An increasing number of former Labor heavyweights are voicing concern over the direction and policies of the Albanese government, with the recent memoir by ex-minister Kim Carr adding fuel to the fire. The growing chorus of criticism from party elders has sparked debate over whether they are simply nostalgic for a bygone political era, or astutely warning of existential threats to Labor’s future.
The ‘True Believer’ Sounds the Alarm
In his newly released memoir, “A Long March,” former Labor senator and minister Kim Carr pulls no punches in critiquing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s leadership and policy agenda. Carr, who served almost 30 years in Parliament, was one of the key architects of the Rudd-Gillard government’s industry and innovation policies.
Describing himself as “old-school Labor,” the self-proclaimed “true believer” expresses dismay at what he sees as Albanese’s embrace of “small target” politics and estrangement from the party’s traditional blue-collar base. Carr argues that under its current leadership, Labor risks losing touch with the low-income voters who were once its raison d’être.
Calling Out Aukus ‘Group-Think’
Of particular concern to Carr was the lack of internal debate when the then-opposition leader presented the Aukus defense pact as a fait accompli in 2021. “There was no caucus vote on its acceptance,” he reveals, painting a picture of an opposition – and now government – where dissent on foreign policy is stifled.
“It is alarming to learn of the lack of debate within the opposition under Albanese when Scott Morrison presented it with the fait accompli of Aukus in 2021. There was no caucus vote on its acceptance.”
– Kim Carr, former Labor minister
Discontent in the Ranks
Carr is far from a lone voice in his criticism. In recent months, several Labor luminaries have publicly questioned aspects of the government’s agenda, especially on foreign policy:
- Former PM Paul Keating has been the most scathing, labeling the government “mired in mediocrity”
- Ex-foreign minister Gareth Evans and former NSW premier Bob Carr have also expressed misgivings over the Aukus pact
- Union legend Bill Kelty echoed Keating’s sentiment that the government lacks vision and ambition
While some dismiss this as the grumblings of yesteryear’s men, the seniority and depth of experience of the critics lends weight to their warnings. These are Labor titans who steered the party through previous eras of political and economic turbulence.
Nostalgia or Prescience?
Nonetheless, as a history professor interviewed by The Guardian observes, there is a risk of the critics romanticizing a past that was perhaps never as rosy as depicted. Frank Bongiorno notes the “inconsistency” of figures like Keating and Bob Carr, who championed pro-US foreign policies while in government, now eviscerating Albanese for cleaving too closely to Washington.
“Carr can sometimes seem nostalgic for a Labor party able to rely on a large base of blue-collar workers and their families for support in an economy that still employed large numbers of workers in manufacturing, mining and transport.”
– Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, Australian National University
There is also the question of whether harking back to the 1980s industrial economy is a realistic basis for a modern center-left agenda. The structural decline of traditional union-represented industries has transformed the working class and upended old political certainties in developed democracies worldwide.
Fragility of Power
Yet the stridency of Albanese’s intra-party detractors suggest they are tapping a deep well of unease that extends beyond mere nostalgia. Their invocation of Labor’s past electoral blocs may be anachronistic, but their diagnosis of drift and disconnect from the party’s philosophical moorings appears to resonate with segments of the faithful.
That unease is magnified by what many observers perceive as the increasing precarity of incumbent governments across the democratic world. “If they are more sensitive to the criticism of party elders,” Bongiorno writes of the Albanese ministry, “it possibly reflects a stronger sense of the fragility of their hold on power.”
Winter of Discontent
As disaffection with political establishments fuels populist volatility worldwide, the anxiety within Australian Labor’s old guard cannot be easily brushed aside. Their muttering offstage sounds less like disgruntlement over personal slights or factional squabbles than genuine alarm over existential threats to their cherished party.
While Labor has weathered schisms and crises in the past, the combination of global realignment, domestic economic headwinds, and internal estrangement from the rank-and-file has opened dangerous fissures heading into the next electoral cycle. Only time will tell if the elders’ laments are just an elegy for the politics of a bygone age – or a prescient warning that the “Light on the Hill” risks being extinguished, not just dimmed.
