Labor Right - Criticisms

Criticisms

While the Right has dominated Federally since the 1950s, the gradual shift of the paradigm of economic policy within Australia towards the Right, particularly since the 1970s, has led to the situation where past leaders of the Right, such as Ben Chifley, would now be considered in the Socialist Left; especially in comparison to more recent Right leaders such as Paul Keating, Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd.

The underlining criticism of the dominance of the Right in the ALP is that, while incorporating a Realpolitik philosophy, it has led to the erosion of its traditional support to the Greens, particularly on some serious issues of policy, such as Economic Management, Immigration & Refugees, Tax Policy, Industrial Relations, National Security and gay marriage. However, the Right emphasises that the only way to enact policy would be to win and maintain Government. To this end, they stress the need to build and maintain a broad constituent base, especially one that incorporates the swinging, 'aspirational' voters of Middle Australia.

The Right's chief objective is to ensure the ALP remains an electable, credible and, above all, superior alternative to the Coalition, if need be at the expense of the Socialist Left. Internal ballots are often vigorously contested between Left and Right candidates and, in the past, allegations of unscrupulous conduct in regard to balloting processes (e.g. branch stacking) have been a feature of such contests.