This week I have found myself driving around Burwood, Ashfield, Marickville, Strathfield, and Camperdown in Sydney’s western suburbs doing errands. These places are heartland Labor seats, held on margins upwards of 15% in most places. Seeing the campaign posters of incumbent members, though, you wouldn’t know it.
Take Strathfield for example. Virginia Judge has been a stable face amidst the NSW government’s storm. She has held Strathfield for Labor since 2003 and has a margin of 15.1%. But I didn’t know this about her until I looked it up. Her campaign posters suggest the opposite. They are swashed in green, don’t say the word ‘Labor’ or ‘ALP’ anywhere, the letters MP after her name are printed very small, and she even looks different!
Then there’s Five Dock. Angelo Tsirekas has been a great Mayor of Canada Bay and has excellent local clout. He has replaced Angela D’Amore after she was accused of inventing a fictitious staffer to charge expenses to. Angelo was pipped at pre-selection several years ago by the Labor heavies but now they can do with his local credentials. And Angelo knows it. His poster is yellow, the Labor logo is minuscule in the bottom left corner, and his tag line is ‘One of Us’.
When Simon McKeon’s was awarded Australian of the Year this year, one of his first announcements was that Australia should change its flag. I can’t see that ever happening. People fought under that flag and will defend it to the hilt. The Australian Labor Party flag, however, is another story. Is that what they mean when they say Labor needs to be re-branded?