanently changed. It has been emerging for two decades that the community no longer identifies with the great ideological struggles of left versus right. A giant middle ground of Australians now seek a synthesis of ideas, aspirations and understanding from political parties - and the Liberal party with its traditional base of conservatives and liberals is in a position to meet that new era politics - if it reforms around Australia.

Time to stir up the wooden spoon state

Nick GreinerMarch 15, 2008

NSW is a national laughing stock. In the 1980s it was corruption that made NSW a laughing stock. This decade the state is a national laughing stock for everything. NSW is in the political and bureaucratic wilderness in terms of talent. The state deserves a wooden spoon for, among other things, economic performance, infrastructure, health and planning.

If the Liberals are to win government at the next NSW election, the changes must start at home. We need to change the dysfunctional organisational structure of the party as a first step to changing behaviour, to enable the kind of positive decisions that win elections. We must become a genuine broad church able to take the middle ground of politics.
There is some denial regarding the performance of the Liberals in NSW. The party has faced a Labor Government that has gone from fair, to poor, to simply hopeless - the worst ever. The Government has failed on integrity and effectiveness. Despite this incompetence, the Liberals have won just two seats from Labor in 17 years. We have dismally failed the test described by Bob Hawke: if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the state.

We will not deserve, nor receive, electoral support if we are not able to demonstrate that we are a party of balance and moderation, interested in the public interest, not sectional interests.
I commend efforts of the state leader, Barry O'Farrell, and the state president, Geoff Selig, to move decisively to an inclusive way forward. The Liberal Party should be the natural home for both social conservatives and progressives. This is not the United States. A narrow focus on wedge issues is no basis for success, especially sustained success.

We must review our relevance to today's community. We must consider explicitly the appeal of our message to young people and people from a non-English-speaking background. We must re-establish our links with both.

As our society becomes "more single, more childless, more secular, more non-white, more immigrant", as David Frum wrote of the US in his book Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, we must not allow our opponents to be the natural beneficiaries.

Rudd's capacity to effectively maintain all Labor's traditional constituencies while broadening his appeal to the Howard base is a textbook example of politics in the 21st century.
Of course we should argue for distinctive Liberal positions such as flexible labour markets, privatisation, tax reform and so on.

We need to retain our traditional strengths in economic management, state development, security and family values. But let us move with the centre of the body politic on the softer issues, not insult that centre by denying the relevance of its warm and green concerns. Compassion and concern for the planet are fundamental aspects of the national psyche. We must acknowledge the power of symbolism and emotion. There is nothing in Liberalism, in competition, in self-reliance that is inconsistent with innovative and effective Liberal ideas on the environment and on the wellbeing of the less fortunate in society.

The future lies in coalition building, not going it alone. We must learn to work better with independents and minor parties across the political spectrum. Around Australia we are being outplayed by the ALP in this crucial space. There is much fertile ground in universities, business, industry associations and community groups for us to engage - our focus should be out into the community, not inwards on ourselves.

As for the question of factions, the problem for the NSW Liberals is not the presence of factions but our inability to manage them in the cause of the party's overall success. Our key problem is that the winning faction takes all. Whichever side has the ascendancy takes all the positions and endeavours to assert all the influence as opposed to sharing between the factions.

It is easy to believe that a drover's dog would beat Labor in 2011. That would be foolish. NSW Labor on its merits deserved to lose in 2003 and to be annihilated in 2007 - neither happened and we are to blame.

The old truism about how "governments lose, oppositions don't win" no longer applies. The evidence of successive wins by incompetent failed governments in Queensland and NSW in particular is the proof. Making the case for change is obviously crucial. Demonstrating our own capacity to be trusted is equally so.

Let us not be frightened of change, of vision, of new directions. Equally, let us not be afraid to agree with Labor when it gets it right. NSW Labor has no capacity to govern, no ability to govern. It simply wants to be in government and enjoy the spoils of office. We must be more than a pale shadow, more than just "not Labor".

Finally, we must be ready to be competent managers of the bureaucracy and "pro-good government". To quote Newt Gingrich, we cannot win over time as the permanently angry anti-government party because it does not appeal to most voters.

When we last won government from Labor 20 years ago, we faced a government reflecting its age and loss of talent. But equally, we were a united Coalition with stable, well-established leadership appealing to a broad cross-section of the community, with a clear focus on winning and a clear set of directions. People knew in a general sense what sort of government they were getting and its key aspirations for reform, or to use our slogan, "change for the better".
The Coalition has a wonderful opportunity to win in 2011, to learn from both the successes and failures of the Greiner and Fahey governments, to acknowledge the reasons for the dismal efforts of the last three election cycles and carve out a new relevant coalition for good government for all the people of NSW.

Nick Greiner was the Liberal premier of NSW from 1988 to 1992. This is an adaption of a speech delivered last night at a dinner to mark the 20-year anniversary of his government.

Labor V Labor: Left V Left

More heat from the hard Left over Town Hall spoils. Today's SMH...

Candidates step up for city's top job

Wendy Frew Urban Affairs EditorMarch 13, 2008
THE former NSW upper house president Meredith Burgmann's tilt at Town Hall's top job has met its first hurdle, with her Labor Party colleague and former mayor of South Sydney Tony Pooley also considering running for lord mayor of Sydney. The two ALP members, who between them have years of state and local government experience, are both courting preselection support before Labor's NSW conference on the first weekend in May, to challenge the incumbent, Clover Moore.
"I am very seriously considering putting my hat in the ring for the mayor's job," said
Cr Pooley, who is the City of Sydney's Deputy Mayor. He said his focus had been squarely on the local area for many years compared with Dr Burgmann's statewide view. Both played down potential damage to their campaigns by the Wollongong
council scandal and the problem-plagued State Government.
Dr Burgmann said she was probably the least likely person to be tainted by developer donations because of her long history of opposing inappropriate development in parts of the city, such as Kings Cross.
"My early political activity was all about opposing development in the Cross, I was involved in the Green Bans … I have been the person in the party fighting against [developer donations]," she said, adding that she would not accept developer donations that were funnelled to her campaign from Labor's head office.
In 2006-07, the NSW branch of the Labor Party accepted $8 million in donations and nearly $3 million of that was from developers and hoteliers, said the Sydney councillor and Greens member Chris Harris, who will also run for the mayor's job.
"Therefore, accepting money from Labor headquarters would put Ms Burgmann in a position where she is accepting developer donations and inducements from the hotel industry, something that she says that she abhors," he said.
"If Ms Burgmann was successful in her campaign for the lord mayoral role, corporate donors would be beating a path to her door expecting the kind of access that only money can buy. We have seen this from what happened in Wollongong."
Cr Pooley said he had never accepted development donations in the two campaigns he had been involved in but acknowledged the ALP state campaign accepted donations from developers.
"You have to raise money so let's understand what we recognise as donations … less is better," he said.
"Should I run, should I be selected as a candidate, it will be a grassroots campaign."
The ALP councillors Michael Lee and Verity Firth (Ms Firth is also the state's Environment Minister) are not expected to stand again. Cr Moore, who now heads a registered political party of independents, will run for the mayor's job again in September, as will Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard.
In 2004, 14 people put their hands up for Town Hall's top job. So far this year there are six contenders, including the former Sydney Theatre Company and Australia Council chief Michael Lynch. Mr Lynch masterminded the revitalisation of Southbank Centre, one of London's top art and music venues. His 10-point plan for Sydney included increasing the lord mayor's patch to include areas such as Bondi, and giving the council more control over public and private transport.

September elections Heating Up on the Left

The September 13Council elections are starting to warm up as the various political parties test their candidates. Over on the extreme left Meredith Bergmann the extreme left wing ALP trade union backed retired MLC has set her ambitions on Town Hall and unseating equally left wing Clover Moore. Moore confirming today that she is recontesting the Lord Mayoralty for her registered 'Independent' political party. That leaves plenty of space for mainstream centrist candidates and Councillor tickets seeking some balance at Town Hall.

From today's Australian and check out ABC702 this morning.

Sydney's battle of female warriors

Imre
Salusinszky, NSW political reporter March 12, 2008
TWO of Sydney's most formidable women are heading for a showdown, with Meredith Burgmann set to challenge Clover Moore for the role of the city's lord mayor.
Dr Burgmann, a former state Labor MP and NSW upper house president, confirmed yesterday she was on the verge of throwing down the gauntlet to Ms Moore.
"I'll have to make up my mind in the next month or so, and if I did run it would be because I am still very angry that Clover Moore thinks it's a part-time job," Dr Burgmann, who retired from parliament last year, told The Australian.
Along with holding the mayoral position since 2004, Ms Moore, an independent MP, has represented the inner-city electorate of Sydney in state parliament since 1988.
Ms Moore, who has previously been guarded about her intentions, confirmed yesterday she would seek a second term as head of Australia's third-largest municipality when the election is held on September 13.
Labor, which has not had a lord mayor since the 1980s, will select its candidate at its NSW conference during the first weekend in May.
A battle between Ms Moore, 62, and Dr Burgmann, 60, would make for one of the most gripping municipal contests in memory. The two women, both forceful, are not on good terms.
With her signature black choker and spiky hair, Ms Moore is an icon in the gay community - which constitutes a powerful voting bloc in inner Sydney - and has had a float devoted to her at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. But Labor's Dr Burgmann is equally an icon of the inner-city Left. She is better credentialled as a feminist than Ms Moore, and is the guiding spirit behind the annual Ernie Awards, which recognise outstanding examples of sexism in the media.
Yesterday, Dr Burgmann revealed a potential electoral wedge against her opponent.
"If you actually look at the voting, it's quite clear the more socially disadvantaged areas just don't vote for her," Dr Burgmann said.
"The traditional Labor areas still vote very strongly for us. "Our really strong vote is in the housing commission areas and around Redfern and that whole south Sydney area." Dr Burgmann has long argued there is a conflict between Ms Moore's twin roles as an MP and Lord Mayor. "If she's special pleading for the one-third of the City of Sydney, which she also represents as an MP, then the other two-thirds have got to feel left out - and that's a conflict of interest," she said. Though ridiculed for such foibles as her affection for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Dr Burgmann was widely regarded as a successful leader of the Legislative Council.
Ms Moore's term in charge of the City of Sydney Council has been tumultuous. While the three Labor, one Liberal and one Green councillor have frequently united against her, she has been able to rely on the support of the four independents.
Dr Burgmann said she would consult her "Left comrades" before making a final decision.