A Little History of the Australian Labor Party
Dyrenfurth and Bongiorno pitch their work to a wide audience: true believers, external critics, those interested in the story of the world’s pioneering social democratic party, and journalists. It is to the authors’ credit that these target groups will all be pleased with this highly readable account of the only Australian political party with a continuous history since colonial times.
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A little history of the australian labor party
Nick Dyrenfurth and Frank Bongiorno | 2024
I welcome the reworked edition of a work originally published in 2011. Readers may recall that in 2011 Julia Gillard was running a minority government after Labor had once more demonstrated its ability to self-harm. In the thirteen years since, Australia has seen off Gillard, the second (and briefer) coming of Rudd, then Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. A lot has happened to justify this update.
In their introduction Dyrenfurth and Bongiorno pitch their work to a wide audience: true believers, external critics, those interested in the story of the world’s pioneering social democratic party, and journalists. It is to the authors’ credit that these target groups will all be pleased with this highly readable account of the only Australian political party with a continuous history since colonial times.
In discussing both state and federal governments, the authors are successful in giving adequate attention to the two spheres. Occasionally, the description of what was happening in particular states becomes a list of names and election results. But this is a rare lapse. Many readers would not know how Labor’s fortunes could vary across the country. COVID reminded us firmly that Australia is a federation, and the members of that federation can pull in different directions. As a Victorian, for example, it is a reminder that prior to 1982 Labor was a basket case in my state, though that might be an insult to basket cases.
I consider that one strength of A Little History is the treatment of Labor’s successes, and its more inglorious moments. Dyrenfurth and Bongiorno point out that Australian Labor was laggard in their promotion of women to higher office. The British Labour party was behind its Australian counterparts in achieving office but quicker in appointing women to parliament and ministerial office. Labor’s rancorous splits in the 20th century are treated objectively, showing just how long bitterness could endure. I grew up in a Labor household where the demise of the DLP at the 1974 federal elections was greeted with pagan screams of triumph more suitable to the Colosseum. A theme of the latter stages of this book is the contemporary decline of Labor’s primary vote at both state and federal level. This is intertwined with the enhanced fortunes of the Greens, who have inherited many of the Labor leavers, especially young people. We may be facing a future in which coalition government becomes the norm as changing demographic patterns, especially the drop in the number of blue-collar workers, weaken traditional party allegiances. As does the endless, unpleasant contest over climate change policies.
A Little History is up to date. It deals with the end of the Albanese government’s honeymoon and the trainwreck of the Voice campaign. I think the two authors let federal Labor off the hook over that omnishambles. Labor’s referendum campaign was cackhanded and reactive; a lesson in how not to do things. Wayne Swan’s mini essay of a foreword rightly condemns the power of the right-wing media in Australia, but NewsCorp was not wholly responsible for the referendum’s flop.
I am exceeding my word count. As Janet McCalman says in her cover note – this book ‘is not just great Labor history, it is great Australian history’.
A Little History of the Australian Labor Party is published by NewSouth.
Reviewer: Richard Trembath, PHA (Vic & Tas)