LENNON’S LABOR One almighty factional brawl
SIMON Bevilacqua’s recent “without fear or favour” articles in the Mercury regarding ex-premier Paul Lennon’s misgivings while he was in office, together with querying his decision to join the “pile on” Labor Member for Franklin David O’Byrne, are to be commended (Talking Point, August 28, September 4).
I predict that David O’Byrne will rise like a phoenix from the recent attacks on him, and may well hold a leadership role in the Parliamentary Labor Party again one day. He admitted and apologised for his mistakes and it is time for everyone to move on.
Make no mistake the attack on O’Byrne was a Left versus Right factional brawl. It actually has its origins right back in the dark days of the 1950s when the Catholic Right-wing Democratic Labor Party tore the Labor Party apart. Give me a big or small L Liberal any day, at least you know what you’re dealing with. Right-wing unionists used to (and no doubt some still do) sign up bosses in the same union as their poor frontline members on the coal face, and then operate within what’s called a “closed shop”, doing the boss’s bidding for them and crushing workers and their rights, as well as driving their wages down. Some of us who worked under and survived these systems of organised Labor in the workforce have good memories and we keep the score. John Bridge
Lindisfarne
MR 17 PER CENT
I WRITE to congratulate your correspondent, Simon Bevilacqua, on his article in Saturday’s Mercury. He has dared to state what most Tasmanians think of Mr 17 Per Cent.
It is no wonder that the Labor Party lost the last two elections, given the interference in internal party affairs.
It will take a long time for the elecof
torate to have any trust in the party again.
Having no effective opposition is a blow to the democratic process, and leaves the present government almost a free rein to adopt policies that do not pass the integrity and openness test — tests that Mr Bevilacqua passes with honours.
David Halse Rogers
South Hobart
LENNON ON ABORIGINES
SIMON Bevilacqua says Paul Lennon was a divisive and unpopular premier. I don’t know about that, but he raises the issue of whether a politician should be popular or morally stand for something. Core Labor values are about representing the downtrodden, about remedying injustices. He was the last premier to legislate the return of stolen lands to Aborigines — Cape Barren and lungtalanana in 2005. He recognised the wrong of dispossession, and gave a remedy. Despite the 1997 Bringing
Them Home report, governments refused to compensate the victims of the stolen generations.
Paul Lennon understood how racist policy had deprived many Aboriginal children of a normal family life, and in 2006 he compensated the innocent victims. Condemn him how you will, but let’s not forget the principled stand he took on Aboriginal issues.
Michael Mansell Land Council Chairman
HEAR HEAR
JE suis Simon (“Welcome to Lennon’s Labor,” Talking Point, September 4). Stephen Jeffery Sandy Bay
BRAVO SIMON
BRAVO Simon Bevilacqua, a great article and a great response to Paul Lennon. Labor, both at state and federal level, seems to have lost its way. I like Rebecca White but think the influence Paul Lennon will be a negative for her. I also like Albo, but he is a bloke I would have a beer with, not the leader of the major opposition party we need. Keep up the good work.
Robert Hogan Hobart
JOIN THE PARTY
WHY doesn’t Simon Bevilacqua just join the Labor Party and sort it out from the inside? He knows all the right questions, all the right answers and has the infinite backing of the Mercury, and one assumes News/Fox/Sky et al. He could join Trump/Morrison in the segue from media maven to messiah Colin Hutchison
New Norfolk
AND THERE’S MORE
MANY thanks to Simon Bevilacqua for his timely response to former premier Lennon and the well-researched account of this divisive political time as leader of the state. This respected journalist said it all. Well, nearly, not having mentioned this political figure’s reputation as a bully boy, or the $30m at Elwick racetrack, an amount which later would have to be increased due to a substandard outcome.
Even now, having pointed out the condition of the racetrack’s outer fencing so often that it has become boring, it still is clearly a cause for concern regarding safety issues. Apparently, nobody connected with this whole fiasco has that rare quality called common sense.
No matter, though, we were told that this expenditure was important because this premier was, to use his own words, passionate about racing, and this facility would part of the world’s best. Given the location being in a capital city, it may be one of the world’s worst. Harvey Bullen
Glenorchy