New talk, old story | The Australian 27/10/10 11:27 AM

The Australian
New talk, old story
Paul Kelly, Editor-at-large
From: The Australian
October 27, 2010 12:00AM
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THE gap between Labor's promises of reform and delivery seems entrenched.

JULIA Gillard is right to warn of economic Hansonism and the political risk to reform measures, yet this seems more an exercise in political spin to de-legitimise the Tony Abbott Liberal Pa

There is only one relevant question from Gillard's new position: is this a declaration of how she will govern or an electoral tactic to save Labor from its deepening mire of minority governme

The language of "economic Hansonism" is indelible rhetoric. These are words that stick. They are designed to derail and discredit Abbott before he can ruin Gillard with the same political ste
show Labor in trouble: the ACNielsen poll has Labor's primary vote at 34 per cent and Newspoll at 33 per cent compared with a dismal 38 per cent at the August election that cost Labor majo

Gillard has been denied any post-election honeymoon. Within weeks of the poll Labor's core vote is under attrition. It remains under attack in a two-front war without precedent in its history
Murray-Darling water reform yet the regional backlash against reform has seen its Newspoll vote fall to 31 per cent in regional areas. This two-front threat will occur on a bigger stage when L

It is no accident that in Gillard's speech to the Australian Industry Group on Monday that the key to her reform agenda was pricing carbon. Indeed, she hardens this commitment almost weekl
searching for a consensus to ringing declarations that she is "determined to deliver a carbon price". Aware that Abbott will try to destroy her government on this issue, Gillard seeks to discred
contrasts with the Rudd government's blunder of accepting the majority media view that Abbott was unelectable.

Early signs are that Gillard recognises where Rudd failed; she knows that as PM she must shoulder the selling and marketing of the carbon price policy and that unless she commits to this res
the fortitude to persevere?

Beyond tactics, if Gillard's latest speech on economic reform is an accurate guide to her vision, strategy and values as Prime Minister then it deserves full support. She has made some definin
economic reform; that leaders must lead and "my voice will be loudly heard"; and that her government will walk "the reform road every day".

Does Gillard grasp the meaning and impact of such declarations? The problem is obvious: Labor's credentials on economic reform are flawed and the gap between its promise and delivery see
fidelity to Hawke-Keating pro-market reformism yet this is more a ritualistic slogan reflecting the party's pride in its history than a serious platform for action.

Gillard's statement that she believes "the reform consensus is now under serious threat" because of a few comments from Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb cannot be taken seriously. The reform
has been the subject of an intense political and policy debate that, among other things, has dominated The Australian's coverage of national events for some time.

The irony is that Gillard's attack coincided with John Howard's book. At the launch yesterday Howard nailed Labor, lamenting "when we were in government we received no support at all" fr
mandate for industrial relations reform but as early as May 1996 his government's bills were being fought by Labor.

This story was repeated for 11 years, election after election. Labor opposed the GST-led tax reform after Howard's 1998 election victory and took its "rollback" policy to the 2001 poll. Its tac
Labor opposed most of the Howard government's privatisations; it was consistently hostile to measures designed to return the budget to surplus; it initially opposed the independence of the Re
reform and by depicting Howard as weak on climate change action. After Howard's defeat, Rudd even dismissed the idea of economic reform as a shared Labor-Liberal project. The history af
Labor in opposition. The pivotal question is whether they will be more successful at an earlier stage.

Gillard indulges in hyperbole that the Coalition under Abbott rejects the reform bipartisanship that endured all her adult life. She bemoans that the "once reform-advocating Liberal Party" (of

Abbott needs to be careful precisely because there is substance in Gillard's case and his vulnerability lies in being branded as simplistically negative.

But Gillard's position is loaded with risk. Consider the $43 billion National Broadband Network, a government-owned monopoly that is the biggest infrastructure project in the nation's history
public balance sheet, for competition policy and for efficiency in telecommunications. This government, so dedicated to economic reform, refuses to have the Productivity Commission conduc
correctly says has no precedent in this country or abroad. The point, of course, is that Labor has no confidence the Productivity Commission would deliver a favourable report.

Gillard's problem is Labor's abject weakness on pro-market reforms, a point hammered by Ross Garnaut. Consider the record: Labor has partially re-regulated the labour market, walked away
tax, backed a government monopoly in telecommunications, staged a historic retreat on immigration at a time of low unemployment, left the university sector increasingly uncompetitive and f
constraints.

If Gillard's reform pledges are serious, she must review and re-shape how Labor governs. Hopefully, improvements will come, yet Gillard has deep commitments to many of the reform retrea

The truth neither side wants to admit is that the post-1983 reform age has long since surrendered to another age defined by prosperity, complacency, poll-driven politics and scepticism about m

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