Are the wheels falling off Labor ?

The unions should actually abandon Labor.

Labor have been hijacked by inner city yuppies and they dont give a toss about real working people any more.
The Libs provide jobs for genuine working people and they look after business that hold the wealth owned by workers via superannuation.

Unions and Libs,,,, the future.

My parents would roll around in their graves if I even thought of voting for Labor.  Back when I was young, we didn't discuss "politics" but it was a well known fact that the "lower class" voted Labor, where as the "middle class" voted either Country Party (now National Party) in the country, or Liberal in the city.  There was no such thing as the Greens (until the 70s).

Trendy was a buzz word in the 80s, so certain people joined the Greens (which was no longer about The Environment. ) They have become irrelevant and just part of Labor.

The ALP still calls itself "centre left" and the Liberal/Nationals call themselves "centre right" .... no idea what that means.

Labor is still all about Unions and as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike! Or tits on a bull - take your pick.

The COMMENTS from the man in the street are priceless.

TIMOTHY 3 DAYS AGO
Apart from the noise to change about 'blue collar' identity politics Joel is also clueless with most utterances reminding us of old time 1950s Labor nonsense. In recent interviews he had been left speechless on anything of substance because he cannot leave the leftist Marxist womb within which he and his party is entombed.  He is a puppet without a voice of reason. What a constipated thought process he presents..

Craig 3 DAYS AGO
Joel just might have to lead an alternative centrist political party.
The ALP and the Union movement have been taken over by the progressives.
And it is too far gone to fix.
There are a significant number of people in the ALP and Unions who are zealots when it comes to stopping Adani. Sally McManus refused to sign the pledge protecting coal jobs before the last election. Penny Wong is strident in her opposition to Adani.
Joel cannot fix this. 
The ALP will have to split. There is no other solution.

Gareth 3 DAYS AGO
There is not a genuine blue collar Labor politician. They are all either useless lawyers or uni grads that went into the upper echelons of the Union movement to springboard into politics. They have no idea of the challenges facing their traditional electorate so instead squawk vaucously at them about all the crap none of their traditional voters care about. 
It's not about policy resets the traditional Labor party is gone as it's been overrun by champagne socialists. Their traditional support base know this and have deserted in spades. 

Alpal 3 DAYS AGO
I reckon Joel is making a run for the leadership. He would go well as a real Labor man

Lindsay 3 DAYS AGO
Pretty fair bunch of comments here Albo. Mean anything to ya. Doubt it.

Terrence 3 DAYS AGO
Mark Latham is on the money - until the labor party stops the disenfranchisement of white Australian males (or eliminates their right to vote) then labor will never win another election in this country.

Jeff 3 DAYS AGO
Change nothing.
Stick with progressive Green tinged policy and pander to inner city latte sippers.
This is what is best for the country.
Stay in opposition for the good of all.

Paul 3 DAYS AGO
Go the whole hog and offer  Magic Grandpa citizenship and a crack at an inner Melbourne Seat, pk.

Joseph 3 DAYS AGO
Labor loses the workers, but gain the union thugs and bikies.

Paul49 3 DAYS AGO
It's so pleasing to see Labor going down the gurgler. 

Elias 4 HOURS AGO
What and lose the only pretentious  opposition we have?
 
Sean 3 DAYS AGO
Is not Wayne swan the leader of the labor party nationally..the same ways swan who was the most incompetent person to ever hold a senior government position..since federation?

In 20 years time it is doubtful if the ALP will still even exist!!!!



Labor losing its blue-collar base, says Joel Fitzgibbon
GREG BROWN 10:50AM DECEMBER 27, 2019


Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: AAP

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitz­gibbon says the party is losing the support of the blue-collar workers it was “born to represent”, as the ALP’s standing among men languishes at its lowest level since the final months of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership.

The Hunter MP said it was essential Labor reframed its policies and messaging to recapture its traditional industrial base after a Newspoll analysis showed just 32 per cent of men supported Labor compared with 45 per cent who backed the Coalition. Support for Labor among men has sunk by eight percentage points since the beginning of the year.

The opposition’s resources spokesman, critical of former leader Bill Shorten’s ambivalence on the coalmining industry, said the poll vindicated Anthony Albanese’s “policy reset” in reaching mining communities and voicing Labor’s support for coal exports.

“Labor is losing the demographic it was born to represent: aspirational blue-collar workers,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “Policy development and messaging must now focus on winning it back.”

Labor senator Kim Carr said the party needed to junk identity politics if it wanted to win back blue-collar workers.

“There remains a problem for Labor with blue-collar families,” Senator Carr said. “The assumption that tertiary-educated people are going to vote Labor will compensate for the loss of support in other demographics needs to be viewed with considerable caution.’’

The Newspoll analysis, published in The Australian on Thursday, used an aggregate of three surveys since November.

It showed the support of the major parties was largely unchanged since the election, with a two-party-preferred split of 51 per cent to 49 per cent in favour of the Coalition, while the government has an overall lead in primary support of 41 per cent to 34 per cent.

The results showed a majority of voters in every household income bracket above $50,000 a year now support the Coalition.

 
From January to March, Labor’s male primary vote was 40 per cent compared with 37 per cent for the Coalition, according to Newspoll, which changed its methodology from telephone calls to online surveys last month.

Scott Morrison was able to win over blue-collar workers during the election by weaponising Labor’s 50 per cent electric car target and taking advantage of Mr Shorten’s ambivalence on the Adani mine. Mr Shorten, who wore a campaign T-shirt describing himself as “Chloe Shorten’s husband”, unveiled a gender equality agenda during the campaign that included extra childcare subsidies, a wage top-up for childcare workers, easier ­access to abortion and more money to combat domestic violence — yet women favoured the ­Coalition by 38 per cent to 35 per cent in the Newspoll analysis.

Labor’s primary male vote is the lowest since the April-June Newspoll analysis, late in Ms Gillard’s prime ministership, when it hit 28 per cent. In the first two years of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership, Labor’s male primary vote was 44 per cent or higher.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham, who is now a NSW One Nation MP, blamed the party’s drop in standing among men on the “sneering patronising views on gender equity”. “They speak a language and focus on issues foreign to many Australian men,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-losing-its-bluecollar-base-says-joel-fitzgibbon/news-story/dfc9f2fbf65c05e49bc2ec5939117e0b