BY ALISON DELLIT
On December 5, ALP federal parliamentarian Carmen Lawrence announced her resignation from the party's shadow cabinet in protest at Labor's new policy on refugees and asylum seekers. In a blistering 20-minute statement, Lawrence also attacked the ALP's stances on the looming war in Iraq, private health insurance, the funding of private schools and its historical position on East Timor.
Lawrence made no attempt to present herself as a political purist."I'm not a novice to compromise or mistakes", she said, "I've done both and plenty of them." However, she went on to argue that federal Labor's refugee policy was too much for her to stomach.
ALP members wanted to see "an end to mandatory detention for the purposes of processing", Lawrence said. She attacked the ALP's support for temporary protection visas and the Christmas Island detention centre in particular.
Lawrence's criticisms went beyond just policy detail. "In my experience in recent times", she explained, "it's not uncommon in the shadow cabinet for issues to be discussed first of all with an eye on what the public reaction is likely to be, rather than whether it is inherently good policy... To develop good policies that are consistent with our claims to be progressive, we have to start with a set of values, and yes, even ideals, to which we aspire as political activists. Otherwise, why bother? They shouldn't just be for decoration, either."
Lawrence roundly condemned the ALP's undemocratic processes. Asked if she should have fought on, she replied: "It would have been easy to succumb to the view ... [that] I can have a certain impact, but my experience in the last couple of years has been that it is not true. Not that I've failed to make the arguments, but that it's not possible to have that effect. In many cases the decisions are already made."
Lawrence recounted how she had first found out about the ALP's endorsement of Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to let the Tampa into Australia when she heard Labor leader Simon Crean's speech in parliament. "I walked out", she said, "and didn't come back for two days."
She also pointed out that many parliamentarians were given a copy of the new 75-page refugee policy just hours before it was due to be decided on in caucus. It did not reflect the views of most ALP members. "I find the views that I've expressed today reflected in the Labor Party among the rank and file members — amongst the branches and state conferences ... I feel more comfortable with the Labor Party and its values at the moment than with the shadow cabinet."
Lawrence emphatically ruled out a move to the Greens, but gave little detail: "The Greens aren't the solution. The Greens are a third party — a minor party. It's about the Labor Party."
Lawrence also signalled a move to more aggressively recruit to the ALP. "[My resignation] is a decision to move into a different phase of my life, to work with activists to encourage young people to join up to this great party and to try ... to recapture the values that I think underpin the Labor Party."
She fudged a question about whether she would run as a candidate under the new refuge policy, arguing that she "had confidence in the national conference to turn it around". Lawrence stated that she would campaign openly against both Labor and Liberal policies she disagreed with, in particular against the war on Iraq.
"I'm hopeful enough that there are still arguments to be made in favour of a different kind of Australia, where we don't regard asylum seekers as a threat to our very existence, where we do understand the need to make good the damage that's been done to Indigenous people, where contemplating bombing innocent civilians in Iraq is not actually taken as a given", Lawrence explained.
"I don't want to belong to a Labor Party that's just sort of marginally different from the Libs", she summed up. "If you want the original, go for it — why would you want a facsimile?"
From Green Left Weekly, December 11, 2002.
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