Thanks for nothing, Bob
Bob Hawke's well-paid resignation from parliament last week on the Jana Wendt show was a fittingly farcical finale to a disastrous episode in the history of a disastrous political party.
Starting out to represent workers and the downtrodden a little over a century ago, Labor has delivered a few benefits and a lot of hardship to its constituents. Far from bringing peace and prosperity, most Labor governments have been crisis governments — war and depression governments — and most have wasted no time making their peace with big business. Hawke's was no exception.
Hawke's eight years and nine months of gross economic irresponsibility towards the majority of Australians have landed us in the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the '30s, with more Australians unemployed than ever before (though the percentage unemployed is smaller than in the '30s). And when the chance came to go to war, Hawke leapt in with both feet. Still, the Australian government covers all of us in shame by supporting the infamous blockade of Iraq, which has already caused the deaths of tens of thousands of children — like East Timor a regrettable but trifling matter to Hawke and other enthusiasts of George Bush's New World Order.
Meanwhile, back home, what did this man of the people, a former head of the ACTU, do for the people? A few of the people did very well, and most of their names are well known: Elliot, Bond, Skase, Spalvins, Murdoch, Packer. Even those who ended up in the bankruptcy courts are unlikely to end their days in an outer suburban fibro.
Others didn't fare so well. If you're a trade unionist, you're almost certainly being paid less in real terms and your union is bigger but weaker and less democratic than it was in 1982. If you use public services, such as public transport, child-care, the education system, public hospitals, you have to wait longer, pay more and accept poorer service. If you've just left school, chances are you could miss out in the desperate scramble for a university or college place and the even more desperate scramble for a job.
If you live in a city and are addicted to breathing, you're inhaling more poisonous chemicals than ever before, overwhelmingly because of the subordination of urban planning to the requirements of big business, and particularly the motor vehicle industry. If you live in a rural area, chances are you're broke and thinking about moving to the city. If you think the tiny remaining proportion of our forests should be preserved before we turn the whole country into desert, chances are you're dismissed as a raving greenie in one of the most monopolised media networks in the world.
We emerge into the '90s with lower and still declining living standards, a crumbling infrastructure, a less democratic society, a ruling elite dominated by economic quackery, and little closer to the urgent measures necessary if we are to reverse the impending environmental catastrophe.
Thank you, Bob Hawke!