Coal is giving Labor a lot of problems, Acorn. I listened to...

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    Coal is giving Labor a lot of problems, Acorn. I listened to Chris Bowen the other day on RN when FK was grilling him on coal. It was awful. They are doing the 'coal is bad but we back coal' thing again, only this time in the same sentence. They're playing reductio ad absurdum with the Greens on the Left and 'at least we are better than them' with the Government on the Right.

    What the Labor Party currently lacks, is courage. It's all well and good for Joel Fitzgibbon to spit the dummy over coal, but Labor can't win by planting themselves a hair's breadth away from the Government on climate. It doesn't matter what the electoral math is with coal regions, if Labor were bold and made a big announcement with conviction they could get it over the line. Unfortunately for them, they're spending all of their time backing away from anything courageous or bold like a bunch of frightened fawns. They need someone with a bit of spine and a preparedness to put a big, big policy shift right in the face of the electorate and back it all the way. Who's going to do that among the Opposition ranks at the moment? The only name that comes to mind is Christine Keneally, but she's in the upper house and nowhere near leadership. No one else seems to have the constitution or disregard for political self-preservation that is required to front a big idea.

    The irony is that the Right are supposed to be the champions of small targets, small government etc, but it's looking to me like Labor want to make themselves the smallest target we've seen for decades and hope that the Prime Minister's continual bungling will get them over the line. Good luck with that :/
 
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