where to begin the liberal overhaul

Like all political parties, the Australian Labor Party is prone to error
and mistakes - but it's the only Aussie political party that predates
Federation and by November 2007, voters had entrusted Labor
to govern them federally and in all states and territories.

Some bitter Hot Cooper members (and twisted Liberal MPs) have
suggested that the REAL reason for that odd phenomenon was
Aussie voters went plum crazy because there cannot
possibly be anything wrong (at all, ever) with the
the magnificent Liberal or National parties.

Or could there be?

Could there be something so obnoxious, so ghastly, so repulsive,
so sickening (about Aussie-style conservatism circa 2007) that
despite its much-touted claims to superior economic skills,
irrelevance, impotence and ill-will now consume
the Liberal and National parties from
coast to coast in all jurisdictions?

As a wise sage once said:

"A life without reflection is not worth living."

Why?

Because without mature reflection (about what YOU'VE done wrong)
you'll keep putting your hand on a hot stove over and over and over
again - expecting that THIS time it won't hurt because there can't
possibly be anything wrong with the Liberal and National parties!

Or could there be?

I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings (during a time of great sorrow)
so only as a working hypothesis, and definitely NOT as divine
revelation carved into stone tablets, here's a suggestion:

Even though it has been obscured from time to time (by the hubbub
and turmoil of political combat and intrigue) and even though it was
founded long ago (during in the bitter shearers strike of 1890)
the Labor movement has never lost sight of its...

'Light On The Hill'.

And what is Labor's 'Light On The Hill'?

It's hard to explain (in words) what the founding of trade unions and
the Labor Party did (in the late 1890s) to make the hearts and minds
of working families soar (from the depths of anxiety) and fill with an
exquisite delight that came from (at last) having a party that put the
Common Welfare ahead of individual self-gratification for which
all conservative parties have long been famous.

Another way to explain the attraction of Labor's 'Light On The Hill'
is to recount a true story about another 'light on a hill' (in Victoria) to
where my great-grand parents migrated in 1865 on their honeymoon.

Ships departing English ports in the 1800s for Australia often used the
'Great Circle' route (ie they circumnavigated the globe) to get to
Australia and sail back to England again via Cape Horn. 

After rounding South Africa's Cape of Good Hope on the way here,
they'd then be out of sight of land for weeks on end until they sighted
Australia - or crashed into it from poor navigation
equipment or a miscalculation at night!

The problem captains faced was called 'Threading the Needle'.
They needed to approach the narrow entrance to Port Phillip Bay
neither too far to the west (and hit the Shipwreck Coast)
nor too far to the east and crash into King Island:



More than 80 skippers got it wrong and impaled
their tall ships all along the Shipwreck Coast
often in foul gale-driven weather:



To forestall more such wrecks, in 1848 a lighthouse was
built on Cape Otway. This is what it looks like by day:



This it what Cape Otway's 'Light on the Hill'
looked like (from the sea) at night in 1865:



It's impossible to explain (in words) what a welcome sight
that 'light on the hill' was in my great-grand parents
time after being at sea for weeks on end.

But after 11 years of dreary Liberal rule, this is how Labor's
'Light on the Hill' appeared (out of the clammy mist) to fill MY
heart with similar warmth and delight recently:



To fix what's so hideously wrong with the Liberal Party
there's no better place to being than with its
obsession with individual self-gratification
and its hatred for our common welfare
as pinko-trash socialist nonsense!

It's just a suggestion (that voters may not be as greedy,
as selfish or as immature as the Liberal Party thinks)
and it's definitely not Holy Writ - but it may be
a good place to begin a policy overhaul.