Those MP’s saying don’t boil the ocean… are trying to boil the ocean.
By: Maxim Otten-Kamp
Tags: Ambition, Climate Action, Australian Politics, Australian Labor Party, Centrism

The Absolute D team

Recently an article came out in the Brisbane Times, announcing that 30 Labor right faction MP’s are coming out with a book of essays and I truly, in my heart of hearts, do not know who this is for.

The essays seem to assert that the Australian Labor Party has become a radical left-wing party and must return to some nebulous past that sounds suspiciously like the talking points of moderate Democrats in the United States. This political outlook having all come to a front since the loss Jeremy Corbyn faced in the UK for British Labour and the House and Senate losses the Democratic Party have suffered in the contentious 2020 General Election. Of course, the 2019 Australian Federal Election in which Bill Shorten was defeated weighs heaviest upon their minds and yet, what new insights do they have to offer? It has been nearly two years since that election and now this cabal of no-hopers have finally gathered their thoughts to deliver what has been the default modus operandi of Federal Labor’s outlook and policy decision-making for nearly two decades.

Firstly however, we did not lose 2019 because we were too left wing. We lost 2019 because we held back attacks on the government and tried a “prevent defence” every controversial issue, every policy announcement we made. The fact is the Shorten Strategy was the same strategy we have been using for decades of mitigating every issue that can contrast us with the government. In 2014 Shorten voted completely with the Abbott government on his Boat turn back policy, not trying to achieve concessions, or mitigating the damage that would cause to people. However, let us look at the heartless political level of the move. The goal of which would be to neutralize the perception that the Labor party is weak on borders and too caring for illegal immigrants. The fact is it did not work, the Liberal party just lied instead. Suggesting we were friends with the People smugglers and we sat there with egg on our face because we expected the them to be honest. We went on to lose the next two elections and so I think you can easily claim it was a failed strategy. However, it was the same strategy we had under Kim Beazley and Mark Latham.

Conservative will Lie about us no matter the truth so why do we keep catering to them?

The other factor is we looked weak on all fronts. Any attack we suffered we retreated or triangulated. Weakness is not rewarded in politics, as Bill Clinton once said, it is better to be strong and wrong, then weak, and right. The people of Australia sense any unassured nature and instantly drift away from it. Openly forwarding the message that your party will buckle at any pressure that is put on it is not a winning strategy. It garners, no respect and makes it hard to defend, especially those who doing the work on the ground for the campaigns.



This is proven in the recent election in Queensland, where the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stuck to her guns on the border closures. It was controversial and saw massive attacks from the media and yet she did not waver. The Queensland Labor Party put forward a message that effectively contrasted to their opponents. A contrast that lead to one of the best results for Labor in Queensland in decades. This was not a certainty and there was no guarantee, the north was predicted to fall like it did in 2019 and yet it did not occur. The Greens, whilst having a gain in Brisbane, saw their primary vote retreat. The Polling too was not always forgiving and yet victory was achieved where Labor gained ground in area’s it never has done before.