It's time to get on with it - The AIM Network

It’s time to get on with it

January 16, 2015
Written by:
Kaye Lee
30 Replies

To Bill Shorten and the Labor Party,

You are no doubt aware of the growing concern amongst progressive
voters about your performance. And by performance, I don’t mean pithy
one-liners delivered at Question Time or the meal you cooked for Annabel
Crabb.

I mean your failure to hold the Coalition to account, your silence
when we should hear outrage, and your refusal to offer a better
alternative.

I understand that you have countless strategists planning your moves
but they are also failing in their job. We need to hear from you. You
need to prepare the road for the way ahead.

Stop beginning every sentence with “Tony Abbott”. The phrase “Tony
Abbott’s unfair budget” has become as grating as “Labor’s debt and
deficit disaster”.

What you should be saying is “We do not support the Government’s proposal because……Our plan is to……”

You need to delineate clear differences between the Labor Party and
the Coalition because at the moment you are being referred to as the
lesser of two evils, and not by much, which is a damning indictment
considering how badly this government is performing.

You don’t have to pay millions for advertising to tell us how bad
this government is – we already know – just go back through the quotes
from the Coalition and show their hypocrisy and lies.

You don’t have to pay consultants to come up with ideas – the
internet is full of them, many with the accompanying research already
done for you. You could do worse than reading the articles and comments
here and on other independent sites to get you started.

You don’t have to conduct polls and focus groups to find out what
people think – it’s all there on blogs and social media, in letters to
the editor and phone calls to radio hosts.

The latest Roy Morgan poll shows Australian electors are not
convinced how well Bill Shorten’s handling his job as Opposition Leader;
40% (down 2%) disapprove and 37% (unchanged) approve although a much
higher 23% (up 2%) still can’t say how they view the Opposition Leader.
After more than a year in the job, almost a quarter of the electorate
don’t have a view on how Mr Shorten is going. That’s a telling figure.

It’s time to get on with it – tell us your thoughts. Give us some
choices. You don’t have to commit to a detailed plan, just throw up
some alternatives. Get the conversation started.